Hel or Achilles by Tatiana Wagner is a Czech import with a great pedigree and even better working abilities. He is a dog with powerful natural aggression (protection drive) and good prey drive, incredible speed and full, strong grips, a stable character and clear head. He is only 18 months old but he is promising to develop into a great competition dog.

This month Hel passed IGP 1 with a very good score of 92, 93, 92. Because we had to wait for him to pass the age requirement, he worked the trial on a (for him) new training field and in extreme summer heat. Considering his youth and circumstances, we could not ask for a better performance.

Realistically he was (too) young for such a trial but since we plan to breed him to Asha at the end of summer, we hurried a bit and he showed himself equal to the task.

Currently we are in the midst of performing health tests. He is HD A, ED 0 and spondylosis FREE. We are waiting on genetic tests and PHTVL/PHPV examination.

In two weeks Hel is taking our national breeding test and at the beginning of August the ZTP.

A couple of weeks ago Asha competed at 9. GRAND PRIX CROATIA, an all-breed CACIT competition.

While I expected better work from us in obedience and was deeply disappointed and angered by judging in protection, we still managed to achieve 2nd PLACE in IGP 3.

I am very proud of my Asha, who keeps showing a level of work nobody expects from a (mere) doberman. And also keeps beating more main-stream breeds.

Asha’s brother Alpha who primarily works as a search & rescue K9 also competed in IBGH 3 and placed 1st in his discipline.

Asha’s work finally came together in one competition. We won CACIT Croatia, with Best track – 97 – and Best protection – 90 . A little disappointed with obedience, she didn’t do stand out of motion, so we only got 81 points.

Still, this is our first real success, at an international, all-breed competition and we are bursting with pride and joy.

With this fantastic result we also qualified for the IDC World Championship 2025.

Time flies … two years have passed since our Adventurers came into the world. Some of our puppies went to their homes abroad and some stayed closer to home, but all are in working homes and living active lives.

Asha, Alpha & Athos are following in their mothers footsteps and preparing for search & rescue.

Aura is on her way to become a certified mantrailing dog and training FCI
Obedience.

Asti is training in Danish Police Ring.

Asia is preparing for Mondioring.

Arwen is training in IGP and Anil has already passed IGP 1 (at only 22 months old) and is training for further titles and competitions.

Many of them have also grown up to be excellent athletes, like their mother Saga.
Between them they are active in canicross, bikejoring & skijoring.

Not only are all the dogs showing great working abilities, they also have excellent health results. All xrayed puppies have certified HD A hips and ED 0 elbows and are free of spondylosis.

In short, our Adventurers have become everything we wished them to be. All the preparation that went into planing and the time & energy that was spent with the litter was well worth it.

Now, after two years, we are ready for a new adventure – the Bandits. The sire of our B litter will stay a secret for a little time yet. But rest assured, he is as amazing as Saga, in pedigree, working abilities and health.

 

 

We are nearing the end of our fifth week together. I am in love and I dreading the time that my awesome pups will be going to their new homes. But when they go, they will be prepared for anything that awaits them in the big big world outside our house and garden. 

We did Biosensor exercises from their third to sixteenth day. The program is concerned with early neurological stimulation in order to give the dog a superior advantage. It utilises five exercises which are designed to stimulate the neurological system in a way which doesn’t occur naturally during this early period of life. They impact the neurological system by kicking it into action earlier than would be normally expected, the result being an increased capacity that later will help to make the difference in its performance.

When the Adventurers ears opened, they first started to listening to classical music and later to different music and sound effects. Still in the whelping box, I added different materials and stuffed animals for them to crawl on. Now they live in a larger puppy pen, enriched with toys, balance cushions and different hanging objects. All with the purpose of habituating them to many different stimuli. In their outdoor play pen, they have many obstacles to climb on, materials to walk on and toys to “kill” 😀

They are an inquisitive, courageous, agile group of puppies. They love to explore anything new, are open to new people and don’t get nervous of loud, sudden sounds. Soon we will also see how they are with new animals, when we make an outing to a friends farm. 

Preparing my Adventurers for the outside world is the part of breeding I have been looking forward to most. It is an exciting and interesting journey we are taking together. Watching them grow and develop different characters is a beautiful thing to see. I am also busy assessing them to see, which pup will be suitable for what activity and which one will stay with me ❤

 

Sometimes I joke, that I prepare more thoroughly for a new puppy, than most people do for a baby 😉

Finally, after ten years of dreaming, waiting for the right dog, searching for the right male, learning everything I could about the birth and litter care, preparing all possible equipment and planning their socialisation, they have finally arrived. Our A litter. THE ADVENTURERS.

I named them Adventurers because they’re our (Saga’s and mine) biggest adventure and also because we have an extensive socialisation planed, which is going to be quite an adventure for them.

Five black & rust females and three black & rust males. Born on August 14th. Healthy and strong. There was a fourth male but sadly he was not quite developed enough and we needed to say good bye to him.

But the other eight are growing and developing incredibly fast. We are already through our Bio Sensor excercises. And onto environmental enrichment in the form of new materials, stuffed toys and classical music. 

The adventure continues and will get even more exciting as they grow up enough to start exploring outside. So please stay tuned 😉

 

We have had a busy couple of weeks…

Only 18 months after our very first protection training, we passed our IGP (IPO) 3 trial. We also managed to pass the first requirement to qualify for IDC WC 2020.

Again the weather was not on our side, as we had to work all three disciplines in scorching afternoon sun and all in three hours time. Another factor was that Saga was on the verge of starting her heat cycle, so our performance really was not what we were aiming for. Still we managed to achieve a “good” grade, with 83-81-89.

 

Just 6 days after IGP 3, we took a preliminary test for search & rescue tracking (RH-F V). This was not such a big deal, because it is only a condition to start the real s&r tracking work. But still the track was harder than in IPO as it ran over water and even some manure. The second discipline of the trial consists of some easy obedience and obstacles like a tunnel, a moving plank and traversing unpleasant material. The main problem was the heat again but we passed with an ok grade of 91-81 (out of 100-100).

 

These were our last two trials for a while. Hopefully summer will bring puppies and all the work & joy that comes with them. In October we plan to start training again, to qualify for the IDC WC and to pass the real s&r tracking tests (RH-F A & B).

But most importantly, hopefully we will be adding a new member to our pack … Saga’s little mini-me, Varangian Asha ❤

 

Another testing event is successfully behind us. This time it was IGP or IPO 2. It was quite a hard trial. We had to work all three disciplines in two hours and all in the hot spring sun.

Despite the circumstances, Saga did her best and showed very good work. There is still room for improvement… She moves too fast in tracking and in obedience she is a bit imprecise and slow in some positions. Protection is by far our best discipline and the points lost were mostly due to heat and tiredness. All in all I am very happy with our score, which was 90 – 91 – 91.

The focus now is IGP 3. If all goes as planned we will be taking the trial at the end of May. It is very soon, but we are mostly ready and the goal is to get her last title before the mating and PUPPIES ❤

If you are interested in Saga’s protection work on the trial, check out the following video…