The 1st shorthair to come into my life, and who's responsible for my love of shorthairs was Jack. I was five and that was over 50 years ago. A solid liver, who was always happy to see me. He loved to fetch, and when I got older he would retrieve a stick over a deer fence. I would throw the stick over the fence and Jack would make a big run and get his front feet over the fence and then work his way over. Grab the stick, and back over the fence, and to my hand. He loved the game, and I love it too. He always seemed to do it as fast as he could. I remember when I was in 5th grade Dad had shoot a buck in the vineyard but it was only wounded. Jack was called upon to track him down. I can still see it in my mind, Jack found the deer in short order, and the buck tried to get away. Jack got it by the neck and dragged it down. Wow, it was an amazing sight. Jack was an unbelievable hunting dog, He would track a deer down and come and get you, or bark until you got there. He loved the water, and was a good duck dog. He excelled in pheasants, he mastered quail, and he loved everyone. He was not to keen on cats, and would kill one quick. Jack is the kind of dog that we try and breed today. There are still old timer who can tell a story or two about Jack.
We are a large kennel, and all we do is hunt, breed, and live with the greatest hunting dog on earth, the German Shorthaired Pointer. I believe that as an American we can do anything we dream of better than anyone else in the world. I wanted to breed better shorthairs than I could find. It seemed that the likes of old Jack were no where to be found. When I retired, I set upon a quest to find the very best GSP's, and to learn everything about the breed I could. I've read every book on shorthairs, breeding, and talked to every person that wanted to talk about shorthairs or breeding hunting dogs. I already had quite a lot of experience, with dogs. Our family had always had hunting dogs. My dad, uncle, and grandfather were hunters and loved hunting dogs. Uncle Mike lives to hunt bear, and mountain lions, and bred his own dogs. He proved a good resource to bounce ideas off. I spent summers with my grandfather who raised game chickens, and everything was about breeding. I had already bred my own line of game chickens for many years, and understood practical performance breeding. On top of all that I had been a police K9 handler, of 2 German Shepherds, 1 Rottweiler, and 1 Doberman.
Ok, so how much hunting, and time with shorthairs? I'm almost afraid that you won't believe me. I have a Gang of shorthiars, always between 12 and 25. Most of the time I hunt with the whole pack, all year long, for upland birds, fox, cats, rabbits, and waterfowl. I hunt different states, and live in a hunting paradise, Arizona. Let me grab the calculator. One year, 345 days in the field, an average of 2.5 hours a day, at 2 miles an hour, equals 1,725 miles that year. Now that's a big year, but I've walked behind shorthairs at least what would equal coast to coast, 3 times. I've seen shorthairs cover at least 1/4 of a million miles. I've seen at least 17 thousand points. I've owned approx. 100 German Shorthaired Pointers, not counting baby puppies. I've also traveled I don't know how many thousands of miles looking at, and buying German Shorthairs, and DK's.
So I'll give you the low down on what I thinks is the story of German Shorthairs in America.
We are a large kennel, and all we do is hunt, breed, and live with the greatest hunting dog on earth, the German Shorthaired Pointer. I believe that as an American we can do anything we dream of better than anyone else in the world. I wanted to breed better shorthairs than I could find. It seemed that the likes of old Jack were no where to be found. When I retired, I set upon a quest to find the very best GSP's, and to learn everything about the breed I could. I've read every book on shorthairs, breeding, and talked to every person that wanted to talk about shorthairs or breeding hunting dogs. I already had quite a lot of experience, with dogs. Our family had always had hunting dogs. My dad, uncle, and grandfather were hunters and loved hunting dogs. Uncle Mike lives to hunt bear, and mountain lions, and bred his own dogs. He proved a good resource to bounce ideas off. I spent summers with my grandfather who raised game chickens, and everything was about breeding. I had already bred my own line of game chickens for many years, and understood practical performance breeding. On top of all that I had been a police K9 handler, of 2 German Shepherds, 1 Rottweiler, and 1 Doberman.
Ok, so how much hunting, and time with shorthairs? I'm almost afraid that you won't believe me. I have a Gang of shorthiars, always between 12 and 25. Most of the time I hunt with the whole pack, all year long, for upland birds, fox, cats, rabbits, and waterfowl. I hunt different states, and live in a hunting paradise, Arizona. Let me grab the calculator. One year, 345 days in the field, an average of 2.5 hours a day, at 2 miles an hour, equals 1,725 miles that year. Now that's a big year, but I've walked behind shorthairs at least what would equal coast to coast, 3 times. I've seen shorthairs cover at least 1/4 of a million miles. I've seen at least 17 thousand points. I've owned approx. 100 German Shorthaired Pointers, not counting baby puppies. I've also traveled I don't know how many thousands of miles looking at, and buying German Shorthairs, and DK's.
So I'll give you the low down on what I thinks is the story of German Shorthairs in America.