Maxine Brinker sent photos of her Nutmeg (12.5 yrs) and Sage (4) at a Barn Hunt event. They both like these events and have done well at them.
Thank you, Maxine!
Thank you, Maxine!
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This weekend at a barn hunt event near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Nutmeg and Sage had a great time climbing hay bales and searching for rats. 12.5 year old Nutmeg earned two legs in the Senior class, 1st place of more than 20 dogs in the class including Jack Russell and Border Terriers, and she was Best in Trial! 4.5 year old Sage earned her first leg in the Open class and placed 2nd in the class of, by Maxine's estimate, 15-20 dogs. Good job, girls!! Maxine does not like to take photos so I am posting the Barn Hunt Association logo and a description of the event.  From barnhunt.com: "The purpose of Barn Hunt is to demonstrate a dog’s vermin hunting ability in finding and marking rats in a “barn-like” setting, using straw/hay bales to introduce climbing and tunneling obstacles in the dog’s path. Barn Hunt is based on the skills historically used by itinerant “ratcatchers” in traveling the countryside, ridding farms of vermin, thus helping conserve and preserve food grains and cutting down on disease.
While ratcatchers often used breeds such as Jack/Parson Russell Terriers, they also used other non go-to-ground breeds such as Manchester Terriers, Rat Terriers, and a variety of breeds and mixes of small to medium size. At all times, the safety of the dogs, handlers, and rats is to be of paramount importance. Rats will be humanely handled and safely confined in aerated PVC tubes. While it can be used as an instinct test, there is also a handler component in that the handler must signal when the dog has reached the desired target PVC rat tube; thus, the handler must know and have a partnership with their dog. Teamwork will win the game." I did not attend the Dachshund Club of America National events this year, most of which were held at Purina Farms in Gray Summit, Missouri. Dorndorf was wonderfully represented in the performance arena, however, as these many bulletins testify. KUDOS and my THANKS to you all! You are the BEST! ---Love, Patt Tracking May 9 Ochre, owned and handled by Laura Knoll, ran her Variable Surface Tracking test with excellent effort! Tina Knoll wrote: "Just to recap, they started strong then over ran the first turn. They recovered, took the first turn and Ochre was pulling like crazy, almost took the next turn. They disqualified but did all the rest just perfect with the track layer just following." VST may have a passing rate of 5-8% but I see VST / CT (Champion Tracker) in their future. This is a talented team! May 10 Sisters Sage, owned by Maxine Brinker, and Seiko, owned by Tina Knoll and handled by Laura, were entered in the Tracking Dog Excellent test. Unfortunately, none of the three dachshunds passed. TDX tests have a passing rate between 15-20% annually; they are not a walk in the park! But they both gave it a very good go! Earthdog May 11 Nutmeg qualifies in Junior Earthdog for her second leg and the JE title! Congratulations to Maxine Brinker and Nutmeg! May 11 Gretel qualifies in Senior Earthdog for her third leg and the SE title! Congratulations to owner Jennifer Fry, handler Laura Knoll, and Gretel!  Laura and Gretel May 11 We all had big hopes that Nadja would earn her fourth qualification in Master Earthdog for the ME title. But this time Nadja had other ideas! As does her owner Tina Knoll, we look foward to Nadja getting that fourth leg!  Nadja had great fun being naughty. May 12 Diane Webb writes: "We did earthdog with Olive and Bossa yesterday and today. Neither passed yesterday, but today Olive passed and earned her first Junior Earthdog leg! She ran straight into the tunnel (just like yesterday) but this time didn't come back out. She got to the quarry in 17 seconds and barked and whined for over 60 seconds. Olive was the third of 30 JE dogs to run today or which 7 passed. We waited over two hours before we got her ribbon. So Olive was tired and hot and was looking into the sun, and the award photos aren't very good. But I am very proud of her!!" Congratulations to Diane and Olive!
