This is quite a brace and quite a picture! You have to look twice to see that there are two dogs in the photo!
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[Oslo is ABS7 FC Audi Oslo von Dorndorf L CA CGC, owned by Stan Knoll, Mississippi.] In March 2005, when Oslo was nine months old, the Knolls transported him south for me. Oslo was to go to a hunter in Louisiana. The new ownership fell through via telephone, however, due to unforeseen complexities regarding the man's family. Oslo stayed with the Knolls for three months and I got him back in June.
In October 2005, after the tragic death of Stan's year old bitch Annika, Stan was looking for another dog for himself. He'd liked Oslo when they had him, and Oslo liked Stan. One morning Stan called me after having an epiphany in the shower and asked if he could have Oslo. Oslo returned to the Knoll household and he and Stan have been inseparable ever since. Oslo is the only dog I have ever raised for a year or longer who ignores me when he sees me! As Tina says, there is only one human living in Oslo's universe. In May 2008, I took this photo of Stan with Oslo at the Badger Dachshund Club field trial in Illinois. Oslo was nearly four years old and had become a solid, hard-hitting, top winning field trial competitor with an excellent voice on game. In May 2012, Oslo became a member of the small "high-class" class of dachshunds who have defeated 1000 Field Champions in competition. The same month, Oslo surpassed his maternal grandmother Ilsa's lifetime merit point total and became the most winning standard longhaired Field Champion in DCA/AKC history. As we edge nearer the end of the year, I am blogging this post as tribute and congratulations to a marvelous team, their remarkable relationship, and their superb successes! [This is my first and last blog post regarding the 2012 Presidential election.] "The Ten Cannots" was penned by Reverend William J. H. Boetcker of Brooklyn, New York in 1916.
Jolanta Jeanneney came across this good schematic on nail cutting and sent it in an email this summer. Thank you, Jolanta! It is very useful for showing that clipping just a bit off of a long nail often will not only shorten the nail, but shorten the blood supply to the nail. As noted in my previous post, it helps a lot to have a dog who cooperates through the nail-cutting sessions. Cooperation is just so much nicer all the way around!
It is important not to let nails become long for a number of reasons. Long nails unnaturally splay the foot when the dog bears weight. Eventually, this can cause sore feet and legs and discomfort when walking or running. Long nails scratch people, furniture, and floors and will rip skin and fabric, too. And if left untended long enough, nails can grow under and into the paw, causing redness, swelling, and infection. This is undoubtedly as painful to the dog as ingrown toenails are to people. (I have seen a dog with an ingrown nail and it was not a pretty sight.) Therefore, it is important to get a nail clipper and regularly trim the nails. Remember, too, to be patient with yourself and your dog in the process! It is really very easy. This is how I do it.
From the very first time that I cut a puppy's nails, I reinforce her cooperation. I hold the puppy on her back on my lap with a container of small bits of something very tasty - chicken! hot dogs! - on the desk or table in front of us. And this is what they learn: Lie on your back. Get a treat. Hold still. Get a treat. Have a nail clipped. Get a treat. Hold still some more. Get a treat. Have second nail clipped. Get a treat. Third nail. Treat! I remember the moment when Viljo, as a young puppy, got the concept. He became very still like a statue and willed me to cut a nail so that he could get a treat! ha ha! That's the idea, little guy! After a couple of nail cutting sessions, I will cut two nails between each treat. Then three. Then a whole paw. But sometimes I will cut one nail and give two treats! After several sessions, they don't get any treats while their nails are being cut but they always get a treat afterward. The result of a bit of patience and reward with young puppies is having adult dogs who ask to be next to have their nails cut! Photos below are of Taya getting her nails done on September 7, 2012. She was 14 weeks old and not new to this although we were hours away from home at the time. I have wanted to put a post like this up for some time but needed someone to take the pictures. Diane Webb took these photos for me and did an excellent job of it! Thank you, Diane! And thank you, Taya! [Gretel is ABS FC Ray Bob's Gretel von Knobydox TD JE CA CGC CG BHP-1 owned by Jennifer Fry of Ohio. Seiko is FC Seiko v Dorndorf L TD owned by Tina Knoll of Mississippi. Gretel and Seiko are half-sisters out of DC Nadja v Dorndorf L SE.] Again today, it was a combined-sex Field Champion class at the Dachshund Club of St Louis field trial and a good-sized class. Good going, girls!
