Deutsch-Drahthaar Puppies
The Deutsch-Drahthaar is our passion. Would you like to obtain your Drahthaar pup from one of the most experienced and knowledgeable Verein Deutsch-Drahthaar breeders in the world? Breeders who have handled Deutsch-Drahthaar’s more than 100 times in the German (JGHV) testing system and who were literally among the very first on the continent to be approved as judges (VR’s) by the German Versatile Hunting Dog Association. Breeders who were known for competence, integrity, and fairness over a combined more than four decades of law enforcement service, which has carried through to a continent-wide reputation for integrity and recognition for their efforts to improve the genetic health of the breed, with an emphasis on a cheerful temperament. Breeders whose “vom Altmoor” kennel name you’ll see going back seven generations on DD pedigrees from other breeders across the country. Breeders of great gun dogs since 1970 and VDD breeders since 1984. Breeders who quite literally “wrote the book” on the raising, training, and testing of the DD, The Drahthaar Puppy Manual, a book that a great many breeders give out with each pup they sell (http://altmoor.com/catalog/BookVideo.html). Breeders who won’t use you to experiment with what they’re producing by putting together dogs that they know next to nothing about. A husband-wife team who have received numerous awards, including the silver and gold Hegewald pins from the VDD in Germany, and served the Breed Club nationally in a wide variety of positions, including Business Manager, Vice-Chairman, Director of Testing, Director of Judge Development, and HD Coordinator, and who continue to support the breed through their service on a chapter level, and as breed and performance judges.
If you would like to reserve a pup, or even just to request more information, send us an email - altmoor@comcast.net - with your name, complete mailing/physical address, phone number, and a couple of sentences about your dog and hunting background, as well as your family situation, including the breed, age and sex of dogs currently in the household. If you do not provide the required basic information, you will not receive a reply. (Please be sure to read our Costs and Guarantees and Buyer Prerequisites first.) You should also purchase a copy of our Drahthaar Puppy Manual – it will help you to understand what the VDD system is all about and how we prefer to see our pups raised and trained. Our primary prerequisites in accepting reservations are that we believe the pup will be going to a home where hunting is a very high priority and that it will receive a lifetime of great affection and care. We will not place pups with commercial hunting operations where they might spend their lives in a kennel run with little or no family contact. We do not want our pups going to homes that believe in “positive only” training. Also understand that we and VDD have very strict policies against registering pups with registries other than VDD. While always appreciated, we do not require that buyers agree to put their pup through the German testing system. (The years have taught us that we cannot force buyers to properly train for and properly handle their pups in the tests.)
After you're on our provisional/tentative reservation list, we'll notify you as soon as a breeding has taken place. Puppy price is $2,200. Pups must be picked up here and are subject to 6.625% sales tax. Because of COVID we no longer ship and we do not allow our buyers to use commercial dog transport. When you reply to us requesting to be put on the reservation list for that litter, we’ll let you know the pricing on that litter if different, and you can certainly back off at that point if you would like. If you would like to confirm your reservation we will then ask you to send us a photocopy of your hunting license and a $200 non-refundable reservation fee, by means of personal check. (Any portions of final balance payments made by credit card are subject to a 4% surcharge.) Males and females are the same price. We consider each parent, while very much a unique individual, to be equally valuable, and every pup we place to have equally terrific potential, regardless of litter pricing. (As a side note about price, on 12/4/20 we were talking to a local resident who related that on the coming weekend they were flying to Georgia and bringing home a Goldendoodle pup, the price of which was $2950 [plus their round-trip airfares]. Seems to us that DD's are quite the bargain considering all the hurdles one must go through before a DD can be used for breeding.)
Please also be aware that when the pups will be ready to go home can vary by a week or so, but you must be prepared to take possession of your pup when it is ready. We try our best to have the pups available as close to seven weeks of age as possible, however, quirks associated with all of the back and forths between the US and Germany can sometimes delay that a little bit. We typically cannot hold pups while you go on vacation, for example. In cases like that it would be best to switch to a different litter. As many breeders are doing these days, we determine which pup goes to which buyer, taking buyer preferences into account. We no longer use a pick order based on date of reservation. Except perhaps for the very last buyer in a litter, you will almost always have some options as to which pup you get. No one is expected to take a pup they don’t like. And, the fact is that, given our breeding experience, if you were to just close your eyes and grab one there’d be every possibility you’d be getting the “best” pup of the litter, if there is such a thing. We think that our breedings consistently produce pups that are uniform in potential, and much more depends on what you, the new owner, put into it.
