NADKC News Articles

Road to DK

A new member's story of (his) introduction to Deutsch Kurzhaar–Part I

By John Kreuscher, Gothenburg, Nebraska

A tragic event happened on New Year's Eve. Dutch, my German Shorthair, was killed by a car. Our family buried him on New Year's Day in the last field that we hunted. Dutch was a great gun dog and family dog.

My Shorthair prior to Dutch was Blitz. They were half-brothers from the same kennel. Blitz was more than a great dog. He was a "life-time" dog and I knew it during his life. Their sire was a German import. The breeder was very proud of getting a German import and he stressed how this dog was nearly KS titled.

I told my wife, Kristi, that I FELT SCARED about GETTING a new puppy because my expectations WERE so high after MY EXPERIENCES WITH BOTH Blitz and Dutch. IN SPITE OF this fear, I started my puppy search. My first step was to outline my "Puppy Guidelines". These "Puppy Guidelines" were a basis for the puppy search.

Puppy Guidelines, 2006

• German Shorthair Pointer or Drahthaar

Gun Dog

• Upland hunting, mostly pheasant, mostly CRP (?) hunting

• Wild pheasant hunting and no preserve hunting

• Hunting desire and instincts, intelligence

• Close working, biddable (COOPERATIVE)

Family Dog

• House dog, NOT KENNELED

• Temperament for 2 year old and 9 year old boys

• Preferred characteristics

• Male (will be neutered)

• Large sized (65-75 lb. at full size)

• Dark liver and white or black or white, slight preference for b/w

• If Drahthaar, a "shorthair" look of coat/face furnishings

• 7 weeks old (range of 6-10 weeks)

• Whelped before June 1, prefer March-April

Other

• No waterfowl hunting

• No field trial dog breeding. No show dog breeding.

I compiled a list of breeders from ads in Gun Dog and Pointing Dog Journal. This list included Blitz and Dutch's breeder. Internet searches were next. I generally limited the search to 500 miles from Gothenburg. While reading web site information, I classified each breeder by my "Puppy Guidelines". The classifications were "Call List", "Maybe Call List" and "Don’t Call List". I printed information from any web site that fit my "Call List".

Any kennel with the references to "field trial" or "show dog" was put into the "Don’t Call List".

Over the years, I had come to respect the Drahthaar standard. I had previously talked with a respected Drahthaar breeder about 80 miles from Gothenburg. I basically knew that a German Wirehair wasn't a Deutsch Drahthaar. I wanted to consider a Drahthaar, but I limited my Drahthaar search to just the nearby breeder.

I strongly recommend that every breeder have a web site. The web site needs to be found in search engines on different key words. I don’t feel that a web site needs to be extensive, but the professional looking web sites with easy navigation were appreciated. A web site challenge is updating information, but this is also important. Web site advertising is probably more effective and cost-efficient than magazine advertising.

At this point in my puppy search, I was totally ignorant of the Deutsch Kurzhaar. However, I was about to start down my "Road to DK".

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I re-read all the information from my "Call List". I started to notice that a lot of these breeders were Kurzhaar (BREEDERS). Because Blitz and Dutch had a German import sire, I put any kennel with German imports on this list. I decided to search for the Deutsch Kurzhaar web site. I printed the list of NADKC kennels from the Midwest Region. This list had nine kennels and six of these had web sites. I had all six of these kennels on my "Call List". I read all the information on the NADKC web site. I mentally moved all of the NADKC kennels to the top of my calling list.

I was now ready to start making phone calls. The Puppy Guidelines chart was the outline during conversations with breeders.

I called Blitz and Dutch's breeder first. He had a litter planned for 2006. He had a new German import. I learned about all the German titles in the pedigree. I was interested in the upcoming litter, but told him that I wanted to call other kennels. I had felt that he had never shown any interest in Blitz and Dutch. More will be written about this in the next article. He spent a lot of time talking about color. His breedings have been designed to get black and white puppies. He gets a premium price with a black head and white body.

Next, I called another kennel that advertised German imports. This kennel was less than 200 miles from Gothenburg. He told me to call back in April when he had some litters. I took him off my priority list.

I called the nearby Drahthaar breeder next. I left a phone message and sent an e-mail.

It was now time to call the Deutsch Kurzhaar kennels. I looked for the closest one to Gothenburg. This was Dave Wyner at vom Herzenland in Casey, Iowa.

We talked for over an hour. I started to learn about DK. I liked everything that Dave told me. I was excited! We talked about VC Hooch vom Riverwoods and Eve vom Beaver Creeks. I had lots of questions, but Dave had questions for me. We talked about my goals for a gun dog and family dog. I told him about my upland hunting. I told Dave about Blitz and Dutch and why they were great hunting dogs.

Dave was passionate about Kurzhaars. He told me about the breed standards and testing. Dave stressed that he believes in the testing. All of this told me that I could trust what Dave was saying. Blitz and Dutch's breeder had stressed that German imports had very high test requirements.

I had been concerned about finding a good litter. I want the odds in my favor for getting a pup that meets my "Puppy Guidelines". I want a pup that will turn into another great gun dog and family dog. An average dog would be a disappointment.

Dave and I talked about color. I have a slight preference to black and white because Blitz and Dutch were black and white. Dave explained that he doesn’t take reservations on color. This could be a problem for some puppy buyers, but I knew that Blitz and Dutch would have looked great in any color.

When I hung up the phone from talking to Dave, I said to Kristi, "This is the guy I want to buy my next puppy from."

I realized that my conversation with Blitz and Dutch’s breeder was completely different than my conversation with Dave. Breed standard and testing were important to Dave and we discussed hunting. Litter color was important to the other breeder and there wasn’t much conversation about hunting.

I sent Dave an e-mail that evening. I thanked him for our conversation. It meant a lot to me because I was grieving Dutch’s loss. This was the start of many e-mail conversations.

Three days later, I sent Dave a deposit for a pup from the Hooch – Eve litter. I knew at this point that there was something special about Deutsch Kurzhaars. I also knew that I wanted to learn more...

The next issue will continue down the "Road to DK" when Dave Wyner, vom Herzenland Kennel, and Rick Hartle, vom Gänsehimmel Kennel, help educate the author.

Continue...

Road to DK, Part 2

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