Goodwood
Standard Smoothes
Articles
A
Day with the Dachshunds in France
By
Claire Mancha
Being
new to the sport of dogs, but raised in a family old on tradition, I think the
stars have at last aligned so that my genetic predisposition for the blood sports
has finally surfaced. On a recent trip
to my other motherland, France, I was lucky to be able to participate as a
guest onlooker in a blood tracking test put on by the Union des Conducteurs
de Chiens de Rouge (UNUCR).
Basically, this is the organization responsible for the testing and
licensing of dogs on their ability to track, by blood trail, wounded animals
from hunts. Literally, the Union of
Drivers of Red Dogs. In essence: Blood Trackers, man and beast.
The
UNUCR was founded 26 years ago by the Association for Large Game and the
Eastern Club. These are both French
hunting entities. In France alone,
there are over 600 "conductor / handlers" who did over 1800 searches
in 2005, most of these in eastern France.
The
purpose of the particular test I observed is to qualify the team of handler and
dog, as a unit, to be used in actual searches for wounded animals. Neither man nor dog qualifies
individually. Both the handler and the
dog must be tested as a team. They must
both qualify and they receive their license as a working unit. If a handler wanted to take a different dog
out to track, they would not be qualified to do so until they were tested and
passed as a new tracking entity.
While
this is a serious pass or fail examination, there are steps of this test which
can be applied to earn a title for the dog.
The number of conductors who chose to pursue that goal are
infinitesimally small compared to those aspirants who want to be called out of
their warm homes to gear up, grab their dogs and go blood tracking for real.
The
test I attended was held in one of the most famously hunted forests in France,
the foret d'Orleans. Located in
the department of the Loiret, this massive collection of birch, pine, oak, elm
and European hornbeam covers 35,000 hectares.
That's a whopping 86,490 acres or 135 square miles! Nicknamed "the green lung" of the
Loiret, this magnificent forestland is home to elk, boar, fox and rabbit. No wonder this was the private hunting
grounds for generations of French kings and nobility. One of the judges told me that royalty historically settles where
the hunt is good, hence the Palace at Versailles being one day's march from
this forest. Even now, from September
to March, the forest is in daily use by hunters on foot, with dogs, or on
horseback using large packs of foxhounds.
The French Office National de la Foret regulates the use of this
forest. It is immaculately groomed and
beautifully healthy.
The
UNUCR holds 2 seminars each year to teach those interested in training to blood
track. About 150 new people come to the
seminars yearly. Of those, 20 actually
become trackers. This job is not for
novices! It was stressed to me that to
be a good tracker requires a perfect knowledge of large game and blood dogs.
A
blood-tracking dog is usually called out to 80 to 120 searches per year, all in
the seven-month hunting season from September to March. In France, the wire hair Dachshunds are the
most used tracking dog, followed by the Hanoverian and Bavarian Reds. The latter are used only in the wildernesses
of eastern France or the Grand Massif as they are dogs with enormous
circular hunting styles. They put their
noses to the ground and follow them with a focus that could get them run over
by cars in areas with roads and traffic.
Labrador Retrievers are being used more and more as trackers. Retriever comes from the French retrouver:
"to find again." The UNUCR
thinks all dogs can blood track and encourages participation by anyone
interested.
There
are several significant differences between the American and European dog
cultures. In France the government
licenses animal breeders. A person can
breed one litter at the professional level without being licensed. After that it is mandatory to be licensed
and inspected. Veterinarians from The
National Canine Veterinary Society inspect breeding facilities.
The
pups are sold with no contracts or restrictions made by the breeder. The dog's pedigree is awarded by the state,
not given by the breeder. The pedigree
is needed to participate in most events.
Here's how it works. The breeder
informs the Canine Society upon the breeding of the bitch and within 15 days of
the whelping of the litter. The breeder
includes the name, sex and color of each puppy and their tattooed
identification numbers, all within 6 months of the birth. At that point, the Canine Society will issue
each pup a certificate. So far this
seems vaguely familiar, but here is where the U.S. and France really start to
differ.