I will add that this is the first weekend that Seiko has run as a Field Champion! Both dogs were handled by Laura Knoll for their owners. Congratulations to Laura, Jennifer, Tina, Gretel, and Seiko! [Tasha, sister of Taya, is Tranevang's MA Tashatax, bred in Denmark by Lise-Lotte Schulz, owned in Lousiana by Cliff Shrader.]
Cliff sent this mobile photo of Tasha (mobile in more ways than one!) who is a natural, consistent, and persistent retriever. Thanks, Cliff! [Olive is FC MACH Autumn Olive von Dorndorf VCD1 TD CD RAE MXS MJB NF, owned by John Willmore and Diane Webb.] I don't have the specifics for today's agility trial in Glen Allen, Virginia yet. But Olive qualified in both Excellent B classes again today and earned 44 MACH points for the weekend!
Double Congratulations to John, Diane, and Olive! Not only that, but John and Diane met up with Derek and Jenn who own Taya and Tasha's brother Thor! Called Seymour, 5.5 months old, Diane described him as "a really nice little guy. 19 lbs, maybe just a tad overweight. Very stable, happy, energetic. Derek and Jenn are very nice and they adore him. Nike (the big dog) is very cool too and they get along great. I think that Seymour probably takes after Ami more than Mars, except that he has Mars' eyes. We will send photos and video to you, maybe after we get home." Thank you! I look forward to seeing and hearing more about Olive and Seymour from this weekend! [Gretel is ABS FC Ray Bob's Gretel von Knobydox TD JE CA CGC CG BHP-1 (daughter of DC Nadja v Dorndorf L SE) owned by Jennifer Fry.] At the Dachshund Club of St Louis field trial in Troy, Missouri, Gretel was Next Best Qualified (after 1st - 4th places) in the combined-sex Field Champion class of 27! She was handled by Laura Knoll.
Congratulations to Jennifer, Laura, and Gretel! [Olive is FC MACH Autumn Olive von Dorndorf VCD1 TD CD RAE MXS MJB NF, owned by John Willmore and Diane Webb.] Olive is with her owners in Virginia this weekend. They are attending business, visiting family, and participating in a couple of agility trials. They are the trials of the Central Virginia Agility Club, outdoors on grass in Glen Allen, Virginia.
John wrote that it was their first trial in 2.5 months and Olive looked great. On the Jumpers course, SCT was 52 seconds and Olive's time was 43.60 - giving her 8 MACH points and 2nd place in the 8 inch class! "A cold morning for our first run in a long while. A little slow on the dog walk, but otherwise a good solid run." Course time on the Standard course was 74 seconds. Olive's time was 56.08 for 17 MACH points and 1st place! "Olive broke her stay on the leadout and so didn't explode into the starting sequence like I wanted. But still a nice run!" Congratulations to John, Diane, and Olive! The subject of feeding dogs is one that may be lumped into the category "I asked 100 people and got 100 different answers!" I am occasionally asked what and how I feed my dogs and the following is my reply. It does NOT mean that I necessarily think that feeding twice a day, raw feeding, different supplementation, or other ways of managing canine nutrition are wrong! We all do according to what we believe is good for our own dogs, fits our own lifestyles, and agrees with our own experiences.