If you think that driving to South Jersey is too much, we have a question for you. You would drive three-quarters of the way across the country for a special twelve-day hunt wouldn't you? Then why not drive that distance to pick up your new hunting buddy and best friend for the next twelve years? Give it some thought. If still up in the air, and you want to do the research BEFORE contacting us, and you can find a non-stop flight from PHL to an airport near you, we may consider doing an air shipment for an extra $260 for our crate, vet exam, and airport shuttle expenses. You might end up paying around $500 for shipping, so figure almost $800 extra. As far as we know only American Cargo and Alaska Airlines are accepting pet shipments. You must discuss your needs with an airline representative. For an eight week old puppy you can probably figure on a size 200 crate and crate and pup total shipping weight of just under thirty pounds.
As you research our litters, note that in our summaries for each parent, on the third line under each dog's name, are the highest scores received in a VDD/JGHV test in the categories of Nose (N), Field Search (S), Pointing (P), Duck Track (D), and Cooperation (C). With certain exceptions, the highest score that can be obtained in these categories is 11 in the breed tests (where "very good" is scored 9-11). We've linked to additional photos of each dog next to their names in the litter announcement.
Pups are born in a whelping box in our bedroom and monitored continuously during the first three days. At about two weeks, the box is often moved to the living room under the TV for noise conditioning. At 3½ to 4 weeks, the pups are moved to outside kennel runs with, for summer, a misting system and thermostatically controlled fans, and, for winter, thermostatically controlled box heaters and heated water pans. Shortly after being moved outside we play a noise-conditioning CD about 5 days per week. If you'd like to see our 2018 puppy kennel set-up, you can watch this eight-minute video: https://altmoor.smugmug.com/Altmoor-Puppy-Kennel-Runs/n-SJpgKd/.
You might be curious as to why we have several breedable bitches. The answer is a little long-winded, but here goes. We each are nuts hunters and require that we each have at least two dogs of our own of prime hunting age – let’s say one and a spare. Like most folks, we like dogs out of our breedings best. Over our three decades of involvement with VDD we’ve seen several folks who were once active breeders get into their later years and they look around and suddenly realize that they no longer have anything that can produce their next pup. So, they have to get their next pup from someone else, most likely from a breeding that has no relationship to what they were doing for years. To try to prevent that from happening to us, we try to always keep a pup from a favorite bitch before she reaches the 8-year-old VDD breeding retirement age. And, we realize that even though we’re keeping one, something as minor as a missing tooth can prevent it from being bred in our system. A lot of the possible disqualifiers aren’t noticed until the pup is 13 to 18 months old. So, we tend to also keep a “spare” in case the first is a washout. But, by the time that we’ve determined that the first one is a keeper, we’re so attached to the second that we have to keep her, too. Thus, out of Nancy’s Wendy, we have first Quinta IV, then Tessa IV. Out of Roger’s Talei we have Cara IV, then Macie IV, and now that they are retired, we've kept Cara's daughter Della. So, hopefully we’ll never be without a breeding dog out of our kennel, at the price of a whole lot of dog food and vet bills.
You also might be wondering what sort of person patronizes vom Altmoor. First off, we weed out those looking for a cute puppy by verifying that the potential buyer is a serious hunter, often requesting a copy of their hunting license for verification. When we’ve established that, we ask for background information, such as info about family situation, prior dog experience, and what they’re looking for – a gun dog, a potential breeding animal, etc. If all of that works out they go onto our “to be notified” list for future litters. When a breeding takes place, they’re asked for a deposit. Our K5 litter out of Tess and Cletus shows a good cross section of our buyers, who travelled here from GA, TN, OH, NC, MD, PA and NJ. (We no longer ship.) For one buyer (age 78), and these days mostly an upland hunter, this was his 6th DD from vom Altmoor, going back to 1989. Another was a veterinarian who has owned 3 or 4 DD’s from all around the country, going back to the‘80’s. One was a former VDD field judge who has owned DD’s for years, and this would make his 3rd vom Altmoor dog. One has owned GSP’s, now has a 2 year old DD, and is a VDD/GNA member. One used to hunt over his labs and now has two non-hunting pets. One is mostly an upland hunter who hasn’t owned a dog for years because of life’s demands, but now has time, and was convinced the DD was the way to go by his vet tech daughter. Another is a falconer whose wife is a veterinarian and has owned both GWP’s and an Altmoor DD. Most interestingly, after looking at many photos of the litter, and watching a number of videos, when asked at six weeks to tell us their first through third choices, each of the seven had a different first choice, and that’s the pup they took home. To us, that speaks highly of all the pups in the litter. Perhaps most interesting of all is that our “assignment” process asks folks to tell us their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd preferences of the pups based on the photos and videos we’ve sent out since birth. Usually this results in no one getting worse than their second favorite. In this case EVERY buyer got their first choice pup.