agility May 14 Nutmeg, 11 years, qualified with a 3rd place in a class of 14 dachshunds competing in the Master Jumpers with Weaves class! Her niece Sage also qualified in the same class! Congratulations to Maxine Brinker, Nutmeg, and Sage! May 14 Diane writes: "Olive and John had an excellent day at DCA Agility, qualifying in Novice FAST Preferred (1st place), Masters Standard Preferred (2nd Place), and Masters JWW Preferred (2nd Place). Olive earned her third double Q and 26 points towards PACH [Preferred Agility Champion]. Once again, Olive just missed winning High In Trial; this time she was about a second behind the Standard Preferred HIT Winner. The venue was awesome -- artificial turf over the matted floor covering the entire facility in a large, well-lit, air-conditioned facility. I've got videos of Olive which I'll post at some point. No photographers or videographers at the trial." Congratulations to John Willmore and Olive! Obedience and rally May 15 Sage qualified in Novice B Obedience debut, placing 3rd and earning the first leg of her CD! Congratulations to Maxine Brinker and Sage! May 16 Nutmeg and Sage both qualified in the Advanced B Rally class with Nutmeg earning 2nd Place of the 10 dachshunds competing! Congratulations to Maxine and the Spice Girls! May 16 Olive qualified in Rally B Excellent for the necessary third leg in the annual DCA Triathlon! Combined with her passing/qualifying performances in earthdog and agility, Olive has qualified with a chance to win the Triathlon. Whether she does will be determined by performances of other Triathlon contenders that are still to come. Congratulations to Diane Webb and Olive! May 17 Nutmeg qualified with a 1st Place in Open A obedience for her 3rd leg and her CDX! Putting this achievement in perspective, only four dachshunds earned the CDX title in 2012. Congratulations to Maxine Brinker and Nutmeg! triathlon May 17 John and Diane end their DCA week with Olive being one of only 4 qualifiers in the DCA Triathlon, she finished 3rd!
Congratulations Team Olive! Way to GO, everyone!! ♥♥♥ Diane Webb and John Willmore sent me two photos from California that they'd had BEAUTIFULLY framed. The large one (20x11) is the photo of 5 Dorndorf dogs taken at DCA in Wisconsin last year. Here are photos of that photo: alone and also newly put up on my dog wall. The other photo they sent is an 8x10 of Olive who became a new Master Agility Champion in 2012. I have emailed them these photos and also wanted to share them here. THANK YOU, JOHN AND DIANE! Hope everyone is having a great day!   Sage, the third and final female in the Dorndorf S litter was spayed yesterday. Her owner just did not want to have puppies - and that was known when she acquired Sage. Nevertheless, knowing that Sage is spayed has not been an easy pill to swallow. It is the end of eight continuous generations of Dorndorf bitches, or the "bottom line" on all of our pedigrees. Our very first bitch, CH Dorndorf's Dana v Bricken, was obtained at nine months of age from a kennel in Texas in 1972.
1. 1973 CH Dorndorf's Andrea L (Winners Bitch at DCA in 1974)
2. 1981 CH Dorndorf's Ericka L CD TT
3. 1983 Felda v Dorndorf L CD TD TT
4. 1986 DC Grissel v Dorndorf L CDX TD VC
5. 1990 ABS15 FC Ilsa v Dorndorf L
6. 1998 ABS6 FC Marta v Dorndorf L JE LH
7. 2002 DC Nadja v Dorndorf L SE CG
8. 2009 Sonic, Sage, and Seiko v Dorndorf Nadja, owned by Stan and Tina Knoll, produced three litters numbering 1, 2, 3 puppies, all females. Of these six offspring, one is dead and four are spayed. The one remaining intact Nadja daughter is Tina Knoll's ABS3 FC Bob's Babe von Knobydox. On the distaff side, then, though not a Dorndorf bitch, it will be up to Babe to carry on. She was bred to Owl in May this year but did not become pregnant. Our plan is to try again in the spring. Wish us luck! One thing that I have learned from all this is that it is ultimately unwise for a breeder to put all of her eggs in one basket. Yes, it worked just fine for me to have only one producing female at a time for 29 years (!) but... Here's to Owl x Babe puppies in the spring.  Seiko and Sonic . September 2009 . Photo by Tina Knoll MACH2 Nutmeg v Dorndorf L CD RN CG (8 years), Sage v Dorndorf L (13 months), and Cadium Aurinkosoturi (5 months today), all passed the DTK test for steadiness to gun at the NATC-sponsored event in Roscoe, Illinois. This is an important accomplishment, for the Deutscher Teckelklub specifies "a dog may only participate in a hunting test or test of innate ability if he has proven he is not gun shy." Thus Nutmeg, Sage, and Viljo may now participate in such tests.
Nutmeg and Sage are owned by Maxine Brinker of Illinois. This was Maxine's first time attending NATC events. Said she had a lot of fun! I made the following video of Viljo during the test. The first of two gunshots has just gone off and the video starts with Viljo running back to me. However, he is running back happily, in no way appearing to be fearful or terrified in the manner of a gunshy dog. (We have learned that this test does require some judgement on the part of the judges.) The dog is to be off lead and approx. 30 meters away from the handler when the shots are fired. With a dog that tends to stay closer to the handler, one way to accomplish the distance is for the handler to back up while the dog is moving forward. This works to increase distance - until the dog notices and comes running back! You will hear judge Larry Gohlke call "wait" to gunner Cheri Faust as Viljo returns to me a couple of times. When he gets far enough away again, the second shot is fired. Viljo's reaction is quite sound, (pardon the pun), then he happily runs back once more. I believe that is Carrie Hamilton, the other judge, chuckling in the background. Good boy, Viljo! |