I feed my adult dogs once daily and give them a good dog food, often with some fresh food (meats, eggs, fruits, vegetables) mixed in. They also get a biscuit now and then as an extra. The foods that I buy are nearly always various 4- and 5-star foods as rated and recommended by dogfoodadvisor. Another site that I like is dogfoodanalysis which rates foods on a 1-6 star scale. I say "various" foods because I practice rotation feeding. Meaning that every time I buy a dog food, I select something different than what I got the last time. I may feed a dozen different foods in succession before my dogs get one of those same foods again. This is because, just as is true for people, a variety of food covers the dogs better nutritionally than consuming the very same stuff all the time. A side benefit is that I have no concerns about the dogs being sensitive to changes in their diet! Interestingly, I have found that some of the pet supply superstores do not sell the better and best dog foods. I go to the much smaller We Lov Pets store in town to get those foods because the great big pet store does not carry them. Some of the brands that I look for are Instinct, EVO, Nutrisca, Innova, Taste of the Wild (which can also be found at Tractor Supply), Wellness, Solid Gold, Before Grain, Pinnacle, Earthborn and Nature's Variety. We Lov Pets does not always have all of these brands so I pick and choose according to what is on the shelves at the time. Additionally, all of these brands have a variety of formulas so there are always a number of options. I usually feed the food dry. I might add chicken. Some liver. An egg. Greens. Carrots. Cabbage. Or apple. Taya likes bananas. Sometimes I will add some water, especially warm water on a chilly day. I also like to add water when we are traveling to increase the dogs' fluid intake on the road. When we are home, I add salmon oil every day. And I often (not always) give a bit of powdered pro-biotic and/or a multi-vitamin. It is no big deal that they don't get these things when we are away. As for feeding puppies, I let their mothers wean them with very little interference from me. Whether the mother weans them at five weeks or at nine weeks is fine with me. Then, three or four times a day, they get the same food mama gets. Gone are the days when very mediocre dog food made the more nutritious puppy food better for puppies. Today, the better so-called puppy foods can be "too much" of a good thing and have resulted in negative developmental consequences for some puppies and their breeders. I went to a couple of Pat Hastings seminars years ago and her photos and documentation convinced me of this. I have not fed puppy food for a dozen years. So here is an observation about another food that I have been interested in but have not used before and that is Fromm. I have looked at Fromm but not bought it because the store always seemed to have it in the small and very large bags. For my four dogs, I like to buy the 15-20 lb bags. Last time I went, however, they did have Fromm Gold Adult in a medium-size bag and I bought it. I have been seeing for several days that, while some dry dog foods cause the dogs to drink a lot of water after they have eaten, Fromm does not. I am favorably impressed by this and have placed Fromm high on my list of preferred dog foods. Viljo's breeder Tia Eskelinen in Finland asked if I would scan and send Viljo's Field Champion certificate to her. Tia said she wanted to forward it to the Finnish Kennel Club and ask that they add the title in their database. The Finns have a wonderfully detailed and user-friendly pedigree database! Having received the certificate from AKC last week, I was able to scan it for Tia. I sent it to her yesterday.
The very next day, US FTVA is included on Viljo's page on the Finnish Kennel Club website! US of course for United States. FT for Field Trial. VA for Valio which Tia told me today is the Finnish word for Champion. Viljo. Valio. How appropriate. Viljo. Valio. There's a strong connection between the two in my book! : ) I am in the process of getting young Taya, born in Denmark, registered with the American Kennel Club. While I am at it, I thought I would post the specifics on how to accomplish this. Maybe the information will be helpful to someone.
NOTE: "Effective for imported dogs registered on or after March 1, 2006, any imported dog registered with the AKC must have an AKC DNA profile prior to registering its first litter whelped in the United States." As I did with Viljo, I am going to get the DNA profile on Taya now, while I am registering her, instead of waiting months or years to do it. Okay, so here are the instructions. To get the DNA profile: 1. Click on the link http://www.akc.org/dna/certify.cfm 2. Click "Order DNA test kits" at the bottom of the page 3. A new page will come up with two products. First one is a prepaid kit for $35. This is the one I ordered. They will send it to me, I will collect the sample with the cheek swab and return it to AKC. Second option is a kit that AKC will send you for free but then you must submit $40 when you collect the sample and return the kit to AKC. 4. Return the DNA test kit to AKC together with the completed Registration Application, see 1-7 below. OR you can just do the registration (1-7 below) now and do the DNA profiling another time. The reason I like to send both together is because "for dogs individually registered at the time the DNA sample is received by the AKC, the DNA Profile Number will be added to that dog's registration record, and will appear on all Registration Certificates and Pedigrees issued in the future." I also just want to get it out of the way. To do the registration: 1. On the American Kennel Club website, go to the Foreign Dog Registration Application. 2. Print the PDF form and fill it out according to the specific instructions included with the form. 3. You will need to include a check, money order, or charge card information for the processing fee of $50. 4. You will need to include a *photocopy* (not original) of the foreign registration certificate. 5. You will need to include a *photocopy* (not original) of the official pedigree issued by the foreign kennel club. 6. You will need to include two 3x5 color photographs of the dog. See "Required Attachments" on the Registration Application for more specifics on photo requirements. 7. Send the completed application with $50 fee and attachments to The American Kennel Club, PO Box 900058, Raleigh, NC 27675-9058. I have ordered the DNA test kit and it should arrive in a few days. Then I will collect a sample of skin cells from the inside of Taya's cheek using the swab from the kit which I will send with the registration application and appropriate fees to AKC. |
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February 2015
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