BOULDER BROOK Deutscher Wachtelhund Tests

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TREVOR VOM HOPFENHOF

BOULDER BROOK KENNEL

BOX 1 MARKHAM, VA 22643
email: jwwiii@hotmail.com

WORLD FAMOUS HUNTING SPANIELS

Deutscher Wachtelhund (DW)

GERMAN QUAIL SPANIEL; CHIEN D’OYSEL ALLEMAND

Rosie, Ragie, Klemens, Ingrid, Joseph

ZWINGER VOM HOPFENHOF

Hessen Germany

SR Wilde Vom Sching First Pass

United Kennel Club Started Hunting Retriever Test

11 September 2004

DW pup Cooks Wicky, Schimmel Color

Ingrid shows red (rehrot)

5 months old DW pup Agathe

Breeder Hartmut Messing

ZWINGER VOM SCHING

Leißnitz, Brandenburg, Germany

Little Whelps at Nora's Lunch Counter Born January 28, 2003

Wilde Vom Sching May 2, 2003

WILDE VOM SCHING

21 September 2004

WILDE

21 September 2004

Eignungsprüfung (EP) – GERMAN FITNESS TEST

August 19, 2002. There I was on my way to Frankfurt, Germany at 35,000 feet. I had heard about an interesting hunting spaniel in Germany and thought it would be fun to see one in person. The ideal opportunity came when I learned of a hunting test for the dogs. There are several tests which measure different skills of a hunting dog. The Jugendprufünd (JP) must be passed prior to the Eignungsprufünd (EP, and the senior test Gebrauchsprufünd (GP).

In Germany hunting dogs play a very important role for hunters. There are many rules and standards associated with hunting in Germany. As one German told me " We have regulations for everything." Basically you must have a hunting dog associated with every hunting area. The dog must be capable of finding all game shot at and wounded. One must hunt for the game until it is found. Even if this search takes several days the search must continue. The dog is used for both feathered and furred game. There are red deer, wild boars, hares, rabbits, foxes, and ducks, quail, and the frequently hunted woodcock. The dog must be capable of helping with the hunting or recovery of these game.

LINED UP TO DRIVE THE HARES

Thus passing the EP has great importance. The hunter must have a certified dog, or he does not hunt, and perhaps not breed!! I will explain the exception EPB later. Further the dog must pass this test before it is approved for breeding. In addition to proof of hunting skills, the dog must be certified for its degree of hip dysplasia before breeding.

Upon learning of my interest in seeing the test, Ingrid and Joseph Wenz of renown kennel Zwinger vom Hopfenhof in Hessen invited me to stay with them. Ingrid volunteered to translate and explain the EP test to me.

Ingrid told me there were 4 dogs entered in the test for Saturday and Sunday. I thought it was going to be a short day based on my experience with American tests where 20 to 30 dogs are tested in a day. I was very wrong.

Their approach is to have every dog get a "clean" test area. You test a dog and move over 100 yards in the field. Then you test another dog and move to a new area. This is in contrast to the American style where each dog gets the same exact set-up and field area. Of course as more dogs take an American test, the fields gets more dog smells, excrement, and animal smells from the dropped and dragged ducks. Male dogs are particularly susceptible to smells left by the females. The German style requires more area per dog but if there are only a few dogs, this is not a large field. As we shall see, a fresh field is very important for many of the tests to be fair to each dog.

DUCK TRAIL - This test was set up by dragging a duck 150 meters with 2 "corners in the trail. The dog must find the duck and retrieve. The handler is allowed limited commands to the dog.

BLIND RETRIEVE in water - This was set in a pond with tall reeds. The duck was tossed in the reeds. The dog was sent into the reeds and retrieved the duck. It was about a 20 meters retrieve.

RABBIT TRAIL- The rabbit was dragged through the woods about 100 meters. I could not see if they made corners in the trail. The rabbit was retrieved to the handler. With a hand held radio we knew if the dog found the rabbit and was returning it or eating it. Some of the dogs were not fed since Wednesday before the test to make them more eager to find the rabbit. I only saw one rabbit snacked on.

DEER/BOAR Blood Trail - The trail was 2 hours old and was set up using a liter of blood. There were 2 corners in the 300 meter trail. The handler walked behind the dog with a lead and spotted blood marks. If the dog lost the trail, you could return to the last blood mark. If the dog found the end of the trail, a bugler played a tune on a hunting horn to denote the successful hunt.

(The GP test uses 1000 meter 20 hour old trails and at times 40 hour trails. BUT only a liter of blood is used as in the EP. That is a thin vague trail !!!)

