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Mehul,

I highly recommend a Deutsch Drahthaar (DD). I owned a few different breeds of sporting dogs before I got the DD I have now. She is just over 2 now and is by far the best dog I've ever owned. They are a versatile breed and are the parent breed to the German Wired-haired Pointers (GWP) here in the USA. However they are bred to a much different standard than the GWP. All DD’s must pass hunt tests before they are eligible to breed. This in all seems to give them a leg up on most other breeds. Now please don’t take this as there aren’t any good GWP’s there are. However in general you will get a superior dog from the DD lines.

Anyway the breed is capable of most anything hunting. They point, they do water, they blood track large game, etc, etc... They are very prey driven and aren’t very likely to give up on anything. However they are also very adaptable to training and quite obedient once they are trained. As an example it is nothing for my dog to track rabbits (that she didn’t see) for 500-800 meters with the occasional longer one. However when she produces the rabbit and starts her chase you can whistle her back or down almost immediately. Thus they have huge drive and yet it can be controlled.

DD’s do have quite a bit of energy. However as a whole they aren’t high strung dogs. My house is only 1,400 sq feet and I only have ½ acre of property. This works well for her daily life as long as she gets exercised 2-3 times a week. This is not a problem as I use that time as training time. To help improve her field search, tracking etc. Thus she gets a mental workout as well as a physical one. This type of play/training really works out well. By the time she was 8 months old she had already retrieved 40-50 geese, about 60 ducks, pointed numerous upland birds including pheasant, grouse, woodcock and quail. And had successfully blood tracked 2 deer one was only about 300 meters and 4 hours old the other however was 10 hours old (overnight) and in the neighborhood of ½ mile on a gut shot deer. I might add neither of which were deer I shot

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I don’t want you to think that all is rosy with no problems or complications. Dogs like many things comes down to you get out what you put in to them. The DD needs a firm hand in training. They also need to be mentally challenged occasionally. They are smart dogs and when you watch them you can see them going through the process of figuring things out. They do well with smaller dogs if they are raised with them. My pup came to the house when we still had the wife’s dachshund. He was 12 at the time. He has since passed away but that had nothing to do with Elsa. The DD’s in general are very very hard on furry little creatures. They thinking nothing of taking on raccoons, porcupines (quills don’t seem to slow them down), skunks, possums, etc. Thus they aren’t very good to have in a house with cats or other small creatures like chinchillas etc. The furry stuff won’t last long. Though some people have successfully done it in general it isn’t recommended if you like the smaller furry creatures.

There is some great information on the breed at VDD/GNA
and vom Fuchsfluesschen .

I’ve included a couple of pics of my girl.

Bill

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