The birthday duck

The birthday boy

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 totally unfocused in his search and was generally a twit. Since mastering the fetch, however, he has been a transformed dog, highly motivated for just about everything. He began retrieving dummies and game from practice trails only recently, but already works reliably over distances of several hundred meters. He is extremely motivated in his searching and simply does not give up, even with distractions like other dogs running free. He searches for birds and boars in thick reeds until his eyes are scratched bloody, and he never slows down. He enters water to search immediately on command. And today he had his first experiences with flushing deer and pheasant and retrieving a shot duck from a canal. His birthday drake.

After the shot dropped the drake in the middle of the canal, I gave Ajax the German command to retrieve it (“Apport!”). The bank was heavily overgrown, so it took him a little while to make his way to the water, but he plunged in and started swimming, not quite sure what it was all about I think, because he had not seen the duck fall. When he sighted it, he began to yip with excitement and swam straight toward it, took it in a perfect grip in his mouth and brought it straight to me on the shore. A flawless performance that would have passed the fall hunting test he’ll take around this time next year.

On a few occasions in the five months I’ve had him, I’ve wondered about whether Ajax was very bright or whether other attributes were all they should be. However, it’s become very clear that he has superb potential as a hunter. And he has also proven to be a wonderful member of the family, and he is very gentle and patient with the puppy, Barack. I think he may make a good member of Monique’s therapy team after she gets her qualification next year.