Finally, and absolutely least importantly, we’ll touch on “motherline.” This isn’t the place to take the time to explain it, but many breeders put great stock in the motherline of their dog. In our judgment, motherline is an anachronism - something that lost its importance many years ago. But, as a matter of trivia, all of our females are Grenzschutz-Löwenberg-Auenheim PP, and, to the best of our knowledge, we are the only breeders on this continent with females of that motherline, and starting with Della's L5 litter in 2022, the Altmoor kennel name was added to her motherline.
All of our girls are homozygous for furnishings/beard (F/F), meaning that even if they were to be bred to a beardless sire all the pups will have beards.
Details on our past breedings can be found in the “Litter Archive” section and you might also want to check our "Altmoor Outings" section.
If you are seriously interested in obtaining a vom Altmoor pup within the next year, please send us an email requesting to be on our “Notification List”. We will let you know the moment a breeding has taken place and you can decide then whether to reserve or wait. In order to get on “The List” You must let us know your name, complete address, phone, a little about yourself, your hunting and dog background, and if you have a specific time frame for getting your pup. We’ll get back to you within three days of getting your email. If it goes longer than that please check your spam folder or try again from a different address. Once on The List you’ll be among the first to be notified of our next breeding – well before we publish on this site or the VDD/GNA site.
Before sending us an email, please add both outdoors@altmoor.com and altmoor@comcast.net to your "trusted senders" or address book. We have been encountering many correspondents, especially those with gmail, who have not received our replies.
Following are the parent profiles for the O5 litter as an example. Under each parent's name are the highest scores that dog received in a VDD/JGHV test in the categories of Nose (N), Field Search (S), Pointing (P), Duck Track (D), and Cooperation (C). With certain exceptions, the highest score that can be obtained in these categories is 11 in the breed tests (where "very good" is scored 9-11). 12, given VERY rarely is Excellent.
We are now taking reservations for our O5 litter, P5, and Q5 litters. The moms for these litters are Tess, Della, and Quinn. We will not be having any additional litters for the balance of 2024. Although Quinn will be retired from breeding (not hunting!!!) in 2025, we do plan on breeding Tess and Della next year - males to be determined.
Our girls' pedigrees are a vom Altmoor history lesson, with the dogs on them going back 8 generations to our foundation bitches in 1984. To the best of our knowledge, no breeder in North America can claim that sort of background or in-depth personal knowledge of the individuals that led up to what they’re producing now. Tess and Quinn's motherline is Grenzschutz-Löwenberg-Auenheim-PP, again unique to vom Altmoor, and with Della's birth now Altmoor-Grenzchutz-Löwenberg-Auenheim-PP.
Updated 14 April 2024
Given the current state of inflation, and beginning with our P5 litter - if you're more than 4 hours away, we'll consider adjusting our normal selling price to help with travel expenses. Please feel free to ask us.
"O5
8th generation vom Altmoor
Of the 30 dogs on this litter's pedigree, 27 have ZR numbers, 26 are rated HD-Frei A, and all 30 are rated HD-Frei.
Whelped 5 Feb 2024
2 males, 4 females
- all reserved
Going home c. 25 March 2024
They will be six months old and more than ready to hunt in early August 2024
We had an eleventh hour drop-out on our O5 litter which had been sold out for ages, so we now have a beautiful female available - Odessa V vom Altmoor, whelped 5 February 2024. If you're looking for a DD pup with fantastic potential, dark eyes, and a no / low maintenance coat, here you go.
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Dam: Tessa IV vom Altmoor 233965 Brsch (ML: Grenzschutz-Löwenberg-Auenheim PP) DOB 07.04.2017 VJP 71, HZP 173 (Armbruster) & 173, OFA Prelim “Excellent” at 8 mo., HD-frei A, OCD frei, ZR #181/17 sg (11) / sg (10) [58 cm tall / 59 cm long] N-10; S-10; P-11; D-10; C-10 DNA tested: vWD Clear, homozygous for beard (will always produce pups with beards) Slideshow including pedigree, genetic, and radiograph documents: https://altmoor.smugmug.com/Tessa-IV-vom-Altmoor/n-wV3cCw/
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Sire: Webb IV vom Altmoor "Gus"
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All 30 dogs on the pedigree for these pups are HD-frei and 27 have ZR ratings. |
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Tessa IV vom Altmoor - While within our household Tess is officially “Nancy’s dog”, we each take her on a good many of our hunts. She’s proven herself not only within the German testing system, but also on grouse and woodcock in the Upper Peninsula and Maine. Staples are Jersey pheasant and woodcock when she’s not sitting calmly behind one of us in a kayak, waiting for the next wood duck to be dropped around the bend just ahead. To watch her work a field is a joy to behold and she simply never needs correction, always with one eye on you. When she works a moving pheasant, she’s absolutely tenacious: displaying excellent manners and concentration as she tracks and points, while always making sure of our location. Once pinned, the pheasant is pointed until we arrive. Deliveries are always to hand at a sit. She epitomizes the partnership between hunter and hunting dog.
