Meet Liesel vom Cohansey

I picked up an 8-week old Liesel in New Jersey in April 2021. The next several months were spent doing all sorts of bird and furred game introductions, as well as A LOT of long walks in the woods and fields. Liesel was pointing, backing, tracking, and retrieving really well for a puppy all summer. That fall, I wanted to give her as much exposure as possible. Liesel and I spent about 40 days hunting together (along with another dog I owned at the time). It was so fun to watch her progress throughout the season and by January, she was already one of the best hunting dogs I had ever owned. Promptly after the hunting season ended, I put Liesel through my force-fetch program and started doing a little more formal training.

2022 was a blur of training, testing, and finally hunting.  Liesel completed her VJP, the United Blood Trackers Level 1 test, a NAVHDA Utility Test, a regular HZP, the Armbruster HZP, and two VGPs in 8 different states.  She really excelled in all of her testing.  I was surprised but absolutely thrilled when her name was announced as the Winner of the 2022 Armbruster in Utah.  It was such an honor to receive 1st place in such a prestigious event surrounded by so many other really talented Drahthaars.  And then to finish the testing season in Kansas with a VGP Prize I (with Dead-Game Guiding) just made everything even sweeter.  She was definitely primed and ready for hunting season.  She was my only gundog that season and we had the best upland hunting season of my life.  She handled the wild Nebraska pheasants so well.  We went the entire season without losing a single wounded rooster.  And she also recovered several deer for my husband and other hunters.  Very few things bring as much joy/relief as finding a buck that was previously considered lost.

In 2023, Liesel completed a BTR, whelped her first litter of puppies, and then we ran in the NAVHDA Invitational when she was 9 weeks post-partum.  She had been training well, but with the litter, I wasn't able to travel and train with other dogs much to ensure that Liesel understood backing entirely.  Since we hunted alone last season, she didn't have the opportunity to back naturally.  She was great at backing the electronic backing dog and pretty reliable backing the 2 local dogs we trained with, but unfortunately, on test day, she did not recognize her bracemate as a dog she should back and we failed the test.  I felt like I really let her down and scrambled to find another NAVHDA Utility test to requalify her for the 2024 Invitational.  There was an opening in a Texas UT the following weekend.  We got home from Ohio on a Sunday and were driving to Texas 5 days later to run another UT.  Liesel's performance was flawless in these familiar subjects that she was properly trained on and we drove home with a maximum score of 204 points and a Prize I.  And of course, now we will spend the summer of 2024 preparing for our second chance at the NAVHDA Invitational.

Liesel's 3rd hunting season, the 2023-2024 hunting season was even more incredible than last year.  She is just so savvy with these tough wild roosters.  And she is patient with the coveys of quail.  Nothing makes her happier than sight-chasing rabbits.  We were also able to do a little waterfowl hunting early in the season.  Like any good Draht, she found and retrieved a few raccoons while searching the wetlands for ducks, but also recovered our ducks.  I wasn't able to take as many calls for deer, but we were able to recover a few.  And then I was able to set personal records (PRs) for the number of pheasants and quail harvested in one season with her.  To add to the fun, we also brought Liesel's daughter along on most of my upland hunts this year.  While Livvy didn't yet have the legs/range of her mother, she got in a ton of experience tracking, backing, and retrieving behind her mother.  I'm so excited to still have so many years ahead hunting with such a talented and well-mannered dog.