It was in Poland, her birthplace, where Jolanta saw her first dachshund and fell in love with the breed. She got Zuzia, her first smooth standard in 1977 and has never been deprived of company of dachshunds since then.

She has had experience with all three-coat varieties of standard dachshunds. She put four bench championships on her dogs while she lived in Canada. In 1991 Jolanta started to participate in American field trials for dachshunds and in the same year she bred her first litter of wires under the kennel name Zuzelek. After her move to the States in 1994, John and Jolanta combined their kennels and breeding programs and sine then together they have bred twenty four litters, based on European working bloodlines.

Jolanta is an AKC dachshund field trial judge, an NATC field judge, a United Blood Trackers judge, a Deer Search blood tracking judge, DSI and certified handler. Jolanta's goal is to breed intelligent and friendly dachshunds that can be effective trackers of wounded game. She appreciates the importance of functional conformation and has a passion for field trialing dachshunds on rabbits.

Since '93 Jolanta has been an active member of Deer Search Inc. and currently is a DSI webmaster. She is a co-founder of North American Teckel Club (NATC) and United Blood Trackers (UBT). Currently she is the UBT Membership Director and treasurer and newsletter editor for New Scotland Beagle Club.

Jolanta holds a Ph.D. in plant genetics and breeding and she worked for Biotechnica Canada and Pioneer Hi-Bred International as a research scientist breeding canola. These days she is focused on dachshund breeding and promotion of the breed for hunting and blood tracking. She is a publisher of John's book Tracking Dogs for Finding Wounded Deer.

Jolanta can be reached at jola@born-to-track.com or 518-872-1779.