At the 17th Invitational International Armbruster in Mankato Minnesota the top judges in the country judged Tess to be one of the four females they determined to be “Most Representative” of the breed, meaning that this is what VDD breeders should be trying to breed toward in terms of the whole package – personality, performance, and appearance. We’re extremely proud of that designation, which says it all. Tess is the product of eight generations of vom Altmoor breedings, and is the seventh consecutive generation to bear our kennel name. Her mother, maternal grandmother, and paternal grandmother were all "Nancy's dogs" as well.
While it sometimes seems that Tess is torn between being the world’s best couch potato or our favorite gun dog, she manages to struggle through being both. She is also a great favorite at the animal hospital where Nancy works. In addition to regular visits, she has also been used as a demonstration dog for continuing education at the clinic. One of her most endearing traits is that she never has to be lifted by any techs - exam table, x-rays, treatment grid - just point and she's airborne. It's also been very interesting to see her version of the DD's ability to discriminately evaluate situations - not only does she know when it's time to play and time to be serious, she also keenly assesses our fellow hunters in the field. If a hunter without a dog enters our hunt, she'll be friendly, go over, wag her tail to say hi, and hunt for us all if we say so. If hunters with dogs, or wayward dogs, encroach on our hunt, she is all business, and ignores the interlopers while hunting strictly for us. It is so nice to have dogs that are totally trustworthy in any situation - Tess has never met any human or dog that she did not like, whether we're at the animal hospital, at training days, or out hunting. She is the essence of versatility, not just in the field, but life in general. Tess is what we like to call a go-anywhere, do-anything dog.
Webb IV vom Altmoor "Gus" - Gus, in spite of what most of us would consider the severe handicap of being raised in New York City, has a very impressive record. He scored 67 in the PA VJP (2nd highest scoring dog of the day), after having scored a 54 a month earlier in NJ (where he earned the Sight Loud designation). At the International Armbruster Webb ranked #16 out of 35 of the best DD’s in the country with an 11 in Duck Search, and Breed Show scores of 9 in Conformation and 11 in Coat. His owner was very disappointed with his Armbruster HZP score of 171 so he tested again in Guss, IA on 9/27/19. Just as they pulled off in the spring, this time, just one week later, they got it right with a 189 and were the highest scoring of the 8 or 9 dogs tested that day, again getting an 11 in Field Search as he did in the PA VJP. He also earned 11’s in Nose, Pointing, Desire, and Duck Search in the IA HZP. Not bad for a dog raised in Manhattan with a first time gun dog handler. Gus is the third Altmoor DD to have been raised in New York City and yet handled by a novice handler to quite impressive results in the German testing system. We feel that speaks volumes about the kind of DD the Altmoor breeding program produces. And, if while looking at the photos you start to think that maybe his beard looks a little thin, that’s what happens when you hunt the hell out of a DD – his last photo sitting with the Hudson River in the background gives a better idea of how much beard he often has. And, also keep in mind that received a rating of 11 in Coat – the very top of the Very Good category. Here’s what his owner has to say about him:
Gus (registered name: Webb IV vom Altmoor) is a testament to what the VDD-GNA's deliberate breeding program can achieve. The balance between high drives and stable nerves is now a common feature observed uniformly across our Drahthaar litters. Perhaps where Gus most clearly stands out is in how he thrives in a broad array of contexts - he is an untirable hunting dog that lives in a city apartment. A dog that scores 11s in field search and water work, among other categories, is a maniacal hunter. But he's also highly biddable and cooperative in the dense grouse woods and a couch potato at home. His ability to switch from one mode (calm apartment dog) to the other (indefatigable hunting dog) is truly remarkable and a lot of the credit goes to the VDD breeding program and to the people that comprise it.
As a first time handler, I've made many mistakes in training Gus. I decided to run him through the VJP and HZP as a means to learn the basics of how to raise a hunting dog. Gus has proven to be a steadfast hunting partner and his masterful use of nose continues to astonish me. Despite my many missteps, his steady temperament yielded exceptional test scores and I'm delighted to offer his genetics in the service of continuing to improve the Drahthaar breed.
