A new puppy for Craig Dougherty of NorthCountry Whitetails

Time flies when you are having fun. So the seven hours that we spent with Craig Dougherty and Sharon Scholl of NorthCountry Whitetails felt more like an hour. Craig and his son Neil have taken food plot management to its highest level, and they are the authors of highly successful and popular  Grow 'Em Right: A Guide to Creating Habitat and Food Plots.

We are sure that Craig's work with Quentin (aka Radar) is going to generate a lot of interest in the use of blood tracking dogs in the recovery of wounded whitetails.

It was great meeting you Craig and Sharon. Good luck with Radar!

A pack of six puppies

We are down to six puppies, and two more will be going to their new homes in the next five days. We are enjoying the six puppies a great deal! These are just a couple of pics to prove it.

A change of name for Queenie

We decided on the puppy that we are going to keep for ourselves, and it is going to be Queenie. The problem is that John does not like her name. When we started to use specific  names in reference to individual puppies, we had no idea which pup we are going to keep and hence the problem. Well, we have been debating the name change for quite a while now, and with the Q letter finding something that we both like has not been easy. I like French names starting with Q but there are not many of them. And we don't want a name that sounds similar to a names of a dog that we already have, for example Keena. So today we settled on a new word and we both like its sound. It is a french word Quenotte, and it means a tooth of a child. So now Queenie becomes Quenotte pronounced in a French way (kuh-nowt). For more on this word click here.

Why this particular puppy? She is not a very precocious pup in her tracking, but has showed us enough promise so far. Her agility and size are appealing as she is the smallest of the both litters (except for Geico/Waldo), and we are trying to reduce the size of dogs in our breeding program. He coat will be quite short, probably similar to Keena's coat. It means very little grooming (an important factor for us). She is going to have a short beard when mature. We like her responsiveness and very quick intelligence. So, at least for now, Quenotte is going to stay here.

Another busy weekend spent with new puppy owners from Ohio

Saturday was a busy and long day. We usually spend 5 hours with new puppy owners and this was not an exception. In the morning the Byington family from Sandusky, Ohio made an early appearance. As it turned out they drove all night long and were in our driveway at 7:45 am. We enjoyed our time spent with them, and they left with Quint at 2:30 pm. Quint is a good match for Ben, Heather and their two kids, 1 and 4. He is an affectionate and easy going pup, who never growled at us, even at the end of the blood line with the deer liver in his mouth. I think this year our biggest challenge has been to decide which puppies should go to families with small children. All the puppies have shown good potential for blood tracking and from this point of view we have been very impressed with both litters. At the same time the pups have demonstrated a wide range of temperaments and activity level, and we had to take these factors into consideration when making decision how to match puppies with their new owners.

We spent the rest of Saturday and morning on Sunday with Bill and Laurie Brown, and their two sons Billy and Wiley. Quanta, who most likely is going to be called Maya, will be living with the Brown family in Paris, Ohio. This is a family of deer hunters, and Quanta will fit right in.

Ben and his new puppy Quint

Billy, Bill, Laurie and Wiley Brown with Quanta

And then there were eight...puppies

Last weekend was a busy one as we said good bye to four puppies. On Saturday two puppies left for their new homes.

David Bell and his wife Jacqueline came all the way from Ohio, and they left with Quella (orange collar).

Stan Kite, his wife Vonnie and son Lee came from New Jersey and left with Rilla (white collar).

Both David and Stan are members of the United Blood Trackers and will be using their dachshunds to help hunters recover wounded deer. Stan lives close to Maryland and Delaware and will be able to track in these states. Let's hope that New Jersey is going to legalize blood tracking really soon.

Then on Sunday we spent quite a few hours with Gunn and Mary Lou Gardner from NY and Justin Richins from Utah.

Gunn Gardner (above) is a member of Deer Search of Western New York, and Questa is going to be his tracking partner.

Justin Richins and his partner  http://www.thehuntingcompany.com/ operate the largest outfitting company in the western part of the US, and Remy is going to track a variety of big game - deer, elk and moose. Justin spent almost all day with us and had a chance to see Remy working a liver drag. Justin's hunting season starts on August 15 and this is a very busy time of the year for him.

We are very fortunate that the pups are going to be in excellent working homes and will be doing what they were bred to do - track.

We are going to end this post with the latest picture of Geiko, who now is being called Waldo. How cool is that picture? On the weekend he also got to swim in the ocean!

Quantum aka Geico leaves for his new home in Maine

Today it was a sad day as we said good-bye to Geico. He is going to live with Koren and Jeff Libby in Maine. I met Koren several times when visiting a good friend of ours, Susanne Hamilton. In January 2007 I flew to Ocala, Florida to breed our Keena to Susanne's Buster. While there I took quite a few pics of Koren training horses, and this is one of them:

Koren is a vet tech so Geico is in good hands in case any health problems arise.

