Our Story

German Wire Haired Pointers

My story begins over 40 years ago. As a boy, I found my love of hunting small game on the northern Colorado family farm.

I’d come home wet and shivering after swimming for the ducks I’d bagged because the wind was blowing them out to the middle and across the lake, I often hunted. My parents talked and decided I needed a bird dog to do this task for me. It was Christmas 1985, a small bundle of curly tan fur, a three-quarter golden retriever, one-quarter yellow Labrador retriever was under the brightly decorated, blue spruce tree. Also under the tree was the biggest piece of the puzzle that puts me where I am today: Game Dog by Richard Wolters. This book set the stage and gave me a priceless and immeasurable amount of knowledge and skills to find, understand, develop and train successful gun dogs.

Learning animal behavior growing up on the farm by watching, reading, and working with the animals I understood their signals and cues, how they responded to each other. Due to this interest in livestock, I developed a calm, natural way to work with them on the farm. It was easy to adapt this love of working with livestock to dog behavior and gun dog training.

Training flushers and retrievers, I educated myself on understanding the best methods which brought success quickly. Adding to the methods of Wolters, I incorporated ideas and methods other trainers shared in Gun Dog, Outdoor Life, Field and Stream, and any other magazine or source I could lay my hands on.

After graduating high school, I decided to pursue a degree in wildlife management and biology. My previous love of livestock and dogs provided a good segue into learning and understanding the behaviors of wildlife species. My passion for hunting and fishing along with wildlife management led me into a career as a wildlife officer with the Colorado Division of Wildlife.

Although big game hunting and fishing are activities I’ve always enjoyed, my passion for hunting is most fulfilling when it’s my dogs and me working as a team. To have a dog you’ve trained successfully bring back the quarry to the game bag, or find and flush the wild upland bird that stealthily tried to escape, THIS is where I find the most pleasure.

After tragedy struck my first dog, it was a yellow lab named Dozier who stayed at my side for 13 years and filled me with a desire to give others an opportunity to experience the thrill of owning not only such a devoted companion but also a bird dog that has a high desire to please. A gun dog that possesses a high prey drive as well as an “off switch” when the family pet comes into the home to be with the family.

While my first affinity was for yellow Labs, I had black and chocolate Labs as well. But in 2013, that was about to change.

My good friend and co-worker, Jon Wangnild, had been attempting to persuade me I had a need for a German Wirehair Pointer (GWP). He’d experienced my passion for pheasant hunting, my Labs, how well they worked with me, and the success we’d enjoyed. We discussed the desire for breeding a “light switch” dog, and Jon knew one of his GWPs would fit the bill for exactly what I was looking for in not only an upland dog that was also a chill family dog, but one that could handle an icy water duck hunt at sunrise and be turned loose on pheasant or quail as we left the blind.

Here, Ike enters the picture. A GWP, a dog unlike any other I’d ever had. The dog that would change my whole bird hunting world, sending me into a totally different direction with my dog breeding and training goals.

My passion with Knotted Wire Gun Dogs and Kennel is to produce an “Ike” for everyone who wants and/or needs an exceptional hunting dog and/or family companion. A proven-in-the-field bred hunting dog with a high drive yet is a loving, well-behaved chill family dog that will curl up and relax with those he/she loves.

Ike is the foundation, the essence of Knotted Wire. I’ve sought out females to pair him with who are complimentary in hunting styles, coat length, and temperament. I continue to strive to produce a family gun dog that is equal parts pet and predator, and yet has that “switch” instilled to know which one to be and when.

I continue to breed yellow labs and have occasional litters for those who want the classic retriever/flusher and most popular gun dog and family pet on the planet. I strive to produce an athletic easy to train dog that has natural instincts to retrieve as well as quarter a field and hunt hard yet can contain itself when asked.