I've hunted with Gus in seven different states and two countries in search of wild furred and feathered game. He's retrieved ducks in Long Island, pointed grouse in the Catskill Mountains, and tracked hare in Quebec. In the city, not a week goes by where strangers don't gush at his good looks. He's a Drahthaar exemplar thriving in disparate worlds.
"P5" Litter vom Altmoor (our 120th DD litter)
VDD e.V. "Performance Breeding" and 8th generation vom Altmoor
Of the 30 dogs on this litter’s pedigree, 30 have ZR numbers, 25 are rated HD-Frei A, and all 30 are rated HD-Frei.
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Whelped 6 April 2024, 7 males, 2 females
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Dam: Della V vom Altmoor 242248 75103 Brsch (ML: Altmoor-Grenzschutz-Löwenberg-Auenheim- PP) DOB 03.01.2020 (3 Jan 2020) VJP 75, HZP 186 @ 8 mos., VGP II / 304 TF @ 20 mos. HD-frei, OCD-frei, ZR # 030/20 sg (10) / sg (10) [61cm tall / 62cm long] N-11; S-11; P-11; D-11; C-11 DNA tested - vWD, hemophilia B, EIC, and HUU clear, Beard (furnishings) F/F. Slideshow (including documents): https://altmoor.smugmug.com/Della/n-ttQzqk |
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Sire: Bourbon vom Flussdrehen |
Of the 30 dogs on this litter’s pedigree, 30 have ZR numbers, 25 are rated HD-Frei A, and all 30 are rated HD-Frei. |
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DELLA V VOM ALTMOOR - For years we had planned to keep a female out of Cara’s last litter, and Della V vom Altmoor was the only female in that litter, which hit the ground 1/3/20. Della had a somewhat disadvantaged youth in that we had litters of pups all during her formative months and couldn’t pay much attention to her until the last of those were moved to the outside kennel runs in mid-July. We then started getting serious with her and were astonished at what a natural she was. She quickly became Nancy's dog. Her field search was incredible, her pointing intense and frequent, her love of water and retrieving was astonishing, and we had never had a dog whose hold training went so quickly. Late in August, after having done a moderate amount of water work with her, we took Della to a pond she’d never seen before and, while she couldn’t watch, we placed 5 dummies by kayak in the grasses on the far side of the open water, each about five yards apart, and all no less than 97 yards from where we were to start her. She took a line straight across the pond and returned each one, if memory is correct, in under 3.5 minutes, maybe less.
Della was so exceptional that Nancy put her through HZP a year early, at just under 9 months of age. On a windless (think pointing difficulty) 75 degree day in South Jersey, on 9/25/20, she scored a 186 and tied for the second highest score of the five dogs tested that day. The high scoring dog, with a 189, was 23 months old (and had scored a 182 a week earlier), another was 21 months, and two were 19 months. One of the 19 month olds failed early in the test and withdrew from further testing. The other 19 month old was a German import handled by a Chapter Director of testing and scored a 182. The 21 month old scored a 186, like Della. So, the others were 10 to 14 months older – just think of how much that means in terms of training and hunting. She earned 11’s in Nose and Duck Search and 10’s in everything else. She bested the score of all of our then-current girls and came close to the 190 achieved by her grandmother Talei III and her sire Donner. (Of course, they were much older when tested.)
Della proved herself again at her VJP (3/13/21 – NJ), in her actual testing year, with a score of 75 points – the highest scoring of the ten dogs tested that weekend and achieving the second highest score of all the dogs in the Atlantic Chapter VJP’s, earning 11’s in Nose (her second 11 in Nose), Search, Pointing and Cooperation. She was judged a solid very good in tracking with 10 points. Nancy was disappointed in her tracking that day, as she had seen her do much longer and more difficult tracks. But with the bunnies, things can happen that are out of our control, and Della held herself together. There were so many rabbits bopping around that it would have been understandable if she had just broken off her tracking and starting searching, but she remained on task and even came back to restart her track after a sight-chase in one case. It was in the field that she really shined: with a hunting season (she hadn’t done any hunting prior to her HZP) and a few more months of maturity she was consistently performing beautiful searches, ranging appropriately to the cover conditions, with text-book quartering, and the pattern and persistence one would expect to see in a much older dog. On birds the conditions were just perfect and Nancy was kicking herself for not stopping to take some pictures. Once again, Della demonstrated natural ability performances that one would expect of an older dog – pointing at impressive distance with great intensity and relocating multiple times. But the thing we most appreciate is her cooperation. Whether she is searching intensely, pointing like a fanatic, or being leashed sooner than she is ready to quit (because she is never ready to quit!) she is always where you expect her to be, always ready to come back with tail wags and kisses whether she’s hunting or in a testing situation. Following the VJP she was evaluated for loudness on hare track and was deemed to be Sight Loud (giving tongue while sight chasing) and received a Form 23b.
