September

This is yours truly handling a young Dorndorf's Andrea L to Best in Match in 1973 at an early Central Ohio Dachshund Club event. Andrea, whose call name was Angel, was the only female of four pups born that year in the first Dorndorf litter. Their breeder was my mother Emma Nance. Angel went on to be undefeated in the classes and finished at 15 months of age by going Winners Bitch at the Dachshund Club of America National Specialty in Jacksonville, Florida in 1974.   Handled variously by her breeder/owner and also by John Wade, Angel did a lot of winning as a special and kept on winning through middle age. This included being shown three times the year she was eight - at the Central Ohio, Southwestern Ohio, and Midwest (Michigan) Dachshund Club specialties - and being awarded Best of Opposite Sex to Best of Breed (Best Bitch) at all three. Angel won and placed in Central Ohio's first (unlicensed) field trials. She was gamey and sichtlaut when we did not really know those terms or appreciate those qualities. One story about her is the time my mother was in the shower while Angel was in the yard. Mom heard a loud commotion and looked out the window in time to see and hear Angel running down the sidewalk in full voice giving chase to a neighbor's cat. Real soon, my mother was running down the sidewalk in her bathrobe with suds in her hair, chasing Angel. The cat went under someone's porch, the dog went under the porch after the cat, and Emma went under the porch after her dog. The dog was the only one who was happy. Another time, my mother was talking on the phone to one of her dog friends, Betty Piper, when Angel walked in and swallowed a long thin tail that had been hanging out of her mouth. Mom said, "Oh! Hang on a minute Betty. Angel just got one of the gerbils. Lisa must have left the cage open." My youngest sister Lisa had two gerbils on her chest of drawers in the bedroom and Angel often sat on Lisa's bed and watched them with a view toward extermination. But Angel hadn't gotten an entire gerbil. Both rodents were still in the cage on the dresser, lively and whole, except... Angel had somehow managed to get up there close enough to the cage to nip a tail right off close to the body. We never figured out how she did that. Bred twice, she produced six Champion get, one of which was also a Champion in Canada and three of the six had Companion Dog titles. Angel is a seventh generation ancestor of the Dorndorf litter born July, 2008. Alas, the litter was two boys and I am still looking for a little bitch to go on with. I would gladly take one like Angel.

August

This is a photo of Paul and Cathern Essman, dated October 1977.  Paul and Cathern lived in Columbus, Ohio and were best friends to my mother Emma Nance; all three were founding members of the Central Ohio Dachshund Club. Paul was a mail carrier for the US Postal Service. Cathern worked as an expert seamstress and she made her husband's suits and their daughter's wedding dress. Paul's sister Eileen was married to beagler Bob Altiere. Bob Altiere was a prominent member of Indian Springs Beagle Club in Johnstown, Ohio. Paul and Cathern Essman and Bob Altiere were instrumental in starting dachshund field trials in Ohio which, for several years, were held at Indian Springs Beagle Club. Other Indian Springs beaglers included Preston Current, Greenville Burton, Bob Allen, Al Uhrig, Ken Stump, Al Stump, Gene Chandler, and Sam Childers. All were very hospitable to the dachshund people and most of them judged at our trials. Nearly all these people are gone now. Cathern died a few years ago, Paul passed away this spring. The Central Ohio Dachshund Club owes them a large debt of gratitude. They were both very diligent, tireless workers and officers of the club for many years. Their efforts and energy were in large part responsible for the fact that, at that time, Central Ohio was the only dachshund club other than Dachshund Club of America to host conformation shows, obedience trials, and field trials. Central Ohio also hosted the first ever DCA Regional Field Trial. The Essmans bred miniature wirehairs with the prefix Doxman's. Their FC Doxman's Jo Jo was the first Ohio Field Champion and there was at least one trial where he was the ONLY Field Champion. Times have changed! Numbers of trials and trial participants have grown by huge leaps since then but the people who were active when I began field trialing will always have a place in my heart.

July

The handler in this photo is Jolanta Jeanneney! Jolanta is showing her longhaired bitch Teckelpen's Class Act, aka Yaga, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, in 1980. Yaga became a Canadian Champion and had 13 US field trial points. The first contact I ever had with Jolanta was when she still lived in Canada and wrote asking about a future longhaired stud dog for Yaga. Alas, Jolanta became interested in breeding only standard wirehairs. She imported a male named Fausto and had the fabulous wire litter that produced Kuba and Gita. Then she met and married John and moved to New York and the rest is history. But I thought you would enjoy seeing this photo of Jolanta in the show ring with her longhair.