About Us
Maggie and Phil- late season pheasant hunt.
I have been a hunter since I was old enough to venture outside. I have had the pleasure of hunting over many breeds of fine gun dogs, including labs, chesapeakes, spaniels and various pointing breeds. After the passing of my last (best) lab I decided to look for something different, that I would not be constantly comparing to her. I discovered Griffs and soon realized that the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon (WPG or Griff) is the best kept secret in gundogs. Shortly thereafter, I discovered NAVHDA and met some wonderful new friends who shared the same passion for gundogs and hunting that I did, and who unselfishly shared their training knowledge with me. Suddenly bird hunting and dog training became better than it had ever been for me.
We are a small, family kennel focused on producing and maintaining the very best hunting dogs and family companions by 'breeding the best to the best'. We are not volume driven. We would rather produce small numbers of exceptional pups and give them the loving attention, nurturing, socialization and exposures that they need in early life to ensure they will develop into happy, well adjusted hunters and family companions.
We utilize NAVHDA testing to evaluate our dogs' potential because that is an impartial benchmark. (Rather than competing against other dogs, the dogs test against a standard. Everyone likes to think their dogs are great... but it's much more convincing when impartial judges think so too.)
We hunt wild birds from September through January every chance we get.
(During the 2013 hunting season we hunted 64 days, with our dogs producing 295 birds for us and our hunting companions.)
We continuously train on live pen raised birds in the off season. Only dogs that hunt exceptionally in the field on wild birds are candidates for breeding. We occasionally handle our dogs for clients of local hunting preserves who don't have dogs. This gives our dogs more bird contacts in a few days than most hunting dogs get all year.
We are located near Cascade, Montana, in the heart of excellent upland bird and
waterfowl hunting. We have native grassland, brush and wetland areas with multiple ponds on our property. We are less than a mile from the Missouri River. Our dogs and puppies are exposed to wild birds and hunting conditions regularly. Our dogs regularly hunt wild pheasant, partridge, grouse, ducks and geese. In the off season when wild birds are nesting,
we train with pen raised birds. We keep live birds on the premises for training and expose puppies to them early and often. Our dogs are exposed to water early and are usually swimming at a very young age.
Our dogs live in the house with us, as members of our family. They are well mannered house companions, calm passengers in the vehicle or boat, go fishing, hiking, shed antler hunting, and get daily “adventure walks” with us on our property, often encountering wild birds.
We only place puppies in hunting homes. There are plenty of other breeders producing family pets. We are absolutely committed to producing only the finest hunting Griffs, who will also be equally wonderful companion dogs. We hope that by looking through our website pictures you will get an understanding that these dogs hunt!
Our website pictures are put together from our wild bird hunting trips with our dogs and our dogs' progeny. Lots of breeders have websites with set up pictures of their dogs only in simulated hunting situations. But ask yourself, ‘Are they really hunting dogs?’.
Do their pictures back up their claims? Real hunters have pictures of their dogs in real hunting situations. We don’t raise dogs just for the sake of raising dogs. We raise them to hunt because we are hunters, and because we love the breed!
You can find cheaper Griff puppies. (You can also pay a lot more and get lesser quality puppies). But we believe you will look long and hard to find any better. Our pups are a quality value of exceptional genetics, with proper socialization and exposures, for the foundation of a lifetime of satisfaction. We are convinced that if you are looking for a serious hunting dog and you do your research, you will see the difference.
There will always be someone who will throw some buzzwords around that makes their kennel sound good. We encourage you to do your homework.
Invest a few hours of serious research on the front end of your search. Your new puppy is a long term commitment. Make sure you get the best value.
Look at pedigrees. (The NAVHDA website is a great resource when researching pedigrees. Feel free to contact us for some search tips utilizing the NAVHDA site. We are happy to help you understand how to do your homework, because we know that if you understand what you are comparing, and it matters to you, that you are the kind of person our pups belong with.)
Look at NAVHDA test results.(Representing that a dog has been tested with NAVHDA proves nothing. Any purebred versatile dog can be entered and 'tested'.) Every tested dog has a detailed score sheet, which also includes, temperament evaluation, coat evaluation and any congenital defects noted by the judges. Check it out on the NAVHDA website.) Don't just look at the breeding parent dogs' test results... look at the breeder's progeny test results. Past performance is a pretty good indicator of future potential!
Is the breeder handling their own dogs in tests? Or is the breeder hiring professional trainers to train and test their dogs. Serious hunters should be able to handle their own dogs. (Check it out on the NAVHDA website.) Well bred gun dogs should do well in NAVHDA Natural Ability tests without the need for professional trainers. I've repeatedly seen junior high and high school age handlers get fantastic results with our pups in NA tests.
NAVHDA Breeders Awards are a strong indicator of the breeder's real commitment to producing quality genetics and following up with the puppies and their new owners to see what is really being produced. We are proud of our 2012 and 2019 Breeders Awards from NAVHDA. The Breeders Award is based upon impartial judges from the international organization, evaluating young dogs in field situations on various hunting attributes. The puppies are also evaluated for physical defects, coat and temperament. You can't just spend money and buy your way to a NAVHDA Breeders Award, like some other hunting dog organizations' titles. You have to have superior genetics and prove it with your pups before they pass the 16 month testing age limit. As of 2014, over the prior 10 years, on average, less than 10 WPG breeders in North America achieved this honor per year. We like to think that speaks very clearly about the quality of the puppies we are producing, and sets us apart from the backyard breeders and volume breeders. Unlike some breeders, we don't require our puppy owners to test in NAVHDA, although we strongly encourage it and believe it to be very beneficial. So we don't get as many breeders awards as some breeders who do require it. But our tested puppies' scores speak for themselves! Almost half of our pups tested have obtained maximum scores in their NAVHDA Natural Ability test. (As of 2020, the overall average score for our tested pups in the NA test is over 104 points out of a possible 112 points).
