Katja vom Wildflugel

AKA Katie

          Entertaining the thought of breeding Caesar I begin watching for available female perspectives.  After watching the Wildflugel kennel for quit awhile and seeing nothing but good, I decide to enquire about several female pups available.  After many emails and pictures we decide to bring Katja into our home as a possible mate for Caesar.  By the time we got her to our house she was 13 weeks old and to our surprise already house broke.  She was such a sweet pup we thought that the name Katie was a little more fitting a name for her.  From day one she demonstrated a very strong desire to point.  From a very early age I realize that she will need to be handled much differently than Caesar, but I did not really understand this until her VJP.

          The morning of her VJP she was her happy go luck self, not having a clue as to why she was the chosen one to be with the family this beautiful day.  We were the last of 4 dogs to run. And with very little talk, one of the judges told me which direction to head. I put the bell collar on and gave Katie a hunt-um-up and she was off. We can never be sure what a judge is thinking but walking across that first field she could not have been doing anything any better as far as I was concerned. We made our first turn and headed up the hill and with out a word she headed out ahead of us to search the field. Even before we got to the field were the quail were planted, she was already pointing anything from tweedy birds to quail from earlier tests. We got to where the planted quail were and not at all to my surprise, she locked up on point. She did this for 2 good 10 counts and they told me to pick her up, we were done. At this point I felt confident for at least 10 in point and 10 in search.  After a short meeting of the judges the head judge came to tell us that Katie had received and an 11 in search and an 11 in pointing. After lunch she would get her chance at the bunnies. Her first track that I released her on was so-so she really didn't have a desire to track this rabbit like I have seen her do in the past. I was beginning to get concerned but had no idea what to do. The next 2 rabbits were even worse. She just would not track. After meeting with the other judges the lead judge came back and suggested that I not use the heavy slip lead because it seemed like it was pulling her off of the track and confusing her. So as we walk to a new area to find more bunnies I also took the wide tracking collar off and just had her on a clip lead with her kennel collar. We stated out a hedge row until the judges on the far side yelled rabbit. I took her over and after the judge showed me where the rabbit started and the direction, I took the lead off of Katie and holding her collar I took several steps with her pointing to the ground and commanding seek. She took off like she was a completely different dog then I had on the first 3 tracks. According to the judge she ran the track right on until she came to the place that the rabbit was holding up. She pointed the rabbit about 25 yards in front of us. She then proceeded to go in the brier entangled hedge row after the rabbit. According to another judge standing on the other side of the briers she almost caught the rabbit before it escaped out through the briers on our side were it disappeared about 50 yards ahead of us once again. Katie not being small enough to get thought the opening had to make her own hole which she did with much enthusiasm.  As you can imagine she was not giving up at this point and from what I saw she was all over that rabbit track. After a rather short discussion the head judge came back to tell me the last track was rated an 11.  But because of the previous tracks she could only receive an 8 for the overall score in track.

          I have often said that there is little a handler can do to influence a VJP score, but if there is a way I can find it.  There is without question that Katie is a talented dog.  We feel with each passing day that she will be a perfect fit for Caesar.

Track 8
Cooperation 8
Nose 10
Desire 10
Point 11
Search 11
Total of 66