The International Working Teckel

Steve McGonigal very kindly sent me a copy of The International Working Teckel, which is is collection of dachshund hunting stories from around the world.

For those not boiled in the oil of dirt dogs, a "teckel" is a working dachshund, though of late the work seems to have expanded from underground work to blood tracking gut-shot deer, chasing wild boar, retrieving shot birds, bushing rabbits, and running various kinds of artificial trials.

I have to confess my bias. While I think teckels (or properly-sized dachshunds, if you prefer) make terrific dirt dogs, I am less convinced about the merits of these dogs as blood trackers, wild boar dogs, or retrievers of shot birds.  

This is not to say that the dogs cannot do this work, but that there are many breeds that can do this kind of above-ground work better than a dachshund or a teckel.  Dogs are specialized for a reason, and anyone breeding dogs to do too many things is very likely to end up like the lady who had one foot on the boat and another on the dock, and ended up in the water.

Having said that, let me say that I think teckels are terrific dirt dogs, in part because they tend to be  properly sized, they have good noses, they are less likely to be so hard that they wreck themselves and -- rather surprisingly -- they tend to have rather deep baritone voices.  

This last aspect, I think, has to do with their morphology.  Just as a baritone saxophone has a longer tube than an alto, so a dachshund's frame creates a naturally longer resonance chamber.  No science here -- just observation in the field and speculation.  Perhaps someone will produce some science supporting or refuting the notion, one way or another.    

The International Working Teckel is a truly international portrait of the working dachshund, with lot of full-color pictures and chapters from Germany, France, England, the United States, Hungary, Luxemburg, Ireland, Wales, and even Japan.

One thing given too short a shrift, I thought, is the difference between a teckel and the show dachshund found on the bench.  

What's the difference?   

The short answer is chest size. 

While American and British breeders of standard dachshunds have created heavy dogs with enormous chests and short benched legs, the working teckel has been protected by the German  penchant for precision and utility.

When it comes to teckel, the Germans are very precise about chest measurement, as they understand that for a dog to be a "gebrauchshund" (i.e. a "useful" hunting dog), it cannot be too big to fit into a tight den, and so the standard for a full-sized teckel calls for a dog with a chest size of just under 14 inches in circumference (35 cm).  

It is not an accident that this is the same chest size of a red fox -- the same chest size detailed for working terriers by Eddie Chapman in the UK, Ken James in the U.S. and by Barry Jones, founding Chairman of the International Working Terrier Federation.

Look for a red fox taxidermy mannikin with a chest size of over 14 inches -- I myself cannot find one.  

Of particular interest to me was the chapter on digging in France by Jean Masson. 

Badger and fox work is legal in France, but they have made the unique (so far as I know) decision to ban electronic locators, which means locating the dog underground is done "old school" by driving a 6-foot digging bar several feet into the ground and listening with an ear or cup pressed against the bar. 

The decision tree here is interesting as, in theory, a locator improves canine safety, but it also potentially means less digging and less risk to the dog.  

By removing the electronic locator from the equation, terrier work becomes slower and more risky which, in turn, is likely to discourage amateurs and generally reduce hunting pressure. 

Removing electronic locators from the equation also means that voiceless (i.e., the generally hard) dogs are pretty close to useless, while the value of a loud dog with a bit of brains and discretion (such as a working teckel) is increased.

All in all, it's an interesting decision, and one that clearly works.

The International Working Teckel is a great book about a very undervalued and underused little dirt dog.  Get the book, and consider getting a teckel!