Interested in the Weimaraner?
The following is an excerpt from the Weimaraner adoption application packet.

We hope this package of information on the Weimaraner is helpful to you in choosing the best match between owner and dog. We have done rescue (the placing of unwanted Weimaraners or dogs that have not worked out with their original owners) for over 12 years. This breed is not a good match for much of today's society. In fact, the Weimaraner Club of America (WCA) placed over 500 Weimaraners in 1997 in second homes because they didn't work out in their first homes. The WCA Rescue Committee is in a unique situation, in that we hear all the reasons why Weimaraners are not the wonder dogs some people think they are. We hope the following will give you a little more insight into the needs of this breed.

For the most part we have had two problems with this breed fitting into today's lifestyle. One is an energy dissipation problem. The Weimaraner has a lot of energy stemming from his main purpose: to hunt upland birds. This breed performs in field trials in which some of the stakes are an hour long, the dog hunts birds that whole hour and the handler keeps up on horseback. We aren't saying that you need to buy a horse to own a Weimaraner; but this the potential they have for an energy level; this is what they actually were bred to do. And the energy level does not pertain only to dogs bred primarily for field work. If you don't dissipate the energy outside, then the dog will dissipate the energy inside. Many people will call this breed hyper; and they are if you can't stimulate them mentally and physically.

The other problem we have had with the breed is that the demographics have changed greatly from when this dog was an ideal family dog in the 1950s. The Germans bred this dog to be a personal gun dog and family member and they do the latter almost to a fault. They want to be with you all the time and can suffer a lot of separation anxiety. They worked well with the society of the 1950s because "mom" stayed at home. However, in today's society of two income families and single people who have to leave the dog while they go to work, this dog has become, in many cases, a mismatch. Having a Weimaraner is like having a 5 year old child for 12 years. Most people would not be willing to leave a 5 year old child at home, alone, and unsupervised while they went to work. The child will get into things, and so does the Weimaraner. We have had instances where the energy level, intelligence, and separation anxiety have resulted in dogs chewing through drywall, ripping the linoleum off the kitchen floor, and tearing the insulation out of the garage walls. A dog in Ohio dismantled a downspout off the house and destroyed the jacuzzi cover, and we have even had dogs jump through glass windows. This separation anxiety has also manifested itself in continual barking, making the owner a very unpopular neighbor. A Weimaraner is a pointer, which is bred to be proactive not reactive. The dog is supposed to have the intelligence and initiative to make something happen in the field, e.g., find the prey for the master, not just retrieve it. It is not a breed that sits around waiting for something to happen. They are bred to do something. in many cases sitting around waiting for the master to come home from work, they become bored and create their own activities. Unfortunately, we have never been able to teach this breed to wax floors or wash dishes while you're gone.

This is a breed that takes a lot of time. If you have that time and can dissipate the energy, a Weimaraner can be a very rewarding experience; if you don't have enough time, it can be a very expensive mistake as those 500 families found out. This is a dog that has worked well with people who can take the dog to work, people who work out of the home, two income families who work different shifts, or those people who have the luxury of having someone home all day. This is a dog that has a lot of loyalty and devotion to its master; the cost for those traits is time.

Daniel Tortora, and animal behaviorist, has written a book that is quite helpful in making the match between human and canine. It is entitled The Right Dog For You (a paperback carried by most large bookstores) and part of his book has a survey in which he will ask questions as to what you want in a dog. He will consider your lifestyle, living situation, and personality, be it type A or B; and he will guide you to a breed or breeds that will be a match. He does a fairly good job of analyzing the Weimaraner. He can confirm or validate your interest in the Weimaraner or he may introduce you to a better match. However, he does not address the separation anxiety in his analysis; so if you are going to leave your dog for long periods of time, the Weimaraner may not be the best match for you, even though it is suggested by Dr. Tortora.

The Weimaraner as a breed is also experiencing a decline in quality. The breed has gotten a lot of publicity with William Wegman's pictures, Nickelodeon, Sesame Street, and commercials (Anheuser Busch, Volkswagen, and the cheese industry). This increases the demand for the breed and those who breed dogs as a business are going to breed the popular ones. They breed for quantity not quality. We have had dogs come into rescue that we could not place because they had bitten the neighborhood children or a family member. This has come form overbreeding and indiscriminate breeding. We encourage you to deal with a breeder that breeds as a hobby to improve the breed not just to make money. There is more information on finding a good breeder in the packet.

Our aim is to prevent a mismatch between you and a breed which is not compatible with your lifestyle. In other words, we want to avoid another "rescue" situation and an expensive mistake for you. if the Weimaraner is the right breed for you, we want to help you find a healthy, well socialized, and well bred puppy from a reputable breeder.