About Us

If I seem to speak of each grouse and each woodcock and each pheasant as a special thing, it is because I feel that way about birds...If anyone can dig up something nice to say about me, I hope it will be "He loved bird shooting, but more than that, he loved the bird."

- George Bird Evans

I am a wildlife biologist who grew up pheasant/quail hunting occasionally with my dad whenever I wasn’t busy with sports. We never had a lot of success, but we also never had a dog. In college, I started hunting more with my friends. None of us had dogs but we would occasionally borrow a professor’s dog. It was clear that hunting with a dog was better! Just as I was about to graduate with my bachelor’s degree, I bought myself my first gundog puppy. He was not a Deutsch Drahthaar and I did not enjoy hunting with him. As a result, I was much more thorough when I began the search for my second gundog while I was in graduate school in 2005. I ended up getting a wonderful Deutsch Langhaar puppy. The contrast between my first dog and a German-bred dog was so dramatic that I could never go back. Strict breeding regulations based on performance, health, and temperament do actually result in more consistency in performance, health, and temperament.

I have the best husband in the world, Scott Schaefer. We got married in 2004. Scott is a teacher who grew up big-game hunting in Wyoming. He concedes that all of “our” dogs are “my” dogs :-) And while he still prefers deer hunting to bird hunting, he makes himself available whenever I ask for help with training.

Scott and I raised Deutsch Langhaars for over 12 years, mostly while we lived in Wisconsin. In 2015, we moved to south-central Nebraska (near where I grew up). The temperatures during the hunting season are much warmer here and there are a lot more seeds/burrs to get caught in coats. The hunting season is also longer and I found myself hunting many more days each year. Ultimately, I decided that Deutsch Drahthaars had become a better fit for me. It was not an easy decision to switch breeds, but it was the right one for me.

Hunting season is always my favorite time of year as I try to get out with the dogs as much as possible. While we lived in Wisconsin for 10 years, I spent a lot of time hunting Ruffed Grouse, Woodcock, and Waterfowl. Since moving home to Nebraska, I have consequently changed my hunting to focus more on Ringneck Pheasants, Bobwhite Quail, Prairie Chickens, Cottontail Rabbits, White-tailed Deer, and occasionally Waterfowl and Sharptailed Grouse.

During the rest of the year, I spend a lot of time training and testing my dogs. I believe that testing your hunting dog is an excellent way to explore all of your dog's potential and to keep you both on track so you can be prepared for the hunting season. I test all of our dogs in the JGHV. And while it does not count for breeding purposes, I enjoy running dogs through NAVHDA (www.navhda.org) and UBT (https://www.unitedbloodtrackers.org/) tests as well. Each of these testing systems are a lot of fun, require similar training, and provide me with non-biased evaluations of my dogs' natural ability and trainability.

In addition to owning/training/testing/breeding Deutsch Langhaars for years, I also owned 6 Deutsch Drahthaars. The foundation bitch for Prairie-Flusstal is my 4th Deutsch Drahthaar, Liesel vom Cohansey. Liesel was the first DD that I have owned that I felt was a breeding-quality dog. Liesel has done well in her JGHV, NAVHDA, and UBT testing, as well as the breed show, but really sets her apart is her temperament. She is as sound as they come. She has an outstanding on/off switch where she can be an absolute doll in the house, but a tireless dog in the field. She was very easy to train due to her calm and cooperative disposition. She REALLY wants to please. She is a tracking machine on running roosters, has recovered several deer that wouldn’t have been found without her, and her pointing/backing/retrieving is so incredibly reliable. She is the whole package that has proven that she would be a super solid foundation for a new Deutsch Drahthaar kennel.

We live in south-central Nebraska, right along the iconic Platte River that the state was named for. Each spring, our area is inundated with tens of thousands of waterfowl and over a half million Sandhill Cranes. Growing up here and now living here again, I always look forward to this annual spectacle. I wanted to name our new kennel after this river valley that is so important to so many migrating waterfowl and cranes. Prairie-Flusstal translates to Prairie River Valley.

I think it is important to give back to those organizations who make it possible for me to test and breed my dogs. I have been a Verbandsrichter (JGHV Judge) since 2013. I served as the DL-GNA Director of Judge Development from 2020-2024, the DL-GNA Breed Warden from 2011-2021, the DL-GNA Director of Testing from 2013-2021, and the DL-GNA Webmaster from 2011-2022. I am currently an apprentice Breed Show Judge, a member of the VDD-GNA Strategic Planning Committee, a member of the Armbruster Planning Committee, and a member of the Newsletter Review Committee. To view my full dog-related resume, please click on the button below.

VDD Kennel Name Certificate: vom Prairie-Flusstal Cortney's Dog Resume