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Someone watching me watch Bossa would've thought I'm nuts! I was clapping hard at the end. LOVE Bossa's awesome speed and intensity. LOVE seeing both views and hearing John and spectators applause. Can't get enough of viewing the weaves entry. WOW!!!!! John Willmore with 2 year old FC Chirribi's Bossa Nova Baby OA OAJ NF JE CA, breeder May-Gun Bandinge of Gotland, Sweden.
Diane Webb did a great job combining the two videos!
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We dog people often focus on what we are teaching our dogs and lose perspective on what our dogs are teaching us. In some ways, I have a LOT of patience. But not like this. I guess I have always felt like I had to have something to work with. Yes, I would have been one of those people who thought "Why is she showing that dog?!" Stories like this one remind me that there can be a very rich pay off to just hanging in there and digging deeper. It is also cool to see a Berner who actually looks like a working dog. (Coulda/shoulda not put the music to the video but that's my opinion. I hit the mute button real fast!) Kudos to the team!
Watching them, I thought of Maxine Brinker and Nutmeg and their struggles early on. Nutmeg's problem, though, was that she was too willing. In her early years of competition, Nutmeg missed a lot of contacts and made up many of her own courses. But with Maxine's patience and persistence, Nutmeg learned the finer arts of agility - such as not flying off obstacles, or forging her own paths! And, like this woman, Maxine was nothing if not persistent. It paid off. Together, Maxine and Nutmeg earned MACH5. That's 100 trials of qualifying in both Excellent classes in the trial ("qualifying" meaning zero faults and within standard course time), and 3, 750 Master Agility Champion points!!! I believe they were the just the third dachshund team to do it. And the first standard longhair. I admire their accomplishments. For the first years after I'd begun feeding Kiki the (formerly) stray cat, I really regretted it. Mostly because of Owl's obsession with ending her life but also because she uses wood posts on my porch to file her nails and she sometimes poops in the lily bed. BUT, there is nothing like a good farm cat to keep the rodent population under control. I see Kiki with mice and voles often enough to be reminded of it. I was reminded again this morning when I took the dogs out and she was having a chipmunk for breakfast on the porch. We startled her and she dropped it and hightailed it under the porch. Viljo snatched the awesome snack and boy did he enjoy it. Lip-smacking good, he said! Thought I would post this 15 second video of Viljo at about 5.5 months the morning he caught a vole. He was as happy as a piggy with turnips!  DCA President Carl Holder, John Willmore, Diane Webb, and Olive! Here is a full report from Diane! We're back from the Dachshund Club of America National Specialty --  Carl Holder, John, Diane, Bossa, and Olive! Thank you for a great report on your marvelous accomplishments and, too, the fabulous photos and videos!
I am so proud of all of you!!! ps Wow, that Bossa is fast!  Maxine Brinker, judge Laura English, and Nutmeg! Photo by Scott Persky. Maxine Brinker called: "Patt, she did it!" Nexus' sister Nutmeg, (they turned 12 in March), went into this weekend needing TWO of the 750 points required to become a Master Agility Champion for the fifth time. She ran a strong Jumpers course, first course of the day, and completed those requirements for MACH 5!!! She is just the third dachshund to achieve MACH 5! Maxine said she will run Nutmeg in Standard today, may also, depending on how good Nutmeg appears to be feeling, run her tomorrow, after which Nutmeg is Retired from agility. A lot of swimming, some earthdog and barn hunt, and, hopefully, helping Maxine discipline a new puppy, are the plans for Nutmeg's future. FANTASTIC ACCOMPLISHMENT AND C@NGRATULATI@NS TO MAXINE AND MACH 5 NUTMEG!! Watch the run which was videoed for Maxine by Pam Dural and posted on Coach's Eye. What a phenomenal early-training concept! I see in Comments that it is criticized quite a bit as being too hard on young bodies. I guess I have to ask those folks if they have seen puppies play! Post by working-dog.eu. Same music, same group, two very different renditions. I may account for 101 views of each of them myself. The Trans-Siberian Orchestra is wonderful! Where there's a will there's a way! Then watch the video sideways. It gives great perspective of a dachshund moving in tight quarters.
We had a crawfish boil at the house Sunday and Tasha got to meet her first crawfish. I am sure that it won't be the last!
