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 [...]

I took Ari for a run and some retrieving practice in the woods this evening when it was just starting to get dark. I hid 7 “Verweiserdosen” (little green plastic jars with snap-on lids that have little holes in them to release the scent of the goodies inside) for Ari to find, as well as a [...]

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 [...]

Since our Wire-haired Vizsla, Quodians Aristos, joined the family a bit over a year ago, I’ve developed a growing interest in hunting dogs and hunting which has only been reinforced by the Deutsch Drahthaar, Ajax, who joined our household at the end of April.
In August I’ll start studying for my German hunting license. This isn’t [...]

Last Saturday I was invited to take Ajax and go to a local Saugatter (aka Schwarzwildgatter, a wild boar enclosure) in Zehdenick to watch the dogs train. There are basically two types of Saugatter – a large enclosed area for hunting or raising significant numbers of animals and smaller facilities of a few acres with [...]

Since our visit to Denmark I’ve been interested in clicker training for the dogs and considered trying it. Wagga’s owner, Mona Lisa Jehg, uses it and gave us a very interesting demonstration of its principles.  She also showed us the book by Helen Philips (Clicker Gundog) which eventually led me to Positive Gun Dogs: Clicker [...]

Wagga’s appetite is up and down, as one would expect during pregnancy, so we have sent her a small package of goodies to tempt her a bit.  But she is happy, healthy, and working hard at hunting, as shown in this picture of one of the bucks she tracked down this weekend!
Ari is working hard [...]

Today Monique made an interesting discovery in the German Vizsla forums. There was a link to a page discussing a recent judgment from the Gera Administrative Court in Germany in the case of Hubertus Crone versus the Saale-Orla district of Thuringia.
The plaintiff is a professional hunter frequently involved with the search for wounded game using [...]