History of JANDAL Norwegian Elkhounds & German Shorthaired Pointers

In the summer of 1979, Dale wanted to get Bjorna a buddy to play with. We did not want to deal with raising another puppy due to both of us being in class all day, so we decided to try to find a young adult Elkhound. We noticed an ad in the paper for a 2 year old AKC registered male Elkhound available--the owners were moving from a house with a yard to a townhouse, and had no room for the dog. We decided to go see the dog. What we found was a dangerously overweight, neglected, abused, miserable dog--we couldn't leave him in that environment, so home he went with us. Bear became our project dog--first a bath, to get all the dead hair tufts out of his coat, then a serious diet to trim his weight down. A visit to the veterinarian revealed "Bear" had every form of worms known to man, including heartworms. After his heartworm treatment and recovery period, Bear was a new dog--and a gorgeous Elkhound! As Bear's new body emerged from the obesity, malnourishment, and parasitism, we started seeing his huge bear-like head, his short back, heavy bone, good movement, and overall quality.

As they say, the rest is history: Bear, the "Cinderella" backyard dog, completed his AKC Championship 18 shows later, in January of 1981. Going to the shows, we met many Elkhounds and their people, and came to a realization: we loved Elkhounds in particular and dogs in general, we enjoyed showing the elkhounds, and we wanted to get involved in breeding champion-quality elkhounds. In particular, I wanted to breed and show Elkhounds ethically--all breeding stock genetically screened, all non-show quality puppies placed on spay/neuter contracts in loving homes. I started Veterinary School at Texas A & M University in the Fall of 1980; what I was learning about the devastating emotional, financial, and physical toll genetic diseases levy on dogs and their owners was startling, to say the least.

We acquired our primary foundation brood bitch from a prominent breeder in California in April of 1980. Jasmine came from a stellar background, with many of the breed's all-time top winners in her pedigree, and genetically screened. Jasmine was already in whelp to one of the top Elkhounds of the day when we bought her; she safely delivered a litter of 6 in May 1980. Two puppies completed their championships from this litter; the other 4 were placed in loving homes and spayed/neutered.

We acquired two additional foundation brood bitches over the next 2 years, and started weaving the genetic "rope" that now stamps our puppies as JANDAL elkhounds to this day.

Like Elkhounds, Shorthairs represent an interesting breeding challenge. In Elkhounds, we were trying (very successfully) to combine the classic bold, outgoing, stable Elkhound temperament with classic Elkhound breed type and healthy genetics. Shorthairs were a little different. We required not only a calm, stable, loving temperament, healthy genetics, and beautiful conformation, but we also needed each Shorthair to have a very strong overriding desire to find birds. You who have been around bird dogs know what a dilemma it can be: most of the really good bird dogs are so hyper and over-the-top that you can't live with them--they end up living in a chain link dog run in the back corner of the yard. Bird dogs with calm, livable temperaments tend to be dead-heads in the field, only hunting birds as long as it's easy. We demanded our dog be good at both: easy-to-live-with house dogs that were safe around kids and small pets, plus hell on wheels in the field on birds.

Panzer got his championship without much trouble, and 2 legs towards his Junior Hunter title. We found he was a great house dog, cleared all his genetic tests and had a lot of natural talent for birds, but not much desire--he hunted when it suited him. So, we made the difficult decision to neuter him and find a pet home. However, we were determined to pursue breeding top quality Shorthairs.

We completed Jenna's championship in short order. We elected to pursue breeding our two girls before getting their hunting titles. Unfortunately, Riley ended up with a very rare form of liver cancer, so she'll never produce another litter. Jenna was successfully put to SBIS CH Crystal's Opening Day MH ("Frank"). They produced a beautiful litter of 1 boy, 5 girls in August 2006. So far, two females from the litter have completed their championships and are multiple group placers, 1 is a specialty winner, 1 has her Junior Hunter, WR CGC and Novice Rally titles, and the boy and an additional female are started on birds. The remaining two pups are in private homes, serving as loving family pets and personal bird dogs.

We were introduced to Jon & Cindy Hann of Perfection Kennels in Kidder, Missouri, by Frank's owner, when it was time to send Jenna's pups off to bird dog school. Jon & Cindy come from the field trial arena, where they have won numerous titles, awards and competitions. However, they also want their dogs to have stable, calm temperaments and correct conformation. Sound familiar? Talk about a meeting of the minds!

Jon & Cindy were gracious enough to sell us a co-ownership in a top prospect of theirs, a young female Shorthair named Karla. In addition, we bred Jenna to Karla's grandfather, DC AFC Odyssey's Perfection MH ("Karl"). Karl is the youngest male Dual Champion in the history of the breed, meaning he got his Conformation Championship and his Field Trial Championship at a younger age than any other GSP male in history. He is also an Amateur Field Trial Champion and a Master Hunter. Karl, simply put, is a bird-finding machine, that cranks it up to the next notch when you go from hunting on foot to hunting on horseback. However, around the house, he's as laid back and easy going as can be, and snores the night away in his pet-parents' bed every night.

We bred Jenna to Karl twice, resulting in a total of 4 males and 7 females. 2 of the boys are being developed as Dual Champion prospects; an additional boy is a top personal gundog. 5 of the girls are already talented bird dogs, with 3 of them being developed as Dual Champion prospects.

With the superior genetics of Jenna and Karla, we anticipate weaving a Shorthair "genetic rope," that will successfully combine gorgeous conformation, calm stable temperament, healthy genetics, and the keen desire to hunt.