From a memo posted today by the Companion Events Department of the American Kennel Club: The AKC Agility staff has finished reviewing the safety concerns posed by the Tire Jump at AKC agility trials. The AKC Board of Directors has approved the regulation allowing the use of a break-away tire for AKC agility trials. The memo goes on to state that the new tire will consist of two segments connected at the top to allow independent movement of each section, should the dog's actions break the tire open. The setting for the connection is to be 16-20 pounds of horizontal force which shall be confirmed by pulling with a calibrated scale until the segments pull apart. Breaking apart the tire jump will result in a non-qualifying score (NQ). Agility exhibitors are very happy with this regulation change. The reason is obvious with just this one example of what can happen when a dog catches so much as toes on the solid tire jump. This is my agility instructor Jennifer Crank and her dog Xtreme. SCT for Excellent Standard was 70 seconds. Olive ran it in 63.47 for 6 MACH points. (See video.) SCT for Excellent Jumpers was 47 seconds which Olive made on the nose. The footing was pretty bad today. The ground was soaked in the rings. It drizzled off and on and the light spots in the ring are rice husks put down to dry up the mud. I'm proud of Olive for keeping up her effort. - John Willmore I am proud of all of you! Congratulations!
In Excellent Standard, Olive ran the Standard Course Time of 73 seconds in 61.88 for 11 MACH points. (see video) In Excellent Jumpers, Olive ran the SCT of 45 seconds in 42.50 for 2 more MACH points toward MACH2. A cooler day, small breakfast with victory boxes after each run. Olive looked like she was having fun, both in and out of the ring. - John Willmore This was at the Keeshond Club of Southern California in Walnut, California. Congratulations to John, Diane, and Olive!
Jolanta Jeanneney sent this to me saying, "This song is for you. I wish you could understand the lyrics. It is a beautiful poem about an autumn concert." Thank you, Jolanta! It is beautiful, all of it! In English, I would title it "Why I Love Fall!" For me, the picture of the man with the horse-drawn wood cart is an especially welcome addition to the collage. My Opa used to make trips into the Bavarian forest to bring home wood. He had a big axe and a wooden cart that he pulled himself. I have not seen that picture in my head in many years. [Tasha, sister to Taya, went with several hunters to Illinois and is doing an Awesome Job on her first experiences tracking deer!] Today Tasha got the call for her first real track. My friend Ricky shot a doe and wasn't sure of the hit. We got to the stand with a group of four hunters, one tracker and one four and one half month old dachshund. The blood trail was good at the hit site and all the hunters took to the track. Tasha never took control of the track. She was content to follow the trackers and even found time to chase a couple of butterflies. After about 30 yards the blood trail dried up. This is where Tasha took control. Tasha started tracking at a rapid pace which had me concerned because there wasn't any blood. After about 70 yards we found a small drop of blood. Everyone jumped in behind Tasha and marked the blood along the way. This terrain was tough. This was a steep hillside that was thick and rocky. I think everyone lost their footing at least once during this track. There were also lots of sharp sawbriars around. I was bleeding almost as much as the deer. The trail would have some blood and then go dry. Tasha was intent on tracking at a faster pace than I could keep up. I was glad that I had a wide collar on her or she may have choked herself. After about 300 yards we found a pile of intestines. We tracked little blood for another hundred yards and we jumped the deer. With what we knew, we decided to back out and come back after lunch. After lunch we went back and started tracking. Of course all the hunters saw the deer get up earlier so they took to the blood trail. When the trail went dry, Tasha took control again. She led us up a steep hill that was really too steep to comfortably navigate....but we followed her. We found blood up the hillside. Tasha tried to bring me back down the hill but I stopped her and brought her back to the blood. Twice more she got off the blood trail and tried to bring me down the hill. I brought her back to the blood. On the fourth try she went downhill again so I followed. Tasha went to a brush pile near the bottom of the hill. There in the pile was the deer, dead and concealed. This is one deer that would have gotten away. Total track near 500 rough and tough yards. I can't describe how gratifying this experience has been. Tasha's tracking has exceeded my wildest dreams. Later this afternoon Tasha tracked and recovered her second deer. Once again she was slow starting with hunters tracking in front of her. After the blood played out, Tasha took over the track. There was very little blood on this track either. You can see her confidence level has gone up ten fold after two real tracks. She tracks very fast and on these steep hills it is all I can do to keep up. I have learned almost as much as she has on the two tracks. I will keep y'all updated. Cliff With temperatures close to 100 degrees, a soaked-down Olive earns the final point needed for her Master Agility Champion (MACH) title. She qualified with 10 MACH points on the Excellent Standard course under judge Marquand Cheek at the DASH trial in Fountain Valley, CA.
