It was a week ago, on Wednesday, when John and I drove to Newark International Airport to pick up our new puppy from Germany - Kunox der von der Dohlmühle. Kunox arrived in the United States, all happy and wiggly, not showing any sign of stress.
Interestingly, we did not plan to get a new puppy this fall, but sometimes an opportunity presents itself and cannot be denied. It was almost four weeks ago when Stefan Fuß of "von der Bismarck-Eiche" kennel in Germany posted some information on Facebook about a male "von der Dohlmühle" puppy looking for a hunting home due to some unexpected circumstances. When I (Jolanta) saw the pups picture and outstanding pedigree, I knew that we must have him. More about his pedigree and family later.
So many, many thanks go to Stefan who made it all possible and to Annelie Grauer, Kunoxs breeder, who trusted us with her puppy.
John has already started to work with Kunox and this is what he wrote: As Jolanta points out, we were lucky to get a puppy with such an outstanding pedigree for blood tracking. Fortunately little Kunox doesnt know about the pedigree and how good he is supposed to be. He is a nice, relaxed dog with good social skills around humans and canines. He departed from Lufthansa at Newark Airport
Of course the Old Man was especially interested in Kunoxs desire and ability for tracking. The second day after his arrival in Berne we tried the first liver drag of 20 yards. No problem, but he learned what it was all about and had a fine chew on the deer liver at the end of the drag. The next day Kunox had a liver drag twice as long. Clearly it was too easy, but he liked the liver. On day three the liver drag was nearly 100 yards and an hour old. It was windy but Kunox got his nose down in the grass and held to the scent line. Now he was ready for something more challenging.
Day four: This time I laid out a line with droplets of deer blood through the labyrinth of paths in our running enclosure. There were many right angles to overshoot, and I let it age for four hours. The line was only about 150 yards long, but there were many complicated turns. Kunox marched through it with ease, never overshooting a turn by more than five feet before checking and correcting himself. At the deer skin he approached with caution, but after my assurances he grabbed on. The prey drive was there! He actually preferred shaking the deer hide to eating the deer heart treats.
I kind of like this puppy!
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| This puppy loves his food, even home-grown kale. We need to take just a little bit of weight off him. |
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| He is a low-key pup that can just relax and sleep while we go about our daily routine. |
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Kunox has met most of our dogs and proved to have good social skills. Mielikki is a good playmate as she is patient and gentle with him...up to the point. She set some boundaries by now for Kunox and one of them is that he is not allowed to hump her (he tried). |
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| Kunox has been accepted by his new family; the picture shows Paika and Sky |
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| Kunox licking Billys face |
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| Kunox has a very good switch: he is on in the field... |
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| ...and off in the house. Dont you love a puppy that you can take a nap with? |
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Kunoxs dam is Gwendoline der von der Dohlmühle, who just three days ago won the International Vp test in Italy with maximum number of points of 280. Gwennies mother Elsebeere von der Bismarck-Eiche got 268 points. Both got their CACIT (Certificat d’Aptitude au Championnat International de Travail) and became International Working Champions. |
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When we were in Germany in 1999 we visited Manfred Siekmann of von Rominten kennel. He is an extremely knowledgeable and accomplished breeder and handler, and we learned from him a lot. At the time his male Nurmi von Rominten was flying high as a blood tracker. I think he won Chorin Suche blood tracking championship twice. We loved the dog, and we saw him again on subsequent trips. He got to live to be 15. We always wanted a puppy sired by him but it has never worked out. The sire of Kunox is IACh GS BSS Doktor von Rominten, who is linebred tightly on Nurmi, and is an outstanding dog in his own right. |