Della had already had DNA testing done (Neogen Barcode 101819051120) and was found to be FF (homozygous for Furnishings [beard and eyebrows]), therefore always producing bearded pups no matter the sire’s status. That same testing found her to be clear of CHB, vWD, EIC, and HUU. On 25 March 2021 Della was rated HD-frei A and OCD clear by the VDD e.V. orthopedic evaluation center.
On 4/17/21 Roger handled Della in the Belding, MI Breed Show at just 15 ½ months of age (by far the youngest dog in the Show.) She was Certified for Breeding and at the same time earning a recommended for breeding evaluation, scoring 10 in Conformation and 10 in Coat, where 10 is middle Very Good (9-11). We figure with another year of age she might go 11/11, but we’re always pleased with anything in the Very Good range. They measured her height as 61 and length as 62. (We get 63/65.) This was her first serious road trip with a travel time of about 14 hours each way and she handled it like a trooper. Roger let her ride on the front seat next to him on the ride home (driving straight through and arriving at 1:30 AM) and it was comical to watch her spend about 70% of the time standing with her nose pressed against the car’s air vent, apparently trying to interpret everything she could smell.
Like each of the girls we’ve kept before her, Della has been even more of a natural and required less training than those that preceded her. She can be described succinctly – everybody’s buddy, and EASY.
Della had just one other sibling – Dorn (aka “Dash”). As confirmation of the quality of their breeding we should mention that on 9/10 & 11/21 Dorn was part of an 11 dog HZP. Three of those failed. The water conditions were reported as having very difficult cover. On Saturday another Altmoor dog, Elyse V vom Altmoor (aka “Moxie”) scored 11 in Duck Search, and on Sunday Dorn was awarded a 12. The score of other dogs in the test ranged from 7 to 9. Three dogs including Elyse received 10’s in blind retrieve, Dorn scored a 9, the other scores ranged from 3 - 8. Many of the dogs had very nice scores in the field but fell short in the water work. Dorn, with a 184, was the high scoring dog of the weekend.
On 9/18-19/21, in a field of eight dogs with two judging teams for a VGP (Master Utility Test) Nancy handled Della V to a score of 304, Prize II. She received a 3 for Blood Track and Fox Box, with perfect scores of 4 in all other categories. (The Blood Track 3 was what prevented her from receiving a Prize I, in spite of her very high total score.) At 20.5 months of age, Della was the youngest in the test, with one of the others (which failed) as much as five years old. This was actually Della’s season to do the HZP (Fall Breed Test), but Nancy put her through that last year – a year early. VGP dogs are typically two to four years old.
For those not familiar with it, VGP is a grueling two day test where the dog and handler as a team are scored in over two dozen categories. (The earlier tests, VJP and HZP are intended to primarily evaluate only the dog.) To mention a few of the VGP phases, there is steady to wing and shot, a 300 yard retrieve of an 8 lb. or heavier fox or coon (as well as retrieving it over a barricade at least 28” high), a 400 meter blood track, an independent search (no duck scent present) of a difficult piece of water, the usual elements of HZP such as Field Search and Pointing, scent trail tracking of a duck across water, as well as multiple obedience items unique to VGP. Only the best of the best pass this test.
But best of all are the hunts and memories Della has given us. During a rabbit hunt in January of '21, Roger made an incredible shot on a cottontail, and we got to watch Della work out that track, then retrieve to hand. Her concentration, absolute determination to stick with her task, and her cooperation even while doing such a passionate and exciting job was a thrill for both of us. The following fall is when she got out with us in earnest. During upland hunting, whether alone or with another dog, for Nancy or Roger or both of us, she showed her adaptabilty to any situation, her incredible nose and steadiness, coupled with her die-hard retrieving ethic. When you send her, you know she is coming back with your game. This was cemented into our memories with our early season duck hunts on tidal rivers. That week was one of the best we've had. To see Della bull her way into what looked to be impenetrable phragmites to retrieve both ducks of a double that Nancy took is one of those lifetime memories. And the bonus is that as Della matures she is becoming quite an eye-catcher - her photos don't do her justice. She doesn't need to be pretty with the way she hunts and handles, but it's nice just the same.