(How interestingly coincidental that Marq Cheek was the judge that the very first MACH dachshund, MACH Jackie Brink v Dorndorf L VCD2 RN TT, owned and handled by Maxine Brinker of Illinois, titled under in Wisconsin in 2001!) On the entire west coast, Olive is the third MACH dachshund behind two smooths, thus she is the first MACH longhair. AND, she is the first Master Agility Champion dachshund in the state of California. HUGE C@NGRATULATI@NS on your awesome accomplishment to John, Diane, and Olive!!!!!!  I have not been a particularly big fan of Patricia McConnell. But on my exercise bike this morning I began watching her two-DVD presentation, "Dog Play." I got it half-price somewhere and have had it for months but had never opened the package. If the first 30 minutes are indication, it is excellent. "Define play", "Self-handicapping", "Winning", "Play differences between the sexes"...Many species are included in the slew of video clips. Including one of rats apparently laughing in play which was unknown until a behaviorist converted the sounds that they make to a frequency that we can hear. VERY interesting stuff!
This was day two of the Keeshond Club of Southern California's agility trials in Walnut, California. Standard Course Time was 73 seconds, Olive ran it in 57.34. John wrote: "A nice performance on a very tricky course." Congratulations to Olive, John Willmore (handling) and Diane Webb! It is wonderful to have the videos! Tia wrote, in part: "Here you are, a video from today when Gösta got his first raccoon dog with Kylli! We came in from a side of the barn and Kylli found a hole and very soon started to bark! We heard it was a raccoon dog and Kylli was barking so well. She did bark about half an hour and raccoon dog did not come out, we decided to let Gösta go there with Kylli. It usually helps when dogs have more power and they can push raccoon dog better. Two dogs can not be used in dens but under barn it is ok when there is room enough for all to move freely. Gösta did it well as you can hear. Gösta has a higher voice and Kylli lower. I just took the video to hear the voice, it was dark and dogs were under floor. Soon the first raccoon dog ran out and Jarkko shot it! Super, it was his first catch too!"
Gösta is a two year old standard longhaired male. Kylli is a five year old standard smooth bitch. Kylli is bigger and has the deeper voice. Tia said that there was a second raccoon dog under the barn that the dogs worked for some time but that one seemed to be secure on ledge and did not bolt. Everyone went home very wet and tired for it was raining and they had all been out for about four hours today. Viljo's father Svante is related to Gösta. Svante's mother is Gösta's maternal grandmother. I very recently saw a short segment about Heini Winter and his sled dogs on "Impact." They were filming an important race in Italy. Not surprisingly, Mr Winter and his dogs won the race. He is a world class dog musher. Needless to say, this video shows that he is a world class dog manager, too! Bloat is not common in dachshunds but it is certainly known in the breed. It is an emergency medical condition in which the stomach becomes overextended with gas. Potentially life threatening, bloat is also known as gastric torsion in those occasions when the stomach twists. Immediate treatment is most important. This video shows and describes symptoms of bloat.
All the dogs except Kasi went for a walk this afternoon. Later, near sunset, I took seven months old Viljo out by himself. I shot some video of him with my Flip camera. The video was very bouncy, though, because I'd walked up and down hill in snow. So I pulled stills from the video and made a slide show instead. The quality of the photos isn't great but you can see something of the qualities of Viljo! The temperature was 25 degrees, the air was still, and we were out for about 40 minutes. When the sun went down and the moon came up, we called it a walk and headed for home. In some of the photos, it is obvious that Viljo is following (old) deer tracks. It is not a habit that I encourage. I just keep walking and pretty soon he breaks off and comes with me. Viljo is very responsive to my whereabouts in the field. In part, this is due to his age, then again it is a habit that I fully encourage! Someone posted this video clip from yesteryear to one of the lists. The wonderful man and actor Jimmy Stewart is on the Johnny Carson show and he reads a poignant poem he wrote after the death of his dog Beau. Caution: You may want to have a Kleenex on hand.  FC Autumn Olive von Dorndorf TD RA OA NAJ Wa-T BHP-G, owned by Diane Webb (handling) & John Willmore, earned her second Novice obedience leg today with a 185 and 3rd place at the Los Encinos Kennel Club trial in Long Beach, California! Olive was one of 7 qualifiers out of 13 entries at this all-breed trial preceding the National Obedience Invitational this weekend. Congratulations! Way to go! Diane wrote: "After the Long Sit, the judge told me I should be really proud of my little girl, and I told her that I WAS!! I'd be proud in any case, but watch this video of the Long Sit and you'll see why I'm REALLY PROUD of her!" |