FOREST HUNT - In this test, the dogs are checked for their ability to search and hunt (stoeber) for game. I heard one dog barking on a hot trail, and saw one routed rehrwilde deer. There was also a boar and baby pig, but I missed seeing it. This is considered one of the primary tasks of the dog.

TRACKING -HARE HUNT - I learned that a hare is not a rabbit. It is one huge “rabbit” weighing 6 to 8 pounds. They are more like a western jackrabbit with very long ears. We lined up and walked across plowed fields for hours. My job was to keep clapping my hands and yell "hey rabbit". I got a lot of comments that German hares would not understand my English, but I spooked a couple rabbits. I should yell "hey hare" instead of "rabbit." The dog is tested on a 200 meters long hare trail or an optional 500 meters long rabbit trail.

When a hare is jumped and runs, it keeps running and running and running. It would run through 3 or 4 fields (maybe 400 meters) until you could not see it. A hare runs long and far, and thus makes a good trailing test. A rabbit runs in a small circle. A dog would be started at the jump point to follow the trail. These hares were fast animals. Even if a dog started close to the hare, the hare would create a large lead very quickly.

Now came the hard part for the judges. They had to evaluate the dog trailing the hare and see if the dog was on trail. Yep, the judge was required to chase after the hare and the dog. A judge had to be in shape for this exercise. There was also a chase car with a judge in it who would also recover the dog if it went too far and too long.

Each of the 4 dogs was to get a chance at trailing 3 hares for evaluation. Then it started raining. We slogged through the mud and the judges ran through the mud. Since I had experienced the hare hunt, I was ready to call it a (rainy) day about 3 P.M. Each of these tasks when successfully completed becomes part of the dog's title similar to our use of SHR for started hunting retriever, etc.

It was a great experience for the weekend and certainly exciting to see these great hunting dogs work.

Now I had to determine if a Boykin spaniel is up to the task. I have not finished the tests yet, as I lack some of the necessities. But here is what has been done to date.

For the feathered game tests, I dragged a duck and a pheasant on 2 different trails in the pasture next to my kennel. I made a couple corners through the cow pies and avoided dragging the game through these natural obstacles. Each trail was about 150 meters long. I went back to the kennel and brought Brille out. I pointed the trail start to her on the duck and later on the pheasant. She followed the trail, corners and all, found the duck and returned it. Then she did the pheasant trail similarly, and brought the pheasant back. Both were clean with no cow pies!

This afternoon, as I returned from the post office, I noticed the local wild turkey flock in the front pasture. They were near the fence by the road. I parked in the road and got my oldest Boykin Spaniel Rosie out. She walked into the field. On smelling the wild turkey scent she ran out, crossed the creek 50 meters away, and took off after the turkeys. The turkeys realized they were in a race and started running faster and faster. Rosie started barking loudly at the trail as she got closer. (Barking on the trail is considered a good trait so you know where the dog and game is) Such barking loudly earns Rosie the "\". After 200 meters of running the turkeys finally went into flight in 2 groups. Rosie barked and followed the main group another 100 meters then she returned to the take off-point. She ran up to a tree, barked loudly and moved a turkey back into the woods where she also disappeared. After 20 minutes she finally emerged 400 meters away. I blew my recall whistle and she returned to me.

Two weeks ago, just before I went to Germany, Rosie trapped a ground hog near my quail pens and ran around it in circles barking. I went out to see what the noise and spotted the ground hog. Eventually she got the ground hog and carried it off. She hid in the field for 3 days with her hog -just out of sight.

Conquering a fur bearing varmint such as fox, groundhog, or a opposum, would earn Rosie the "/", as would the seed eating rats she chases and digs for near the bird pens. A visiting jack russel taught my dogs this last habit.

Now to find a big hare and a wild boar to complete the comparison.

This is based on my memory and understanding of these tests. If you have questions or need clarification, please ask Ingrid. Her English is good and understandable. She has an excellent knowledge of dogs, and the biggest private dog breeding and hunting library, I have seen. She also loves talking dogs and kept me up late at night explaining genetics and telling dog stories.

MORE ON KENNEL WAHRTHO – WILDE's grandfather and Uncle

Verein für Deutsche Wachtelhunde – German Registry Organization

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INGRID WENZ:

WEB ZWINGER VOM HOPFENHOF (ENGLISH TRANSLATED)

QUESTIONS ?? CONTACT BILL - EMAIL: jwwiii@HOTMAIL.COM

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