The Future Begins

We welcomed a very special visitor to our home earlier this week: Bolt vom Coraschatten, known as “Zeke”, flew to Seattle from Denver to (hopefully) breed with Piper. We opted to have him come a little early so that we could get to know him better, have him get settled in and comfortable, and to err on the side of caution when trying to identify the right time for breeding.

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It’s a lot to ask of a dog to fly to a new city and adapt to a new home with strange people and strange dogs. Happily, Zeke settled right into the pack without any hesitation. As I write this, he’s flopped across my feet for his afternoon nap. He has proven to be an absolute sweetheart and a real pleasure to have in our home. He takes affection very seriously and will affix himself to you if you know all the best spots for scratching.

Before he arrived, I worried that bringing a male dog into our house with a female in heat would cause absolute mayhem. I’m so pleased to say that hasn’t been the case at all. Both dogs are really well-behaved and understand the house rules, even though the circumstances are a bit out-of-the-norm for them.

As part of bringing Zeke into our normal routine, we took both dogs to our local training grounds for some physical and mental exercise. It turns out that Zeke is crazy about rabbit drags! He executed a perfect track on a 200m drag and proudly delivered the rabbit to hand. It’s amazing how these skills stay so sharp year after year. The Deutsch Langhaar’s excellent game recovery abilities continue to be one of the things that make us really love this breed - they will track, pursue, and recover dead or wounded game no matter the circumstances.

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As for real-world hunting, Zeke’s owner describes him as an absolute soldier in the field. He particularly excels in waterfowl hunting, where his intense retrieving desire really comes out. He’s been known to chase down wounded ducks over hundreds of yards and deliver enormous geese to hand. In addition to waterfowl, he has hunted a wide variety of upland birds including grouse, pheasants, partridge, and quail. I’m excited that these puppies should inherit a strong passion for hunting with excellent natural abilities, especially when it comes to retrieving.

I’m happy to report that we had a successful mating between Zeke and Piper today, so hopefully pups will be on their way in early November! We’ll try again once or twice before (sadly) sending Zeke back home to Colorado where he can get started on his hunting season. As for life here, we’ll do some local grouse hunting while crossing our fingers and hoping to confirm a pregnancy in the coming weeks. It’s exciting to see our plans start to take shape as we look ahead to the next generation of Deutsch Langhaars!