Home Forums Birds & Dogs Hunting Dogs Rocket the Drahthaar

We picked up our new pup this weekend. We’re looking forward to the adventures ahead of us. Our first drahthaar passed last year at 13. This little guy is our old dog’s great great nephew.

Are you going to pursue the breed tests?
Helped a buddy as he worked through them, absolutely amazing what they expect.
And the dogs can deliver.

I’m not sure if I will test him. I tested my last through the first two performance test and the breed show. I like the testing because it sets goals and deadlines for my training schedule. The “minister of finance” isn’t sure it was worth the money and travel. I haven’t done the testing with breeding as my goal.

What a good looking pup! I have quite a few friends in Az that love this breed.

I currently have dogs #4 and 5. I got #4, a female named Asa, when old Abbey was 11. Abbey helped train Asa. Asa picked up many hunting traits earlier than usual as a result.

My wife encouraged me to get a second pup from the same pairing of sire and dam with a age difference of three years. #5, a male named Oli, is a great playmate for Asa and he is picking up her hunting skills. Couldn't be more happy.

Best of luck with your new pup!

Great looking pup.I'd do your best to train up thru the HZP. Seems to help them in so many ways.

Seeing you are not going to breed him, IMO don't bother with the breed tests, train as needed and take that pup hunting! I could care less what the breed tests require, it is what I require that counts. The dog will train himself to hunt with a tiny bit of guidance. All I ever work on is whoa in conjunction with pointing, come and some retrieving using pigeons. Then into the field!

If there is one item that is a must it is snake avoidance training if you are going to hunt the west. That and the rattlesnake vaccine.

I watched my younger male figure out honoring on his own last season. I never had to do a thing.

I was glad the breeder I bought mine from insisted I do the hunt tests. It seems the consistently high end performance for drahthaars has been developed by the strict breed requirements. Those are typically measured and tracked through hunt tests. So even though I have no intention of using my male for a stud dog, it still helps the breeders and thus the breed to participate in those tests.

Mine had a very successful fall hunting last year and started it at 10 months of age and finished at 1 year 2 months. I have very high expectations with him this fall. I think a lot of that had to do with the teamwork we developed while going through force fetch and HZP training. YMMV of course.

30338,
I will admit that any type of training has to help. Maybe I am just lazy or perhaps too busy to do all that extra work. Guess it depends on what you want to do and what makes you happy with your dog.

Wait till this year! You will be amazed at what the dog figures out in his second year!!!

Azshooter, With drahthaars a guy can probably just hunt them and be fine. I needed to do that force fetch thing to see what it was all about and it did impress me. If you have a chance, the snake avoidance training seems quite good. Going to do mine again next year as his prey instinct is so high that I am not sure 1 round will break him.

Have really high hopes for this fall for sure. Good luck down there this fall with yours too.

Nimrod1949,
Enjoy your pup as they grow up so quickly. Get lots of pictures. I wish you the best in making him a good hunter.


30338

You have a great time bird hunting this season!

I agree on snake avoidance training. AND the vaccine. My friend Web does the training in several western states. He even held a special clinic for 6 of us in Tucson area with colorado river toad avoidance training.

My one friend's female GWP has had the avoidance training several times and it just won't take. She goes after rattlers and has gotten nailed three times!

I'll take both dogs dove hunting next Saturday. We go to a stock tank deep in the desert. Water to keep the dogs cool and some fun water retrieves. While Gambels hunting around Tucson will be fair, Scaled quail hunting to the SE of Tucson may be better. I look forward to hunting my favorite bird, Mearns quail this coming December.

Great looking pup!! Good luck on the training.

Now THAT is a fine-looking puppy!

Congrats!

John

Kind of wanting a brown one for my next one. Nimrod's pup has some giant feet going on.

Thanks everyone! It is good to have a dog in the house again even if it comes with all a puppy brings.

This was our last Drahthaar “Sampson” passed at 13 in July of 2017


He was a little more hairy than Rocket Sampson is Rocket’s great-great uncle. I was successfully avoiding another dog until my 4 year old little girl wore me down. I started looking and found this planned breeding with Sampson’s blood line and it was a done deal.

There are three pups available still if anyone is interested PM me and I’ll pass along the breeder information. They’re 11 weeks old now.

30338 post up a picture of your dog!

This is Bane at around 13 months. I've been around a lot of drahthaars and I am yet to see one that I wouldn't take. Good luck Nimrod, you're in for great times.

I picked up a female 2 weeks ago. Had a regular wirehair after college. This one has the german blood line but since the guy didn't test both parents he registered them as wirehairs. She is 10 weeks old and is bringing back the toy ducks and nose always to the ground. Hopefully I don't fail at training her. This was few days before I picked her up. She has grown quite a bit

Wow, another great looking pup. Good luck Phoneman.

1 trick I learned for very young pups to assist with pointing. I was told to do this and it worked for me. I did not discover this on my own.

Get a bird launcher or simply a wire basket with a string attached. Buy 3 pigeons at a time for around $5 each. Hide a pigeon in some tall grass in the launcher. Get the 9-12 week old pup on a check cord and lead him/her downwind. They'll lock up on the scent. As soon as they start creeping in, release the bird and let the dog just watch it fly away. The first time expect a 10-20 second point. Wait about 15 minutes and repeat. This time they'll hold 45 seconds to a minute. Wait again and repeat process. The last time, they'll most likely point for 2 minutes or so.

You are teaching them they can't catch these wonderful smelling creatures. And at this young age they truly can't. It has worked just amazingly well on Bane and very happy I did it. I went through about a dozen pigeons doing this with him. Its just a good starting point I think. Good luck if you try it!

Mine caught two pigeons in training as a pup and then ran down two pen raised chukar at his VJP( delivered both to hand alive...but it didn’t score us any points). needless to say his pointing took a LOT of work to pass HZP. Find someone w homing pigeons so you’re not paying a per bird kill fee. LOTS. Of reps for free. Just my .02.

What kennel?

Jesse, A number of the dogs broke at HZP and caught birds. Mine fortunately was not one of them. He did HZP at 10 months and VJP at 16 months. Just worked out that way. He did well on the VJP. Despite his athleticism, in his mind he can't catch them and is holding steady for me. Homing pigeons would be an excellent idea. For the quicker young pups, the check cord can slow them down enough for the pigeons to escape when young.

I got my pup from WY, Vom Heuerhaus in Cheyenne. Not sure which kennel Nimrod is using. Where is your dog from? Got pics?

30338-
I bet you got a nice pup from Mark Heuer. IIRC, Nimrod got his pup from Lee Root in Omak, WA (Vom Okanogan-Flusstal Drahthaars). BTW, I just got my HZP test packet tonight from Lee and he told me that he still had one pup, a nice looking male left from the same litter as Nimrod's pup.