John and I got really attached to this little guy. In the last week Geico has blossomed and has gone through transformation. He got bigger, and his color, initially light brown, got much darker. His coat has grown. This is not an ugly duckling any more.

This is Geico a week ago:

And this was Geico today:

Today I met Susanne who was on her way from New Jersey to Maine, and she took Geico for Jeff and Koren.

Susanne is holding her puppy Meggie and Geico

I hear that Geico is with his new family now. Jeff wrote: "Hi Jolanta! We just wanted to let you know that Geico arrived here safe and sound this evening. We have introduced him to the family and he is making a smooth transition. :) Koren and I can't thank you enough for this wonderful gift. He is very special! We already love him very much and he is such a fun little man. We will provide lots of pics and updates. Thank you again. Sincerely, Jeff and Koren"

Thank you Jeff and Koren for providing a perfect home for the little pup! Good luck and keep us posted. We surely will miss him.

Remy on a fresh deer liver scent line

It really got hot when Remy started to work this deer liver drag - around 85F. It was a long line with three checks and he did very well.

Chris and Gerti

It seems like it was just yesterday when Chris Barr came here all the way from Indiana to pick up his new puppy Gerti (Gwen v Moosbach-Zuzelek). Actually it was 13 months ago as she was a puppy from Gilda's litter sired by Billy. Chris did a lot of research and communicated with the people who have already had dogs from us, like Chuck Collier and Joe Walters. Chuck and Joe's dachshunds are short coated with no beard, and Chris insisted on a puppy with this type of coat.

Today I got a nice e-mail from Chris, who wrote:

"Hi Jolanta,
Just a quick Gerti update. She got her shots last week and was less than impressed with the needle. She weighed 20.8 lbs and the vet was impressed with the shape she’s maintaining.

I know you know what I mean, you hate to say any dog is your favorite because you love all that you have or have had, but Gerti is absolutely the best companion dog I’ve ever had. The kids are running all the time. They basically just need dad for rides and cash. This allows me a lot of time to spend with Gerti. We have several places that we exercise, you know, I don’t want her to get bored or anything, including the neighbor’s pond where she has evolved into a swimming nut. I think she likes to swim as much or more than my lab did. I took her fishing last night with my daughter’s boyfriend and my son, and Gerti swam for an hour solid. She went from person to person, doing her best to catch their bait, (not a great thing) or the fish they were reeling in. My son finally stripped down to his skivvies and swam with her. She loves it. She’s especially fond of trying to catch the hundreds of squeaking frogs. Makes her as you put it, “a good/tired puppy”.

She runs rabbits beautifully; I can’t wait to try her on a field trial next spring. However, I’ve tried to limit the “rabbit exposure” this summer at Andy’s urging since Trackfest. She’s so gamey; just want her to focus on deer when we’re tracking. When we’re out and she bumps one though, it makes for a great opportunity to work on her recall.

It’s been too hot to lay any practice tracks since July 4th weekend when the mosquitoes and deer flies nearly carried us away. So we’ve just spent the month walking, running, and swimming. When it starts to cool a bit, we’ll do some more training.

October 1st is right around the corner, hard to believe. My goal for Gerti is 20 tracks, with hopefully at least 5 legitimate finds.

Anyway, I just wanted to say hi and tell you how much we love Gerti. The kids say she’s “spoiled rotten”."

Below there are two pictures of Chris and Gerti, first one with Joe and the other one with Chuck. They all have become good friends.

Thanks Chris for the update! We are really happy that you and Gerti bonded strongly and enjoy each other so much.

Video of Quanta working a deer liver drag

Today was a busy day. We worked more pups on liver drags, and we also had a visitor. A friend of ours, Lena Leonardsson, dropped Hexel (who belongs to Laurel Whistance-Smith) off so we could breed her to our Tommy. She brought her lurcher, a 17-month-old Bedlur.
Below is a video clip of Quanta working a fresh liver drag. The line was marked with red flags, and was approximately 70 yards long with three turns. Quanta was very good though she was not flawless. I liked her intensity.

When we sell our puppies to blood tracking homes, we want the pups to be able to work a scent line of this difficulty. It reassures us as breeders that puppies have a potential for blood tracking. The rest will be up to their new owners. It is good to remember that puppies are just puppies. They are inconsistent and they change a lot while they mature and develop. Their motivation and tracking desire will increase. Their performance will get better while they learn through training and through experience on the job. Some puppies are more precocious than others but it does not mean that they are going to be better blood trackers when they are adults..  

*****

Puppies meet Bedlur

A deer liver drag for two ten-week-old puppies

I have included below two video clips of Rilla and Questa working a 50-yard deer liver drag. The track was fresh, and it included three turns. We were in a hurry this morning when we did the drag and did not put any flags or markers along the way. The commentary is at the end of each clip. Rilla worked the drag first.

To see a video of Rilla in a high resolution click here.

To see a video of Questa in a high resolution click here.

