Many hunters are attracted to the Deutsch Drahthaar due to the proven track record of performance. This performance does not just occur because someone hunted the parents. The Deutsche Drahthaar was, since inception, designed to be thoroughly evaluated, through the performance testing process, prior to being certified for breeding. The performance standards of individual hunters vary greatly. What I mean to say is that one person may be satisfied with a dog that occasionally retrieves the game, while the next person demands that all game be brought to hand. To take a person’s unknown set of values for a versatile dog and use that for a breeding selection would soon bring a program to its knees – as many breeds in the U.S. are today.
VDD breeding regulations and testing are a known set of values – or a STANDARD. I am often befuddled when someone takes home a new pup and even after prompting and offers of training assistance fails to train and test their pup. One of the excuses that I often hear is “I don’t have time to train him I am just going to hunt him”! What I want to know is: How do you hunt with an untrained dog???? Taking the time to properly train your Deutsch Drahthaar for the performance/hunting test accomplishes two things:
1) It gives you a goal with a specified timeline to complete your training – which in turn gives you a competent hunting companion.
2) It gives back valuable information to the breeder and the organization as to how that breeding compared to the known/established standard.
It is a no lose situation. By training for and completing the breed testing (VJP and HZP) you will have a hunting companion that is better trained and much more enjoyable to hunt with than the vast majority of your hunting buddies. By testing through the VGP – Utility test – you will have a hunting dog to a level that fewer than 2% of the hunting dog community will ever attain.
Not that I know everything now but when I obtained my first Deutsch Drahthaar I had NO idea of how to train a versatile hunting dog. I was lucky as most in VDD-GNA were – I had a mentor – someone that was willing to take his time to teach me what training and hunting with a TRULY versatile dog was all about. All that this person asked of me was to take the time to pass it on and help someone else. Each year the training opportunities grow throughout the United States and Canada and they are there for you to take advantage. If you are serious about your hunting, you owe it to the dog to properly train her to the best of your ability.