BOURBON VOM FLUSSDREHEN - Nancy gets around quite a bit in the VDD world. In the fall of 2022 she was a Senior Judge for the Breed Show at the International Armbruster in Utah. This event evaluated about sixty of the best DD’s in the country for that breed year. Nancy judged about half of them. Then, in the spring of 2023 she judged one Breed Show in Iowa and another in Oklahoma, and was Test Director for the NJ VJP’s, and attended the VDD Atlantic Chapter Annual Meeting and Breed Show. As you might expect she’s always keeping her eyes open for prospective studs to use in the vom Altmoor breeding program. At the end of that season she remarked that, all factors considered (temperament, conformation, coat, pedigree, and test scores), Bourbon was the nicest male she’d seen in the prior six months, and that we should consider using him to sire a litter. Nancy also handled a dog of ours in a field test where Bourbon’s mother, Dixie, also ran, and she was quite impressed with Dixie (who got straight 11's in VJP).
Bourbon is from his breeder’s second litter. His owner is the brother of the breeder, and he also owns a male from the his brother’s first litter. The DD brothers and the family live in the Cumberland Valley of PA. The owner and his wife have a 14 year old daughter and 10 year old son, and Bourbon gets along with all the kids’ friends and the other dogs he runs into in the field and at events. He has a wonderful temperament. His test scores speak for themselves.
When we asked his owner to tell us about his hunting experiences we got this reply:
“Bourbon has had quite the hunting experience, covering a variety of terrains and game: whether it's ruffed grouse and woodcock in the Maine Northwoods for the last 3 seasons, duck retrieves in the saltwater of the Eastern Shore of Virginia, cottontails and sharptails in the northwest corner of Nebraska, or bird hunts at Orvis Hill Country. While working at Orvis Hill Country, Bourbon takes part in European-style driven hunts and tower shoots on top of upland hunts. Bourbon took second place in the VDD Atlantic Chapter Group North America 2023 Chukar Challenge. Bourbon is a versatile hunting companion. He not only excels in hunting but also cherishes time with his family. The combination of outdoor activities like Pennsylvania gameland pheasants, an occasional rabbit hunt, and cozy moments create a special bond between Bourbon and his family.”
"Q5" Litter vom Altmoor (our 121st DD litter)
8th generation vom Altmoor
Of the 30 dogs on this litter's pedigree, 27 have ZR numbers, 26 are rated HD-Frei A, and all 30 are rated HD-Frei.
Expected 16 May 2024
Going home c. 4 July 2024; more than ready to hunt with you by mid-November 2024
Since Tess and Quinn are sisters from different litters, this breeding is essentially the same as our O5 litter.
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Dam: Quinta IV vom Altmoor 232350 Brsch (ML: Grenzschutz-Löwenberg-Auenheim PP) DOB 9/3/16 VJP 68; HZP 175; HD-frei A; OCD-frei; ZR # 336/16; Conformation sg (10)/Coat sg ( 9); 60 cm tall / 61 cm long N-11 ; S-10 ; P-9 ; D-11 ; C-10 DNA tested clear for vWD; CHB; homozygous beard – see slide show for reports, pedigree, etc.: https://altmoor.smugmug.com/Quinta-IV/n-XRZnrj/ |
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Sire: Webb IV vom Altmoor "Gus" 237918 Brsch. (ML: Grenzschutz-Löwenberg-Auenheim PP) DOB 17.05.2018 VJP 54 & 67, HZP 171 (Armbruster); 2nd HZP 189, HD-frei A, OCD-frei, ZR# 221/18 sg (9) / sg (11) [64 cm tall / 65 cm long] N-11; S-11; P-11; D-11; C-10 DNA tested - vWD, hemophilia B, and EIC clear, furnishings F/f Slideshow including pedigree, genetic, and radiograph documents: https://altmoor.smugmug.com/Webb-IV/n-J6gKrj/i-Fp55stK/A |
All 30 dogs on pedigree for these pups are HD-frei and 29 have ZR ratings. |
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Quinta IV vom Altmoor, whom we call Quinn, like her younger sister Tessa IV (Tess), can be best described with just one word – EASY. They both live to please, to train with you, be with you, hunt FOR YOU, and do things exactly the way you want them done. They’re tough enough that they can handle any degree of correction you’d like, but no matter how severe they bounce right back, and we can’t remember needing to do any significant correction with either of them.
