Happy Memorial Day! 

Taya's puppies were due on this date but we ARE celebrating a birthday here. Four years ago today, Viljo was born in Finland. Searching the web for photos of his father Svante, a dog I'd seen, liked very much, and 'lost' again, I finally found him. Lo and behold, I ALSO found that Svante had fathered a litter just three days previously. I emailed Svante's owner, Tia Eskelinen, we began 
Taya's puppies were due on this date but we ARE celebrating a birthday here. Four years ago today, Viljo was born in Finland. Searching the web for photos of his father Svante, a dog I'd seen, liked very much, and 'lost' again, I finally found him. Lo and behold, I ALSO found that Svante had fathered a litter just three days previously. I emailed Svante's owner, Tia Eskelinen, we began corresponding, and I kept staring at the photos of the smaller, dark male. 

The staring turned in to traveling to Finland in August. It was an awesome two weeks which included various standard longhairs in fox practices in two different areas and an entire day of badger hunting, also puppy testing, track laying, attending shows, an all-night ferry trip to Sweden, and it all ended with 12 weeks old Viljo coming back on the plane with me! 

He is an intelligent and devoted CHARACTER and I am so glad to have him! With many thanks, especially to Tia, and also to Jarkko Eskelinen, Leeni Leinonen, Tero Ratinen, Pauliina Sjöholm, Ilse Kokkonen, and Marina Nilsson.

Happy Birthday, Viljo!

Svante is father of Viljo.

Congratulations to all of you! 
[-17 Celsius = 1 degree Fahrenheit] 

Manu claiming his deer and rightfully so!

This is 15 months old longhaired dachshund Zingarese Aznavour today in Finland. The only dog accompanying the hunters, Manu located the deer in the forest and drove it to the shot. 

Manu's owner is Antti Niskanen who also took the photo. The proud breeder is Sirpaleena Stubbe. 

Manu is grandson of Maxi-Tax Heracles. Heracles is brother of Hestia, Taya's grandmother. I posted some photos of Hestia two days ago. I didn't say then that Hestia and Heracles are grandkids of Nick v Dorndorf L.

Thank you, Sirpaleena, for the photo!
 

Svante is father to Viljo. 

Congratulations, Tia and Svante!

After I posted the photo of Siiri yesterday, her owner Ilse Kokkonen sent this picture that I have not seen before. It was taken this past August during a duck hunt, which Siiri loves to do.

Sirri is paternal grandmother of the youngsters Taya, Tasha, and Thor, who also love to swim and are steady to gun. You can see photos of Taya's First Swim at age 10 weeks.

What a beautiful photo! 5.5 years old, Svante, father of Viljo, was recently Helsinki Winner 2013. Some of his other accomplishments include: Finland's 2011 Longhaired dachshund of the year, show Champion in six countries, tracking Champion in Sweden, and successful in the blood tracking recovery of moose and deer. 

Svante is owned and handled by Tia Eskelinen of Finland. His breeder is Marina Nilsson of Red Top's dachshunds in Sweden. 

Photo credit to kuvauksellista.com

Multi-Champion Red Top's Klatjofs (left) is pictured going Best Male at the Helsinki Winner show this past Friday, December 13. Father to my Viljo, 5.5 year old "Svante" is owned and handled by Tia Eskelinen, Kennel Cadium, Finland. 

This win earned Svante the title Helsinki Winner 2013! 

Congratulations to Tia and Svante! Thank you, Tia, for sending the very nice photo today.

Speaking of very nice photos, a wonderful album of Svante photos can be found on Tia's website.

Ornberget's Jubilee (right) was Best Female and Best of Breed at this show. Owned and handled by Jill Rhodin of Sweden, this makes Jubilee also "Helsinki Winner 2013."

Incidentally, Jubilee is great-great granddaughter of Nick v Dorndorf L. Imported to Sweden by Marie Gadolin in 2002, he lives with Linda Mellberg. Nick produced just five litters, but he is in the pedigrees of many longhairs in that part of the world.

 At the prestigious Helsinki, Finland Winner show today, Viljo's father Multi-Champion Red Top's Klatjofs was Best Male, Helsinki Winner 2013!

 "Svante" is owned and shown by Tia Eskelinen of Finland. He was bred by Marina Nilsson of Sweden.

Also pictured is Tia's young female Chodsky pes (a breed not known to me) from the Czech Republic. "Miiru" was also Helsinki Winner at this show.

Congratulations to Tia &Jarkko, Svante, and Miiru!

Tero Ratinen, some hunting buddies, and Tero's dachshund have today taken three badgers from one sett. Some of the underground tunnel systems created by badgers are lengthy and elaborate and have been used for decades by many animals.

As a side note, it is so interesting that, like skunks, the heads of badgers have this black/white "warning coloration."

