For the past month Baxter’s sister Barbwired Bella Bambina “Iita” has been with us here in Sweden. I was asked by their breeder Markku if I would help in training, testing, and showing Iita. Always up for a challenge, I, of course, agreed and when Liina left for Finland, Iita arrived. We have had a very busy, but successful month!
We started out our time together with tracking trials… first a super successful Aptitude test, followed the next day by a rainy, but really good 1st prize in Open class. That first prize earned Iita her Finnish, Lithuanian, Latvian, and Welt Union Teckel Championships!
After a short break due to a work conference, we were back at tracking! A new judge, new location and horribly windy weather, but we earned our 2nd 1st prize!
It didn’t stop there though! I signed up for an exhibition with Baxter and Iita in Tvååker through the Hallands Dachshund club. 107 dachshunds were signed up for the exhibition and 27 of them were standard wirehaired. Both Baxter and Iita did wonderful… and I guess I did fairly well as a handler. 😉
Baxter (Champion Class): Ex2, CK, 2nd best male
Iita (Jakt/Working class): Ex2, CK, 3rd best female
I was happy with those results, but even happier that the result meant that Iita was now also Swedish Show Champion!
But we didn’t stop there as we were SO close to the Tracking Championship. Then on Monday it was back into the forest for our 3rd open class tracking trial. The weather was on our side and Iita did her work and was awarded her 3rd first prize and another title: Swedish Tracking Champion (SEVCH)!
This whole experience was challenging for me, but also a great learning experience. I learned a lot about handling and what I, as well as the dog, was capable of! It was definitely difficult at times as Iita doesn’t “speak” English or German (my dog languages) and I don’t speak hers (Finnish). Would I take in any dog for training and showing? No, for sure not. Iita was a perfect houseguest and a perfect copy of Baxter, making the whole process easy. She is a smart girl and we bonded very quickly. She wants to be with me all the time and decided I am her person. I will be quite sad when she returns home.
Thank you to Marja for entrusting me with this great girl, for Markku for encouraging me to try and push myself with this challenge, and judges J.Nilsson, G.Hilborg, E.Ahlin, & J. Myrman for their time and judgement.
Introducing: FICH, LTCH, LVCH, SEU(V)CH, SEVCH, WUTCH Barbwired Bella Bambina
Kennel Moniker 