If you’re into test scores, as you look at Quinn’s your reaction will likely be something like “pretty decent”. But, there’s an aspect that you likely haven’t noticed. Quinn was out of one of two North American litters tested in 2017 that were born in September of 2016. Now, in GNA we have a great many breeders who intentionally aim for litters born in October, November, or December, because those pups will have to go through the Breed Tests not the next year, but the year after that – in other words they will be amongst the oldest tested. (We’re not sure what those breeders do for a gun dog during the hunting season while their bitch has pups, but we all have our priorities.) Many will be around two years old at the time of HZP. While we have had great success with litters born as late as the third week of August, a September litter is something we would normally try to avoid – pups that young won’t even have been hunted before their VJP and HZP. But, Quinn’s mother Wendy had had a uterine infection and the vets all said she had to be bred at her next heat, or spayed. So, we bred her and had a terrific litter of eight puppies. (The following heat we bred her again to Ely for the T4 in which there were 9 pups, and we kept Tess, just in case Quinn wasn’t up to our standards.) As has happened to us many times before when we kept a “spare” (as with Mady and Macie, as a recent example), both Quinn and Tess grew up to be EXACTLY what we want.
Soooo, Quinn, at 7.5 months old, and by far the youngest evaluated in VJP in the mid-Atlantic region, pulled down a very respectable 68. Then came the HZP that September, when she was just over a year old and some other entrants were closer to two years old. On that HZP weekend in NJ (9/23/2017) eight dogs were tested, just four passed, and Quinn had the highest score of the weekend, 5 points higher than the second place dog. One of the dogs had been through HZP before, and Quinn bested that score by 17 points. Like we said – EASY! (We’d hate to admit how little time we spent training both Quinn and Tess.)
As with all our dogs, Quinn and Tess are wonderfully laid-back couch potatoes when in the house, incredible waterfowl retrievers who will follow a duck’s swim scent trail many hundred yards across the water, are calm and quiet in the blind or boat, relentless yet superbly cooperative and self-adjusting in their field search, and unbelievably staunch pointers of wild birds (where no man-scent is around). (Anyone who knows us will tell you that we do zero training in pointing/staunchness before the breed tests – what you see is what they came with naturally. For us, steadiness training is a pre-VGP thing only.)
Webb IV vom Altmoor "Gus" - Gus, in spite of what most of us would consider the severe handicap of being raised in New York City, has a very impressive record. He scored 67 in the PA VJP (2nd highest scoring dog of the day), after having scored a 54 a month earlier in NJ (where he earned the Sight Loud designation). At the International Armbruster Webb ranked #16 out of 35 of the best DD’s in the country with an 11 in Duck Search, and Breed Show scores of 9 in Conformation and 11 in Coat. His owner was very disappointed with his Armbruster HZP score of 171 so he tested again in Guss, IA on 9/27/19. Just as they pulled off in the spring, this time, just one week later, they got it right with a 189 and were the highest scoring of the 8 or 9 dogs tested that day, again getting an 11 in Field Search as he did in the PA VJP. He also earned 11’s in Nose, Pointing, Desire, and Duck Search in the IA HZP. Not bad for a dog raised in Manhattan with a first time gun dog handler. Gus is the third Altmoor DD to have been raised in New York City and yet handled by a novice handler to quite impressive results in the German testing system. We feel that speaks volumes about the kind of DD the Altmoor breeding program produces. And, if while looking at the photos you start to think that maybe his beard looks a little thin, that’s what happens when you hunt the hell out of a DD – his last photo sitting with the Hudson River in the background gives a better idea of how much beard he often has. And, also keep in mind that received a rating of 11 in Coat – the very top of the Very Good category. Here’s what his owner has to say about him:
Gus (registered name: Webb IV vom Altmoor) is a testament to what the VDD-GNA's deliberate breeding program can achieve. The balance between high drives and stable nerves is now a common feature observed uniformly across our Drahthaar litters. Perhaps where Gus most clearly stands out is in how he thrives in a broad array of contexts - he is an untirable hunting dog that lives in a city apartment. A dog that scores 11s in field search and water work, among other categories, is a maniacal hunter. But he's also highly biddable and cooperative in the dense grouse woods and a couch potato at home. His ability to switch from one mode (calm apartment dog) to the other (indefatigable hunting dog) is truly remarkable and a lot of the credit goes to the VDD breeding program and to the people that comprise it.
As a first time handler, I've made many mistakes in training Gus. I decided to run him through the VJP and HZP as a means to learn the basics of how to raise a hunting dog. Gus has proven to be a steadfast hunting partner and his masterful use of nose continues to astonish me. Despite my many missteps, his steady temperament yielded exceptional test scores and I'm delighted to offer his genetics in the service of continuing to improve the Drahthaar breed.
I've hunted with Gus in seven different states and two countries in search of wild furred and feathered game. He's retrieved ducks in Long Island, pointed grouse in the Catskill Mountains, and tracked hare in Quebec. In the city, not a week goes by where strangers don't gush at his good looks. He's a Drahthaar exemplar thriving in disparate worlds.