Badlands Hunting Dogs

10/24/2023

A great autumn day in the Alberta Badlands with a juvenile pheasant and a happy hunting dog!

Westley enjoyed the last day of Pheasant hunting before the snowfall.

10/10/2023

Happy Birthday to Westley (Watz) and the V.d. Westmark Deutsch-Drahthaar W litter! (Couple days late in posting, as their 2nd birthday was October 8th)
Westley and I are celebrating by hunting Rabbits, Blue Grouse and Ruffed Grouse in Beautiful British Columbia 🇨🇦. Maybe we’ll find some wild Chuckars, too! He enjoyed a birthday pupcake made by Marina and ‘tried’ to pose for a few pics on the lawn 😂 This dog’s personality always keeps us laughing!!!

04/04/2023

This is Westley the Drahthaar for team Wired looking for some stickers from

03/23/2023

We are itching for the snow to be gone today. We worked on some pointing this afternoon

03/19/2023

Thank you for always taking awesome pictures ! Last weekend Evan, Westley and I had a great time snowshoeing in the prairie looking for shed antlers. Unfortunately there was too much snow to find any, but we had a great day and some bonus sharptail contacts😊

02/15/2023

BTS - Quill’s Valentines Art. 🐶 ❤️ 🥜

02/15/2023

We nearly forgot to post the dogs, Valentines art! 💌 Both Quill and Westley thoroughly enjoyed their first doggy art projects! Quill was a more intense with his licking, and you can see that some of his hearts are misshapen, but he had lots of fun! Video to follow!

01/18/2023

We had a fantastic hunting season this fall full of firsts. Westley got his first birds (pheasant, sharptail, blue, and ruffed grouse)and had lots of adventures learning to hunt. I also had the opportunity to do some hunting east of Berlin, harvesting my first wild boar! I am excited to start training and preparing for next Fall.

01/05/2023

I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed on The Hunting Dog Podcast and had a great conversation about one of my favourite subjects, the Deutscher Wachtelhund and, of course, my favourite DW - Quill!

Give it a listen if you’re interested about the way we hunt with these dogs in North America, and their traditional uses in Germany and the rest of Europe.

Thomas Appel joins us to talk versatility and performance of his favorite breed. The German Wachtelhund has been around a long time, but I'll bet most of you have never seen one, let alone hunted over one. This will give you an insight to a medium size dog with a large dog heart!  Thomas is also th...

01/02/2023

First hunt of the year in the books! Walked around looking for Ruffies, but didn’t see any today. Westley did his job well and checked in throughout the hunt - he even posed for pics!

12/21/2022

🎄 ‘tis the season for joy, laughter + sparkle ✨ Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!

📸 credit Adam Thibert Photography

12/12/2022

I’m super proud of Westley’s work today! He worked well, stayed close and checked in with minimal commands. We managed to connect with a difficult, late-season Ruffed Grouse and Westley retrieved perfectly - direct to hand.

12/06/2022

Frosty beard club! It was a bit colder than expected today while we were looking for late season ruffies and snowshoe hares

12/04/2022

Today officially marks one year, since Westley arrived in Blackfalds! He’s grown a *little* bit! He is still just as sweet as he was that day.

08/15/2022

Watz VD Westmark “Westley” and I have been working on some blood tracking training lately. So far he has proven himself a very eager student. We have started him on liver drags with great success, then 250 ml of blood aged several hours over 400 meters with equal success. Finally we tried a hoof shoe track of 400 meters aged 4 hours. So far he has been very eager to track and is easy to get back on the trail when he becomes distracted. I think he will become an expert tracker. We are very impressed by this handsome pup! Thank you Evan for the beautiful tracking collar you made for us, and Tyler for training with us.

07/01/2022

Happy Canada Day 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦

Thirsty Quill on a hot testing day.
(Photo: October 6, 2018)

06/17/2022

Westley working on that hold

06/05/2022

🌧 Rainy Sunday vibes, watching Mamma eat her breakfast and wishing for some, “Aren’t I a good boy? Maybe you could share…”

04/24/2022

Westley and I had a fantastic day working the fields for pheasants with fellow DDWV members. Westley had 2 very good points, was tracking nicely, and was mostly cooperative. (He is still a 6 month old puppy, after all!) . He even met a fellow California-born DD, Kurt vom Cabin Creek. We enjoyed our day today making new friends in Carstairs. Thanks to Brie for taking the pics! 📸

04/19/2022

Working with on some impulse control training this evening. He’s really getting a handle on table work, and learning the ‘woah’ command. 🐶

04/06/2022

Quill posing for the camera after his grooming session!

03/26/2022

Westley (Watz VD Westmark) was working some pigeons this morning. He quickly found the scent then carefully approached and established point at a safe distance. I’m very happy with my boy.

03/24/2022

Westley had a fun day sniffing wild things: geese, ducks + rabbits… oh my!

03/19/2022

Westley’s first training day with NAVHDA Prairie Vista Chapter in Benalto, AB. He had a wonderful day - lots of exposure to dogs, people, and pigeons! Check out the point in pic 3! 🐶

03/16/2022

Westley showing off his handsome Pack Leashes blue Flower of Life Collar (with bow tie!) how handsome is he? We even have a discount code for anyone who wants a stylin’ collar like he has 👉 Enter BADLANDSHD at checkout!

02/23/2022

Westley enjoying a brisk Family Day on Lacombe Lake. Feb 2022.

02/16/2022

Few days late, but too cute not to share 🐶 ❤️

Happy Valentine's Day!

Patreon.com/ScottMetzgerCartoons

01/30/2022

Place-training with Westley today!

01/22/2022

Busy afternoon for our little Westley, sniffin’ + explorin’ all over Central Alberta!

01/10/2022