The
owners of the puppy must wait until it is 12 months old for small breeds and 15
months for large breeds to present the dog at an examination of
conformation. This is usually held in
conjunction with a dog show. A breed
expert will examine the dog to see if it has any faults that would render it
unfit to reproduce. If the pup is found
to conform to the standard, the examiner will sign the certificate. The owner then sends this signed certificate
to the Canine Society who in turn issues the pedigree.
The
Ministry of Agriculture licenses performance and conformation judges as
well. The judges' job in the field is
to enforce discipline. One judge
winkingly told me as an aside "We are Latins, after all!"
In
Europe, with the exception of England, the country that developed the dog is
held to be the owner of the standard.
The French acknowledge the German standard as the definitive description
of the ideal Dachshund. I was given a
very snorty lecture on the disaster wreaked on the Dachshund by the English,
the Australians, the Japanese and the North Americans. I was told that among the purists, the dogs
from those countries were not considered Dachshunds and could not be interbred
to the European Dachshund. It seems
that the Dachshund world has its work cut out for it if we are all to come to
any agreement about the dog we all love.
The
formal title given for qualifying in this particular blood-tracking test is the
SchwhK. This is a German title: Schweisshund,
Kunstlich, literally Sweat Dog, Man Made (Dachshund has been observed to
follow blood on artificial trails.) To
participate in this SchwhK test the dogs must be more than 12 months old and
unless given special dispensation by the club, must also have their pedigree
papers. This test was on a blood trail
24 hours old. There are also 40 hour
and natural SchwhK tests. For the tests
of 24 and 40 hours, you have 3 judges.
Judges are not paid to ensure impartiality and avoid any appearance of
conflict of interest. The natural
tests, SchwhN, Schweisshund, Naturlich, or Sweat Dog, Natural,
(Dachshund has been observed to follow blood on natural trails) are rare as
they involve the Office National des Forets calling and relaying the
tracking opportunity right away. The
trail is usually around 4 hours old, and you need 2 judges and your team. The logistics are usually too difficult to
arrange.
As
we all know on this side of the Atlantic there is a lot of work that goes into
preparing for any event and the SchwhK test is no different. The track is laid 24 hours in advance. The blood used can be either deer or boar's
blood. The track is laid by a cane tipped
with a 4 cm by 4 cm square sponge. 250
cc of blood are used for each test track, brushed onto the ground with the cane
every 50 cm or so. The trail must be a
minimum of 1000 meters long, have at least 3 angles and 2 reposers or couchettes
(places where the game laid down to rest or sleep.) On the blind side of trees along the trail the tracklayers pin
directional arrows, each track with its own identifying color. Tacked to a tree at the head of each track
is a 3 x 5 card with information on it (time laid, which number trail.) There is a track laid for each contestant,
plus an extra in case one is damaged by real game. I was told that the elk and deer in April have huge antlers and
prefer to stay in the cleared areas so the dogs were given more brushy tracks
to help them focus on the scent of the blood rather than the elk. The only people who know the way of the
trail are those who laid it. The judges
can look backwards at the colored cards on the trees to make sure they are
following the trail correctly. More on
this later.
We
all gathered at the forest ranger's clubhouse at 8 AM on test day. This charming old building used to be a
hunting lodge and is located in a small clearing at the edge of the
forest. The blood trails had been laid
the day before so they were the proper age.
The dogs' papers were turned in to the event chair and organizer, Mr.
Lucien Masson. Mr. Patrick Mestadier
was there as the French government's representative. He is the head of the Department of L'Isle de France of the Club
des Amateurs de Teckels, basically the French version of the Dachshund Club of
America. Mr. Mestadier brought with him
his adorable black and tan longhair Pharon (Pharaoh) who is the most decorated
Dachshund in Europe. His list of titles
would fill this page, so I'll just say that he was as useful as he was
handsome. There were 3 judges, Mr.
