At Sunday's Houston Dachshund Club field trial, Babe (see previous blog entry) was 3rd in the class of 6 Field Champion Bitches. Oslo, FC Audi Oslo von Dorndorf, was 3rd of 8 Field Champion Dogs. Babe is owned by Tina Knoll, Oslo is owned by Stan Knoll, both dogs were handled by Stan. Congratulations on a good weekend!

FC Bob's Babe von Knobydox, bred & owned by Tina Knoll out of DC Nadja v Dorndorf L SE, was handled by Stan Knoll. Judges were Mary Powell and Rick Schwarz. (I see they were in t-shirts in Kirbyville, Texas today!)

Interestingly, 1st through 4th and NBQ in the Combined Field Champion class of 15 were ALL Longhairs!

Reminds me of something former DCA President Larry Sorenson wrote one time: There are really only two varieties of dachshunds, longhairs and those that wish they were.  ha, ha.

Congratulations to Tina, Stan, and Babe! Many thanks to Ashley Dumas for the photo.

I made a new site banner, changed the font and color schematics a bit, FINALLY made a page for Viljo, and now I have started on the News Blog. I've decided to work on this page beginning with most recent events (more than less) and work backward. It will be easier that way and that way, too, SOME news will still be news. I have a lot to add, it's been a very busy couple of months. Please stay tuned.

Listening to Rush Limbaugh on the radio on my drive to work today, I heard Rush talk about Telstar by the Tornados. I hadn't heard that tune in ages! I had never heard the story of why it was written and how popular Telstar was.

Tonight after walking with Nexus and Viljo, I looked up Telstar. You can read about it on the video description on You Tube. It was nice to sit back with my eyes closed and listen! Does this music sound familiar?

Svante, 2 years old, is father of my new youngster Viljo. Svante's owner Tia Eskelinen of Finland tells us what happened.

"A man called us at 6.30pm on Friday that he has shoot a deer but they can't find it. They have checked one area but it's already dark and they need help. We just took our flashlights (that you can keep on your head) and a dog and drove to that hunting cabin you saw. We met the hunters there and drove to the place where they found some blood. It was about 7pm. They showed me that here is some blood and that is the way the deer run and I showed that blood to dog and said nothing - and he started tracking! I was so excited that I didn't remember to say the word "jälki" what I always use when we start tracking. He did so well, all the time I knew that he is on line. He was full of energy but still calm, he tracked very carefully. Once he spend more time checking under trees (maybe deer has been lying there a while) and few times he smelled ground more carefully (maybe there was some more blood, I didn't see, it was so dark). I was checking the area all the time and then I saw it, deer was lying down on ground. I told shooter that goes to check that deer and very soon I let the dog go to see the deer. Svante has never seen deer before and first he looked that like thinking "oh no WHAT is that?!". Very soon he realised that it's not going to kill him and oh he was sooo proud! His ego filled the whole forest! After tracking we were so proud of Svante, his career couldn't start any better!"

Good job, Svante, Tia and Jarkko! Here's to many more deer recovered!

I found out when I was in Finland in August that the Finns imported whitetails from the States in something like the '40s. Today they have a very healthy whitetail population and whitetails are a favorite game animal. (But not more favorite than the moose!)

A few months ago, I predicted that my car would turn 300,000 miles by Thanksgiving. It turned 300 K today! It happened on my way to work, in Zanesville, just before the 6th Street Bridge over the Muskingum River.

My car is a Honda CRV. I bought it new in March, 2000 at Roush Honda in Westerville, Ohio when I still lived in Westerville.

Essentially, I'd used the Consumer Reports Auto Buying Guide to make the decision for me as to my next vehicle. CR certainly steered me in the right direction! It has been a great car with awesome reliability for 11 years. We will see how much farther down the road it takes me.

Congratulations to MACH2 Nutmeg v Dorndorf L CD RN CG and her owner/handler Maxine Brinker of Illinois! They competed in the Dockdogs® Nationals in Iowa. 8.5 year old Nutmeg did not best her personal record of 8.5 feet but she jumped well and they had a great time! Maxine reported that the water, taken from a fire hydrant, is very cold and many larger dogs, including a number of retrievers, were refusing to go in. Not so, Nutmeg!

900 dogs came from all over the country to compete in this event. WOW! Many participants told Maxine that they had never seen a dachshund jump or swim and they really enjoyed watching Nutmeg!

Many thanks to Mike Salem for sending these photos to Maxine and free of charge!

At Sunday's trial of the Madison Area Dachshund Club, Oslo placed 4th of 15 Field Champion Dogs while littermate Ochre placed 4th of 14 Field Champion Bitches! Oslo is owned and handled by Stan Knoll, Ochre is owned and handled by Laura Knoll. Congratulations!

This was at the Madison Area Dachshund Club field trial in Roscoe, Illinois today! Also, Oslo was NBQ of 10 Field Champion Dogs. Congratulations to Laura Knoll with Ochre and Stan Knoll with Oslo!