Quipster left for a new home in North Carolina

Today first puppy left for her new home in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Quipster (whose new call name is Jezy) is going to live with Jerry and Arlene Davis. She is going to join Jackson (Arko von Moosbach-Zuzelek), a wirehaired male that Jerry and Arlene got from us ten and a half years ago. It was great to hear how much Jackson is loved as a companion and appreciated as a tracking dog. Since apparently Jackson is "the most wonderful dog in the whole world" Jezy is going to have a good role model. We hope that we made a right decision about Quipster. She is a pretty active pup, who would not do well being at home by herself for long stretches of time. Since Jerry and Arlene are both retired and have a very active lifestyle, they will be able to give the pup a lot of attention and exercise. Good luck to Quipster and her new "parents".

A good puppy is a tired puppy

At the age of 9-10 weeks puppies seem to have endless energy. It is up to us to keep them busy so their bodies get exercised and brains get stimulated. With 14 pups it is not easy. At this point I swear that we will never have two litters of pups at the same time again! Remind that next year, if by any chance I block bad memories.

During the day puppies are separated into two packs of 7 as they are much easier to handle this way. We have tried to sort them out according to their temperaments, energy level and dominant/submissive tendencies. If you watched the video clip from yesterday, you probably noticed that Ruger was picking on Quentin several times. They do not need to be in the same pen.  Low key pups that are more submissive stay together and pups on a more dominant side are in a different play pen. Of course, the division is not so clear cut. During the night all pups are together, and they sleep through the night pretty well. Last night Geiko slept in a crate by himself all night, and he was very good about it.

Ruger is trying to get dry after a swim.

A walk to our 11-acre enclosure

Helping John in the garden

Ruger is sharing his opinions with others

Swimming is a good form of exercise

Play-fighting and bite inhibition

This video taken today shows how puppies play at this age - when they are 9.5 weeks old. They are starting to learn about social structure and pack ranking. Their wrestling, mounting and biting may look very rough to us but this is a part of normal process. It allows puppies to learn about bite inhibition. To quote from Dr. Joël Dehasse:

Play-fighting and learning to control biting:

Play-fighting, which begins at 3 weeks, can sometimes be painful when a puppy begins cutting teeth, especially when its ears are bitten. A bitten puppy whimpers or squeals. In a one-on-one or one-on-two fight the bitten puppy is able to turn the tide of the 'battle' and bite its adversary(ies). And this is precisely one of the "rules of the game": to change roles, with the biter becoming the bitten and vice versa.
- The puppy learns to make an empathetic link between the opponent's squeal and the pain invoked.
- Reciprocal biting negatively reinforces its intensity.
- Biting is thus stopped, inhibited and controlled.
These play-fights also lead to a certain hierarchization of relations.

The best picture of swimming puppies

Well, some would call it a complete waste of time, but I was very curious how other puppies would respond to the water.  I took additional two groups of pups to the pond. In the first group Ranger and Quipster proved to be very good swimmers. Even though Ranger was the first who went to the water, he was also the first to come out. Quipster was a natural - the way she navigated and made turns reminded me of Paika from a year ago. Then I took a group of three - Queenie, Geiko and Rilla. They were a bit reluctant at first so I took them on a walk around the pond. When I almost completed a circle I crossed the pond where the water was pretty shallow and very warm. They followed and swam across. The picture shows Queenie in the front, then Geiko, and Rilla.

Queenie, Geiko and Rilla swimming across the pond

Puppies swim for the first time

It is hard to believe that Keena's puppies are already nine and a half weeks old. The summer days go really fast, and this coming weekend first puppy will go to her new home. Days continue to be hot so blood tracking conditioning takes place in the morning and evening. Now pups are worked one at a time.

Today I took Bernie and two groups of two pups to the pond to see whether his love of water would lure pups to wet their feet. As it turned out puppies did not pay much attention to Bernie, but they watched very closely what I was doing. When I took few steps into the pond they followed. They are very trusting at this age and are willing to try unknown things. Of the four pups, three swam on their own will - Quanta, Questa and Quint. Quella (orange) stood and watched but was not willing to join us. This was very interesting because Quella is a very curious and enterprising puppy. She is doing an outstanding job in her blood tracking training but she has an independent streak. When on walks she just does not follow us in a straight line like many other pups do, but she investigates and takes short trips to the side.

Questa, Queenie and Quipster at 9 weeks

Three sisters at the age of 9 weeks - Questa (lime), Queenie (yellow) and Quipster (white).

Quentin, Ranger and Remy at 9 weeks

Quentin (light blue) - above and below

Ranger (black) above and below

Remy (yellow) above and below

These three males, even though now look quite short coated, will have very nice wirehaired coats when they mature.

Playing with adult dogs

At almost every meal we bring 2-3 puppies to our kitchen/dining area and let them play with other dogs. This morning it was Rilla and Questa's turn. They had a chance to play with Keena (white collar) and Paika.