Remy, Mr. Pierre Ziegler and Mme. Isabelle Ziegler. We also had an apprentice judge, Mr. Moquelet. Mr. Perigal and Mr. Jean Leporce were there
as working members of the local chapter of the UNUCR. They would be driving contestants and judges to the trails. Frankly, this was a big job in itself as I
was completely disoriented in this vast forest and hats off to anyone who could
drive it and not get lost. Just like
all those old fairy tails of children getting lost in deep dark woods, believe
it when I tell you this is that kind of forest.
Each
local chapter of the Club des Amateurs de Teckels puts on one test per
year. In the whole of France there are
about 26 such events per year. The cost
for a member contestant is 48 euros, for a nonmember, 60 euros (at the time of
this writing $61 and & $76 respectively.)
There is a maximum of 8 contestants per day. Each team is allowed a maximum of 1 1/2 hours of working time. The first four to work on Sunday were all
wire Dachshunds. The judges would be
the same for every test that day.
The
contestants run in the order that their entries were received. I was able to observe 4 runs. I stayed back with the inspector and the
card remover. The teams are taken out
to the trailhead in one car and the judges in another. At the start of the track, the judges check
the tattoo on inside of the ear of the competing dog. The dogs wear a leather hunting collar called a "botte"
which has a swiveling ring on the topside of the collar. The leads are 10 to 15 meter long leather
straps. They are snapped on to the
swivel ring on the botte. I was
interested to see that the leads are kept completely loose, not held with
tension as we do in our tracking here in the U.S.
Present
for each test were contestant and his dog, the 3 judges, the state
representative and the person who removed the directional arrows from the trees
as we progressed. As we walked I was
treated to a lovely natural history lesson from the state representative Mr.
Mestadier who showed me fox's earths, ground completely rutted up by packs of
boar, and reposers, the resting places of the deer and the elk. The men and women who participate in these
activities are truly lovers of nature; they knew the trees, the grasses, the
habits of the animals and could identify what animal made any hole in the
ground. I also got the dish on the human players in the game from Mme Cellier. There is very little difference in the
politics or the gossip in the French dog world from ours!
Mr.
Mestadier, himself a Corsican, France's version of Italy's Sicily, regaled me
with tall tales and instructed me in the French and German hunting social
rules. He complained that the French
were lax in their respect for the forest.
He favored the Teutonic rigidity and tradition which dictates that
hunters arrive to the hunt fully dressed in the traditional green boiled wool
suits, correct hat decorated with loads of medals, sturdy brogues and fine
dogs. He was a stickler for the hat
especially, why, I learned later in the hunt.
The
dog and handler follow the trail of blood, visually by the human and the dog by
scent. I noticed some of the handlers
carrying rolls of toilet paper with them.
I was a bit taken aback by this, but learned that the tissue is used to
mark blood spots if a conductor needs to backtrack to help his dog pick up a
lost scent. The toilet paper decomposes
quickly and does not litter the forest for long.
The
dog / handler team is allowed to lose the scent only twice. The judges are the ones to give the
redirections if the team gets too far off track. The person taking down the colored arrows marking the trail for
the judges stays put on the trail until the dog either finds its way back to
the scent line or is redirected there by a judge. The humans being tested are supposed to avoid looking backwards
and thus seeing the colored arrows on the trees indicating the trail. Mme Cellier told me the judges are pretty
wise to that kind of cheating.
There
is no further opportunity "training" by finishing the track once the
judges have decided that the team has failed.
The test is simply over for that team.
A contestant pair had to be redirected twice (the limit) and lost the
trail once again so was excused. I
learned that sore losers exist everywhere!
I was sorry for the dog who had tried hard, but it was obvious that the
team was not trained enough. I was
told that the club may not turn down an entrant even if they know that team
isn't ready.
