COVER STORY Indy, A Journey worth taking

Owned, trained and handled by Shawn Nies

The dachshund is an incredibly versatile breed of dog. It comes in many forms, but my heart is set on the standard wire dachshund. My first purposefully-bred dachshund came from Carolyn Lewis and her “Short Shadows.” Four years ago, I made a trip to a small town just outside Berlin, Germany for a puppy “aus der Wutzelgrube” bred by Anika Ringwelski. I was extremely fortunate with both of these dogs and I have learned many skills from training with them. Gypsy became my first 7-way dachshund and now Indy has followed in her footsteps and taken us a step further. Indy is titled in Conformation, Field Trials, Earthdog, Obedience, Rally Obedience, Agility, Tracking, FAST CAT, Trick Dog and he has his CGC.

With Indy, I have had the opportunity to expand my knowledge and skills in tracking which is his absolute favorite activity, unless maybe it is playing ball. He has earned tracking titles in the AKC, Deutsche Teckel Klub (DTK) and the United Blood Trackers (UBT). We track about once every week, sometimes more and sometimes less. He is not a huge fan of tracking over asphalt so we continue to train for the VST title and hope that one day we will get there. But the journey is the important part, not the destination.

When Indy first came to live with me, I decided to take a page from the “Sharon MacDonald book of puppy training.” Indy’s breeder had done some fine foundation work with him and I wanted Indy to bond first with me and then with the rest of my pack to help us during our training times. What a great page to borrow! He has a wonderful work ethic for anything I ask him to do. He looks to me for entertainment before asking the girls to play. Of course, it helps that *I* can throw the ball for him. The hardest part in our training process is for me to figure out how to communicate with him what my expectations are. For that, I have had wonderful support from both Sharon MacDonald and Brenda Reimer, but also from some non-dachshund people.

Indy and I took a rally class with Nancy Smith Curtis when he was a puppy and he loves her so much that she has been able to help us train through Novice Agility titles in both Standard and Jumpers courses, but also through Open Obedience in addition to that first Rally goal. He is now working on learning the skills to compete at the Utility level of 18

Obedience which I never would have considered trying without the help of his (my) support group. Indy has also earned the DTK companion dog titles of BHP-1 and BHP-3. The BHP-1 is somewhat similar to the CDX in AKC obedience.

With the move to a new home and the pandemic, we are missing our weekly training time in obedience and agility, but hope to get better guidance than I can give him by myself at home when we find a new trainer. We currently train in our living room or the driveway or the garage, depending on the weather. I have found the dachshund community to be extremely supportive of someone trying to learn new obedience skills and give advice on pitfalls to avoid or best ways to train a specific skill. What a fabulous group of people are in this breed!

A year ago, we tried FAST CAT and while he has earned his BCAT title, it was clearly not something he wanted to do often so we will not continue to pursue that particular sport. If you have a highly visual dog, they will love this and I strongly support getting out there and doing what you and your dog love doing together!

COVID caused a halt in shows and trials so we tried training some new tricks during the lockdown and Indy earned his Advanced Trick Dog by learning to pick up a dollar bill and pay for his treat or carrying a basket of things to me. Trick training is super fun and I definitely recommend it to everyone. It helps to forge a bond of fun while working on skills that directly reflect obedience skills.

Indy is becoming much more consistent in his field work and at Harvest Moon Classic 2020, he earned 3 Second Place, 2 First Place and an Absolute ribbon out of his 7 entries. We are still hoping to improve the obedience skills as they apply to the field. Tracking has certainly helped Indy to understand what to do in the field, but he recalls when he is finished working and not necessarily when I call him. We continue to work on that particular skill.

At four years old, Indy is still a young dog. We have many journeys ahead of us. I look forward to every day of that journey and what it might bring. I encourage everyone with a dachshund to try the different venues where dachshunds are eligible to compete. Have fun with them. It enriches the lives of both human and dachshund.!

Photo by Cliff Schrader