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About
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(Click to Enlarge the Photo)
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A picture of us taken in 2009. The pickup is a 1946
Dodge that belongs to Craig Gunning who lives
in Lansford, ND. In order in the back with me
is Amos (Bailey), Emma, Hella, Cole, Flora, Ina
(Ilka), Ben (Dabo), and Cali. |
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My name is Rick Hartle and along with my wife (Jan) we
run a Deutsch Kurzhaar kennel in North Central North Dakota.
We are located in Grano, North Dakota near Lake Darling
Wildlife Management area. Our first Deutsch Kurzhaar
litter was whelped in the Fall of 2001. This
litter was out of
Hella vom Eichelspitz.
As our kennel
name we chose vom Gänsehimmel (goose heaven or goose
skies) since we are on one of the major migration routes
for waterfowl.
Our second female was
Ilka vom Osterberg, she
was the back bone of what we are building off from to
form our own kennel line. I have
ran numerous dogs in the testing system and still have so much to learn in
this area. But I found that it is very addictive and that I enjoy it
so much. Just as important is that my wife Jan enjoys it. We have
ran dogs in the Derby, Solms, HZP, VGP and NAKP and I would like to go
further some day and run dogs in the IKP, or Kleemann and even
VJP and a SW, but that is down the road.
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Bailey and Rick after the VGP
Bloodtrack
Since being formed in 2001, we have learned a lot
about the Deutsch Kurzhaar and have developed a sound
program for us to operate with. I will not
breed a litter that I would not want one of the pups
myself. This means we don't have a lot of
litters, and that we look hard at what we are doing.
We have found a line of dogs we are comfortable with
they have primarily Osterberg and Pöttmes bloodlines.
We are finding strong abilities in these dogs, and easy
to work with. They are meant for the
everyday hunter and first time handler. Requiring
minimal training to hunt the first year, and easy for
somebody to handle that wishes to run them in hunt test.
Because of this we try not to breed dogs that would be
considered high prey
drive, instead look for a combination that will suit the
average hunter were everything is in balance.
Their prey drive (desire) will please most hunters. More on Breeding
Click
Our Deutsch Kurzhaars are meant to be in line with what
the German's original reasons for developing the Deutsch
Kurzhaar a versatile gun dog (one that can
do any hunting task) and still be a joy to have in the
home. We do not wish to produce a dog that
is meant to be in a kennel and not part of the family.
As stated elsewhere on this web site we do not have AKC bred
dogs. We do not agree with the AKC thought of what a
breeding is and will not contribute to this style of program.
We embrace the German system which involves proving each dog and
generation. They must be proven in their abilities and form,
this is done through testing of field abilities and conformation
testing. Our goal is to test each dog to the highest
level possible giving us the best indicator of each dog's
ability. The dogs are also ran in conformation test
which is not only a DKV requirement but also important to us helping
us to see the short comings in our dogs as well as their strengths.

Dabo (Ben) Pöttmes with a couple of Sharptail
grouse taken in the fall of 2006
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Cole vom Gänsehimmel and Cali
vom Rahe with a couple of roosters and a cottontail taken in the
winter of 2006.
We are located in some of the Best hunting grounds in North
America. As such I do not make a lot of out of state hunting
trips. My dogs are hunted regularly during the hunting season
right here at home not out of state for a couple of weeks. Sorry if
you expect to see that we have hunted in 5 other states we have
not. I did get to hunt Cali in Nebraska in 2006 but it was more
of a social hunt than to get her on birds. We get plenty of bird
contact at home.
One of the most important things about us is we
are active in the testing of our dogs. We have our hands on
every dog and know what they are like. We run dogs in
Spring Breed test the (Derby). This test is for the
testing of the natural abilities of a young dog. We
would like all DK puppy owners to consider this. The
next test that we run our dogs in is the Fall Breed Test the
(Solms). This is again a test to check the dogs natural
abilities when it is a little older. The most
difficult test we run our dogs in is the VGP (Verbands-Gebrauchsprufung).
This is a German Master hunting dog test. It consist of
Water work, Field Work, Forest work, and Obedience. No other
test compares to it, it shows that you have a completely finished
dog in many areas. The VGP also shows the ability of the dog and
handler to work as a team. When 2 dogs have both
completed the VGP and are bred it is consider a performance
breeding. We have ran a dog in the NAKP
(NORTH AMERICAN KURZHAAR PRUEFUNG). This is an international
show case test. It is meant to exhibit the traits and
abilities of the DK. We were unsuccessful in
our first attempt in test in 2006 and will run it again some day.
This goes along with learning and we are not professional trainers.
In addition to the test listed above we have ran dogs in the HZP
which is the JGHV version of the fall breed test.
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(Click on Photo to Enlarge)
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In 2011 we begin our 10th year with DK's.
Above is a 4 generation picture of our DK's.
One of the 2 foundation dogs that formed our
Kennel is Ilka vom Osterberg she is the white and
liver dog in between the 2 black and whites.
On the right is Cole who is the son of Ilka, on the
far left is Emma who is out of Cole, then next to
her is her son Iso. Not in the picture
is our other foundation female
Hella vom Eichelspitz,
who is the other great grandmother, then Asta out of
our kennel is the Grandmother. So Iso is
a 4th Generation dog out of out our Kennel, we owned
2 of the 4 great Grandmothers, we owned both
grandmothers, one of the grandfathers, then the
mother and the father is out of our kennel.
By continuing to breed dogs out of our own kennel we
are able to continue to put out puppies that we
are confident with as to what they will be "good
hunting dogs". We will continue to breed
with dogs we know and put out some of the best
DK's in North America. |
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