It’s been quite a while since we last posted, long enough that a few of our dog enthusiast friends expressed concern. We’re all fine, dogs included, but recent months have been rather full with work, caring for the dogs, training and preparing for the German hunting exams in March. It’s amazing how much preparation is [...]

Ajax is one year old today. This morning we went to the hunting grounds in Hennigsdorf for a training session and hunt with his breeder, Uwe Herrmann, and another hunter with a recently acquired 7 month old Deutsch Drahthaar. The last time we met up with Uwe, Ajax was having a bad day and was [...]

Ajax is obsessed with birds. Anything with wings, actually – even moths (he’ll point at those). Today he’s nine months old, and I’ve had him for a bit over two months. Every morning when I take him for a walk in the local forest, he rushes around pointing at blackbirds, pigeons, woodpeckers or anything else [...]

There is one behavior from our new pack member that drives both Monique and me more than a little nuts. It’s his tendency to steal things and bury them in the garden. It seems that anything which catches his eye is game:  Ari’s toys, our couch pillows, shoes, garden trowels and other tools are on [...]

Though time passes quickly, I do find it hard to believe that the last two weeks have not been two months. In part that is because we’ve been trying to squeeze two months’ translation work into those two weeks (typical), but a lot of it is the feeling that Ajax has been part of the [...]

Our new pack member has been with us for a week now, and he is already well-integrated and popular among the neighbors (except for the one whose pond his likes to swim in) and the local dogs. Although he and Ari still haven’t really settled some questions of rights, they get along well and play [...]

It’s the morning of the second day Ajax has been with us, and things just keep getting better with our new family member. For the most part, that is. He loves to “steal” Ari’s toys, but it’s a game that Ari generally enjoys, or did until Ajax tried to take over his place under my [...]

The first full day with Ajax was a busy one and a lot of fun. Before starting the work day, we went for a long walk in the forest with Ari to introduce Ajax to the new sights, sounds and smells. Watching the two of them together was a great pleasure; Ari lives for the [...]

After nearly six weeks of waiting and planning, I finally picked up our new Deutsch Drahthaar, Ajax vom Bernsteinsee, born October 4th, 2008. His breeder, Uwe Herrmann, is a local hunter and dog trainer with whom we’ll probably be working to prepare Aristos for his test in the fall (HZP). I’ll be working closely with [...]