About the Drahthador

  The Drahthador is a specialty sporting dog bred from a Labrador Retriever and a Deutsch Drahthaar. The Drahthador’s genetic profile allows them to excel as a versatile bird dog, hunting both upland birds and waterfowl. Their strength, speed, endurance, intelligence and enthusiasm translate to high performance in canine athletic competitions, including dock diving and lure coursing trials. Interest in Drahthadors is growing, especially among hunters who prefer “versatile” breeds that can “do it all” from finding, pointing, and retrieving birds in the upland woods and fields, to skillfully working in waterfowl blinds making retrieves on rivers, lakes and swamps in the cold of winter.

The word “Drahthador” combines the names of the parent breeds – Deutsch Drahthaar (“DD” for short) and Labrador Retriever. Everyone knows about Labs of course, but what, you may ask, is a Deutsch Drahthaar? 

The answer is both simple, yet complicated. Literally translated, “Deutsch Drahthaar” means “German Wirehair,” but this is not to be conflated with the Americanized line of German Wirehair Pointers (GWP), which are not recognized as the same breed by the international DD breed sanctioning body, Verein Deutsch Drahthaar (VDD). In brief, the difference between DDs and GWPs lies in the performance-based breed standards required for registration and breeding within the VDD, and the lack of performance standards for the (mostly show-bred) American GWPs. As you may surmise, there is more than a bit of tension between VDD breeders and breeders of GWPs over the identities of these dogs.

To be clear though, a Drahthador is not itself a Deutsch Drahthaar and would likely be frowned upon by VDD and other breed purists. But breeding a true DD with a field-proven Lab can result in a spectacularly versatile hunting dog that exhibits best traits of both parent breeds. That’s what the Drahthador concept is all about. 

Physically, a Drahthador will be a medium-large dog (50-80 pounds), with relatively long legs, a lean muscular frame, and narrow waist as seen in most pointing breeds. The coat can vary quite a bit, as within DDs themselves, typically being less wavy and wiry than DDs, but somewhat stiffer and shorter than a typical Lab. The distinguishing facial “furnishings” of DDs – beards under and even on top of the muzzle, and prominent eyebrows, will vary in Drahthadors, but will be generally less prominent or even mostly absent. The undocked tail will be held high as in other pointing breeds, unlike in Labs. Coloring will usually be black, with white chest and paw blazes possible and salt-and-pepper streaks sometimes on the shoulders, back and flanks.   

So how do Drahthadors differ from their parent breeds? Ideally, a Drahthador will inherit extremely high-energy, endurance, confidence, and task-concentration from the DD, with enhanced water skills and retrieving instincts, biddability, and sociability from the Lab side. The high loyalty and intelligence of both parent breeds should come through and even be supplementally enhanced in a Drahthador.  Labs and DDs are both “sporting group” dogs, and thus share many fundamental characteristics, unlike so many “designer” breeds that have become popular lately. But the now well-known problems of breeding across group types where offspring often lose the desirable characteristics of each parent breed (the “doodle problem”), have not been observed in Drahthadors. Rather, as has been shown for many years with other lab/pointer crosses, their deeper shared heritages tend to truly enhance the best of both parent breeds.

Currently, few breeders specifically acknowledge a focus on breeding Drahthadors, and many existing examples have come from unintended breedings of dogs from multi-dog hunters and outfitters. As interest and knowledge of the breed grows, however, it is hoped that a robust pool of Drahthadors and aficionados will grow as well.