Gosch Kennels

Compiled by Paul Jensen in 1985

Most of the following questions were compiled by Paul Jensen, former Breed Warden for the Small Munsterlander Club of North America, in response to his article that was published in the March/April 1985 edition of "Gundog" magazine. Because some of the information concerning numbers and other statistics have changed since 1985, some questions have not been posted.
Near the end, I have also added a few of my own.

Answers in RED are my additions to Paul's Answers.

Question: What is the usual price of a puppy? I believe it would be fair to say the price is probably comparable to what you would expect to pay for another hunting dog of good hunting stock. Pups usually range from $1500 to $2000.

Question: Has the SM escaped the ills of hip dysplasia?
Answer: All our dogs are X-rayed for hip dysplasia before we use them for breeding to minimize the risk of getting any offspring with HD.

Question: Are SM's easy around the house?
Answer: We may be somewhat crazy, but we keep all our dogs in the house and visitors and guests to our house are always amazed at how obedient they are.

Question: Do they get along with small children?
Answer: We got our first SM when our youngest daughter was 5 years of age. In addition, we have always had children of all ages around the house and we have never had a bad incidence with any of the dogs. If a child gets abusive we stop the child if we are around, but if we are not close by it is our experience that the dog will rather go away than hurt the child.

Question: Do they bark unnecessarily?
Answer: They will bark when somebody comes up the driveway, but if they know the sound of the car or the footsteps of the family member as he/she approaches the house, they may just be waiting inside. When opening the door they bark to greet you. advise you if either strangers or animals enter their domain.

Question: Does the AKC recognize the breed.
Answer: AKC recognizes the dog as a purebred, but will not carry the dog registry until there are about 600 dogs geographically distributed in the US.

Question: When if ever will the breed be recognized by AKC?
Answer: It will be up to the members of the Muensterlaender Club of North America at some time in the future to determine whether they will seek recognition by AKC and have them issue pedigrees. The breed is currently recognized and registered by NAVHDA. The Small Munsterlander Club recently became part of the FSS of the AKC in 2020.

Question: How many Small Munsterlanders are there in North America?

Answer: There are approximately 550 dogs in North America. It is now estimated at close to 4000 dogs in North America.

Question: Would it be good for a family pet?
Answer: Yes definitely, even to the extent that many dogs are bred in Europe for the sole purpose of ending up as family pets. This has caused a lot of concern for devout hunting dog breeders by this proliferation of pet dogs, which are bred without and concern for their hunting abilities. To try and avoid the same problem in North America, we have in our breed clubs breeding recommendations suggesting that no dog should be bred unless it has qualified in a NAVHDA natural ability field test or its equivalent.

Question: What is the weight of the dogs?
Answer: The females normally weigh about 40 lbs. and the males about 50 lbs.

Question: Do they have high tails?
Answer: That is really an individual dog trait than a breed trait. The tail generally sticks straight out the back.

Question: How far do they range?
Answer: Range varies from dog to dog. They are supposed to hunt close in the thick stuff and farther out in the open country. Training also determines range.

Question: Are they easy to train?
Answer: This is also an individual dog trait as it is with all breeds. It should be mentioned that the SM is very smart and is willing to take advantage of the novice trainer. So it must be stressed that one should have an idea of what they are doing when they set out to train an SM.