Tero's young bitch Riesa did a good job hunting badgers today. Here she is pulling on a badger that was killed with a gun after hunters dug down to dog and badger to the point where they could make the shot.

It is the dachshund's responsibility to investigate a den, determine whether a badger is home, pursue the animal to a stopping point, oppose it hard enough to keep it in one location, and announce its positive findings and whereabouts by barking. 

It is the job of the hunters to dig to the dog and badger, after which they quickly call the dog out and shoot the badger. An obedient dog is a must in this situation. Contrary to common (mis)conception, dachshunds must cooperate with hunters in their work. It cannot be any other way.

You can see that Riesa is wearing a locator collar. The collar has a radio-frequency device that sends signals to a small hand-held box used by the hunters to help determine just where the dog is and how deep. They obviously want to pinpoint location as much as possible before they begin to dig!

This photo is from a hunt on January 7. The hole these guys have dug is 11 feet deep and they are still digging! Afterward, too, they will be filling it all back in again. They do not make large holes in the countryside and leave them like this. They also shore up the 'ceiling' of the tunnels they break into to get to the dachshund and badger, and earth dwelling animals will continue to use them.

You can imagine the amount of effort required here. Also effort by the dog who - think of this - is more than 11 feet underground in a tight place, facing and holding the badger all this time. Sometimes for hours.

Or, I should say, that in all the digging through frozen earth, tree roots, and rock ledges, expectations are high that the badger IS staying in the same location. But sometimes it does manage to move until the dog can get it cornered again elsewhere at which time digging begins again.

"Extreme hunting" may not be too lofty a term for what badger hunters and badger dogs do on a regular basis.

[Svante is Multiple Champion Red Top's Klatjofs, Finland's standard longhaired dachshund of the year in 2011, also father of my Viljo. Svante is owned by Jarkko and Tia Eskelinen, Finland.]

Tia writes:

Well done, indeed, in four more inches of snow on top of what was already there!

Congratulations on a super and successful effort!

Siiri is Taya's grandmother : 
C.I.B FIN CH FIN WCH-C FI WCH-W SE CH EE CH LV CH FINW-06 
MAXI-TAX HESTIA
bred and owned by Ilse Kokkonen
Kennel Maxi-Tax, Finland

Sylvi is Maxi-Tax Nirvana
daughter of Siiri's sister FIN CH FIN WCH-H MAXI-TAX HERMIONE
bred by Ilse Kokkonen
Kennel Maxi-Tax, Finland

Houston, we've had a problem here.

In fact, all across the United States, we've had a problem. A big problem.

There is no question that US exhibitors, breeders, and judges care about this breed.

The question that I find myself having to ask is - do US exhibitors, breeders, and judges KNOW this breed? Well, we are supposed to know! The information is available. And it is more easily accessible than ever before. Unfortunately, many statements being posted on the internet, and even published in magazines, is surprisingly misleading and simply not congruent with facts.

For all intents and purposes, two more questions underlie the one above.

1. Is the dachshund an earthdog? I really do not know anyone who would say no.

2. Is size important in the dachshund aka earthdog? Well now, here comes the dichotomy of all dichotomies. It is absolutely amazing how many LONG TIME exhibitors, breeders, and judges assert that it is not!

"A good dachshund is a good dachshund." Well, what makes a dachshund GOOD? In part, it is the ability to do the WORK of a dachshund. And not a thing about a dachshund's structure helps him "do the job" more than his size!

Why is it, pray tell, that so many of us talk and act like dachshund size is totally irrelevant, when it is COMPLETELY relevant! I tell you this thing, there is not a badger or fox hunter in the world who will say otherwise.

This longhaired bitch is one of a mother/daughter pair of bitches that is regularly and successfully used to hunt the European badger (aka Eurasian badger) in Finland. Guess how big she is and hold that thought. We will come back to it.

Please see below each of 20 different earths, nearly all entrances. Entrances! If a picture is worth 1000 words, then maybe we can consider this little album a virtual encyclopedia on earthdog size. All photos were taken by me in an 11 hour badger hunt with three men, another woman, and three standard longhaired bitches in Finland on August 10, 2010. Earthwork photos are not unique. There are many like them on the internet. But, ahem, apparently American dachshund enthusiasts are not looking at them!

Note that with one exception I have not included photos with badgers or the evidence of the taking of badgers. The singular purpose of this post is to give the reader clarity, in pictures, on what seems to be a very muddied (ha!) concept of earthdog size. I sincerely hope that it helps do that. If not, well I tried. I really tried!

 

[Taya is Tranevang's MA Tayatax, bred by Lise-Lotte Schulz, Denmark.]

Happy Six Months Birthday to Taya, to her sister and brother Tasha and Thor who are also living Stateside, and to their three littermates overseas!