The
most interesting and successful track of the day was that of young Nicholas
Benezit and his young wire bitch Ulfie.
She was one of Mr. Mestadier's breeding, and he jokingly remarked that
he should never have sold Ulfie to Nicholas.
There was much good natured teasing before the test. It is traditional in France to say merde
(and in Germany to say scheisse) to the conductor at the start of his
test. It is like "break a
leg;" a lucky wish. I told the
judges that in American field trials, handlers often give their dogs water
before their runs, as it is believed to help the dogs scent more
efficiently. I asked if such was the
custom in France. I was answered
"No! It is better to give the
handler wine!" In Germany it is
schnapps. This is a custom I'm thinking
we should adopt!
Ulfie
and her handler were a wonderful team.
Ulfie had placed 2nd in her "voicing on rabbit"
test. Nicholas was obviously extremely
proud of his partner. She never lost
the track and she worked hard the whole time.
Nicholas read her body language beautifully. It was quite exciting when they reached the prize at the end of
the track: a boar's haunch! The wild
boars for these tests had been hunted in the southern part of France the year
before. The quarters and blood had been
frozen all winter to rid them of trichina.
Apparently boars, being swine, are also carriers of this parasite.
When
Ulfie found her boar Mr. Mestadier pretended to blow a hunting horn. He probably inwardly cursed the French for
not having a horn handy as the Germans would certainly have had. Things got quite medieval as the judges
broke off two pieces of the holly tree under which was the haunch and presented
them to the conductor. One piece was to
put in his hat (hence the need for a hat) and the other to put in his dog's
collar. This is ancient tradition and
quite wonderfully emotional. It is a
badge of honor that is treasured by the recipient and jealously coveted by all.
Mr.
Mestadier discussed real hunting scenarios regarding the actual use of dogs to
find wounded game as we walked back to the clubhouse. While bitches are allowed to be tested and used for finding
wounded game in France, in Austria and Germany they are not. Intact bitches go through emotional and
seasonal changes and are considered not reliable enough to be called in at a
moment's notice to do serious, timely work.
Mr.
Mestadier was quite in accord with this and gave as an example a hunt for a
chamois (a mountain goat) high in the Alps, night falling in a few hours, and
the trophy of your life running away wounded.
There is little time and difficult weather; wolves, snow and dark of
night are dangerous! A dog could be
brought in and put to work and is available 24/7. A bitch might or might not be in the mood. We as Americans might dismiss this as
sexist, but Europeans have been hunting for a long time and I would tend to
honor their experience. Mr. Mestadier
also said that bitches lose their drive to hunt within 3 years of being
spayed. Being the owner of a (twice)
spayed hunting fool, I'm anxious to see if this holds true. I am sure our field trials are pretty tame
compared to a real hunt in the wildernesses of Northern and Eastern Europe, but
I think the same instinct drives the dogs in both situations.
We
were treated to a cuckoo's song as we entered the clearing where a sumptuous catered
lunch was ready for us. Another
tradition we might think of adopting!
After
many sincere goodbyes and thank yous, I drove away, my stomach full of pheasant
and my head full of plans to start blood-tracking training on my dogs. I raise my own rabbits and already keep
their pelts for field trial training, so it wasn't a big jump to ask my butcher
to fill a quart jar of blood for me. I
now have many Dixie cups of frozen blood in my freezer waiting for the perfect
time to go blood tracking.
This
might seem a bit too carnal to those of you who love the flash and glamour of
the ring and all things civilized. But
to me, taking a walk though forest and field with my dogs and watching them
interpreting the world through their noses, that is heaven on earth.
One
last comment as I finish up. I was
thrilled to hear that one of our own hunts rats with her dogs in New York City
in the dead of night. I'd love to be
invited to one of those outings. This
is a perfect modern use for our wonderful hunting Dachshunds.
For
more information on events held in France by the Club des Amateurs de
Teckels, you can visit their website at http://www.chien.com/clubdesamateursdeteckels/index.html.