Duke von der Balthasarley

Duke von der Balthasarley became a resident of the United States on May 5, 2004 at the age of 9 weeks. Duke is what the Germans call a heltiger Wachtelhund. Heltiger referring to a coloration of solid brown and solid white rather than schimmel or solid brown. Duke is the first heltiger Wachtelhund in North America. Duke is owned by Kraig Glaizer and Dave Pepe, and resides with Kraig in Helena, MT. Duke's father was solid brown. Duke came out of a litter of six solid brown and two heltiger Wachtel pups. Fifty to sixty percent of Duke's ancestors were solid brown. See Duke's breeder's site Wachtelhundezucht "Balthasarley"

The history of heltiger, brownscheck, red and blond Wachtelhunds is very interesting. The original Wachtelhunds, Stoberhunds dating back to the 1800"s, where dogs with solid white and brown patches. In the early 1900's, German hunters developed a preference for darker colored Wachtelhunds that provided more natural camouflage. Starting some time around the early 1900's, the light color Wachtelhunds were eliminated from the gene pool by either killing the pups at birth, or by just not entering them in the breeding book and not registering them. From this came the brown and schimmel Wachtelhunds. Also, after the first world war, there was a scarcity of food for the German people. Many Germans resulted to poaching in order to feed their families. After WW1, light colored Wachtelhunds were killed because poachers would see the dogs and then lie and wait for the foresters. Again, the light colored Wachtelhunds were killed at birth and purposely left out of the breeding book. These colorations have re-emerged during the last decade or so, especially with the joining of the West and East Germanys.

The heltiger and red colorations occasionally reappear with the breeding of two Wachtelhunds whose bloodlines have been isolated for a considerable number of years, where the dogs have the same recessive brown genes.

In 1999, Federal German Hunting Laws established the first requirement for hunters to wear some blaze orange during drive hunts, and many German hunters are now placing blaze orange collars on their dogs. Many of today's German Wachtelhund owners are happy with the lighter colored Wachtelhunds due to the large drive hunts commonly held for wild boar. The lighter colored dogs lessens the chance of an accidental shooting of a dog during a hunt.

In Germany, Wachtelhunds are bred solely on proven performance in hunt measurement tests and the various colorations have no influence on their hunting abilities!!!

I called the pair in from the very top of the calling picture (below) near the barrel. They came in from over a mile. Duke and Lexy saw them at 400 yards and ran to meet them and that was it. I shot that coyote in the middle of the other hill. Duke tried to retrieve it, but it was hot and the hill was steep.

Kraig Glazier