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.

Do got pics....1000s....see if I can manage to get some up. My dog is a Natohaus dog.....his mutter was a Lee Root dog.....C liter. Mine is very wooly and more fine hair than others. But easily the quickest study and most even tempered dog ever. He will s rap at the drop of a hat....but not without reason. Killed my GF’s Chicken a year ago....trotted back to her...slowly sat down and waited for “OUT”. Walked him passed the chickens when I got home....gave him a stern No and quick nip (like on 2 out of 10). He chased once more and he got a No. Never touched another chicken. Last week.....he was eating with a chicken pecking out of his bowl at the same time. I would never expect that from him and it’s totally not reasonable. But it’s impressive. Tight circles in the DD world. Met some great people that I’ll have as friends for life. Won’t be my last Ugly Dog. Yours, Mine or Others.....I’ll wager a schittt ton of cash on those dogs on anything from dog fights to blood tracking to blowing the doors off a patch your lab “just worked” to never loosing a cripple.

Good luck on the HZP. I overdid the tracking training on my guy and needed to focus more on the duck search. He has forgiven me though and we have moved on. They really get bored I think if you are inexperienced like I was and over do something. If I looked at the test results correctly, Bane at 9 months and 27 days was the youngest dog last year to pass HZP. He didn't score very high but like I said, he had me for a trainer.

One thing I have seen repeatedly in the last 3 years is how consistent the litters are. I was 3rd pick for a male and I know one of the ones I didn't pick has turned into a superstar. I think the breed standards are so high that regardless of 1st or 5th pick, these pups are winners. Spend time with them and you will be richly rewarded. I am going to wait 2-3 more years and I'll add a second behind Bane. At that point, I'd hate to be a thing in a field we are hunting lol.

No kidding

Wanted to ask the posters.....did you select your pup? Or was the pup selected for you?

I was able to pick both times I bought pups. But there was no science to my choices. I picked them for their coloring

Yes. Rocket is one of Lee’s H litter from Vom Okanogan Flusstal Drahthaars

Joe from vom Mauntinhoum, my last breeder, has retired his kennel and the H littler sire was a vom Mauntinhoum dog.

I really enjoyed testing Sampson, my first drahthaar. The people were great and it really showed me the natural ability of the dog because I knew very little and he did well despite me. But five kids is five more than we had 14 years ago and makes running to Boise for testing more complex

Nimrod, You've been blessed with 5. My kids were both grown and gone when I did the dog training with Bane. It was way easier. I'd just hunt that dog of yours given those time constraints.

I was 3rd pick on males and I was looking for the most mellow one I could find. He's still hell on wheels in the field but has a great off switch and is safe to take to outside shopping malls and other high stress spots for dogs. My son takes him to his office in Denver when he watches him for me and he hangs out there all day with no issues. I'm sold on the breed 100%.

Not a trainer at all, just an on server and assistant to a friend.

The breed tests are a fantastic way to a great dog.
And my very limited experience has experienced a lot
of, "the dog knows how to hunt," fiascos.

I have even seen those play out at breed tests with dogs that
were "trained" by professionals, for people that "didn't have time" to do it.


Really humiliating, running across a 50 acre field screaming your dog's name,
as she goes through the fence row, into the next field.
After bragging about what the Pro. charged to train her.

We all looked at each other, embarrassed for him.

What is the latest on Rocket? Sure love those GWPs.

My younger GWP, Oli, at 1 1 /2 yrs old was taken on his first dove hunts this Sept. He did well retrieving. Took him a few days to realize that he would get his chance to bring one back if he sat nearby and watched instead of trotting all over the place. Asa, the 4 1/2 yr old helped show him the proper approach.

I need to work on that with Hank. He listens to the commands well enough, but getting him to stay put is not something I've done well in teaching him.