At
the turn of the century, the German Kennel Club directed each pedigree
dog club to establish standards and performance tests as appropriate,
and issue breed specific pedigrees. In
1903, the Verein
for
Deutsche Wachtelhund (VDW) or German Wachtelhund Club was established.
By 1908, the VDW had established performance hunt measurement tests and
was conducting performance hunt test throughout Germany for the
Deutscher Wachtelhund. In
1910,
the VDW implemented its breed standard by selecting eleven Deutscher
Wachtelhunds, four males and seven females. Basically, one
Deutscher Wachtelhund was selected from each region of Germany, with two
coming from the Hannover region. All of today's registered
Wachtelhunds were line bred from these eleven Deutscher Wachtelhunds.
The smallest was a female at
35
cm and the largest was a male at
53
cm. The initial breed standard established
at
35
cm to 50
cm. During the years of
1972
to 1975,
1000
Wachtelhunds were measured establishing new standards.
Males were
50
cm, plus or minus
2
cm; females where
48
cm, plus or minus
2
cm. More recently the standards were
revised to
45
to
52
cm for females and 48
to
54
cm for males.
Even though some of the German pointers still give
tongue at times, Deutscher Wachtelhunds were bred exclusively to give
tongue when trailing game, for employment in deep forest and will do so
on feathered game, as a running pheasant, and on fur game. Like
all German hunting dogs, the Deutscher Wachtelhund was bred to do many
hunting tasks such as; finding game; retrieving and recovering game;
blood trailing wounded deer, red stag (elk), and boar. In Germany,
they are used for hunting feathered game, including waterfowl, and all
fur and cloven hoof game from hare, fox, and wild boar. They are
not pack hunters, but one-on-one hunters and will hold a wounded boar at
bay, if necessary.
In Germany, buyers must enter their Deutscher Wachtelhunds in a juvenile
hunt test before they are
18
months old. They also have three other
levels of hunting tests applicable to the Deutscher Wachtelhund and then
the German versatile hunt test. The juvenile hunt test focuses on
trailing and giving tongue, steadiness and willingness to work in water
and on land. Juvenile Deutscher Wachtelhunds are measured in ten
categories on a scale of one through ten and must obtain a minimum score
of five in each category to be entered in the German Wachtelhund
Association breeding book, only those Wachtelhunds entered into the
breeding book are allowed to be bred.
Today the Deutscher Wachtelhund is called a versatile forest dog and is
the only dog remaining in the Stober category.
The Germans classify the Deutscher
Wachtelhund as a Stoberhund, hund meaning -- dog.
In English stober translates to -- to rummage about (if you think about it most
dogs started hunting in this manner.) The Germans classify all
other flushers as Spaniels and separate from the Stober dog category.