Ask to see the hip evaluations of the parent dogs. We only breed dogs with a Penn Hip score on the better side of average for the breed.
Ask about any medical issues the breeder has had with their pups. Ask about behavior issues. Ask if any of their dogs have ever been aggressive with people or other dogs.
How many litters per year is the breeder producing? Proper socialization of puppies and early exposure to birds is very time consuming. We don't operate on volume. We have our litters when we believe we can improve the breed, not when we need to pay the bills. If you look at our breeding history, we have had years when we didn't breed a litter. We have purchased expensive dogs for our breeding program that didn't make the grade and were neutered/spayed and sold instead of being bred.
We have placed pups from New Brunswick to British Columbia, Texas to Alaska. In all, 12 states and provinces, and the reports we get indicate they excel on whatever bird species there is to hunt there. We do follow up surveys with the owners at approximately 1 year old and adjust our breeding decisions based on the feedback we get from those surveys. We believe that each generation of our pups gets better. That's our goal.
Ask for references of hunters who have bought their pups from prior litters. Call and talk to those people. Decide for yourself if they are hunters.
The best way to be sure you are buying a dog from true hunting bloodlines, is to ask the breeder to take you hunting, or at least show you their dog working in the field on birds. All serious gun dog breeders have access to pen raised birds in the off season,and should welcome the opportunity to show off their dogs any time. Be wary of any breeder purporting to sell hunting dogs, who doesn't jump at the opportunity to show you what their dogs will do in the field. We are proud of our dogs and welcome every opportunity to show them off!
We invite you to call us and inquire about your next hunting buddy. Better yet, schedule a visit and come see for yourself.
Phil Matteson
We are a small, family kennel focused on producing and maintaining the very best hunting dogs and family companions by 'breeding the best to the best'. We are not volume driven. We would rather produce small numbers of exceptional pups and give them the loving attention, nurturing, socialization and exposures that they need in early life to ensure they will develop into happy, well adjusted hunters and family companions.
We utilize NAVHDA testing to evaluate our dogs' potential because that is an impartial benchmark. (Rather than competing against other dogs, the dogs test against a standard. Everyone likes to think their dogs are great... but it's much more convincing when impartial judges think so too.)
We hunt wild birds from September through January every chance we get.
(During the 2013 hunting season we hunted 64 days, with our dogs producing 295 birds for us and our hunting companions.)
We continuously train on live pen raised birds in the off season. Only dogs that hunt exceptionally in the field on wild birds are candidates for breeding. We occasionally handle our dogs for clients of local hunting preserves who don't have dogs. This gives our dogs more bird contacts in a few days than most hunting dogs get all year.
We are located near Cascade, Montana, in the heart of excellent upland bird and
waterfowl hunting. We have native grassland, brush and wetland areas with multiple ponds on our property. We are less than a mile from the Missouri River. Our dogs and puppies are exposed to wild birds and hunting conditions regularly. Our dogs regularly hunt wild pheasant, partridge, grouse, ducks and geese. In the off season when wild birds are nesting,
we train with pen raised birds. We keep live birds on the premises for training and expose puppies to them early and often. Our dogs are exposed to water early and are usually swimming at a very young age.
Our dogs live in the house with us, as members of our family. They are well mannered house companions, calm passengers in the vehicle or boat, go fishing, hiking, shed antler hunting, and get daily “adventure walks” with us on our property, often encountering wild birds.
We only place puppies in hunting homes. There are plenty of other breeders producing family pets. We are absolutely committed to producing only the finest hunting Griffs, who will also be equally wonderful companion dogs. We hope that by looking through our website pictures you will get an understanding that these dogs hunt!
Our website pictures are put together from our wild bird hunting trips with our dogs and our dogs' progeny. Lots of breeders have websites with set up pictures of their dogs only in simulated hunting situations. But ask yourself, ‘Are they really hunting dogs?’.
Do their pictures back up their claims? Real hunters have pictures of their dogs in real hunting situations. We don’t raise dogs just for the sake of raising dogs. We raise them to hunt because we are hunters, and because we love the breed!
You can find cheaper Griff puppies. (You can also pay a lot more and get lesser quality puppies). But we believe you will look long and hard to find any better. Our pups are a quality value of exceptional genetics, with proper socialization and exposures, for the foundation of a lifetime of satisfaction. We are convinced that if you are looking for a serious hunting dog and you do your research, you will see the difference.
There will always be someone who will throw some buzzwords around that makes their kennel sound good. We encourage you to do your homework.
Invest a few hours of serious research on the front end of your search. Your new puppy is a long term commitment. Make sure you get the best value.
Look at pedigrees. (The NAVHDA website is a great resource when researching pedigrees. Feel free to contact us for some search tips utilizing the NAVHDA site. We are happy to help you understand how to do your homework, because we know that if you understand what you are comparing, and it matters to you, that you are the kind of person our pups belong with.)
Look at NAVHDA test results.(Representing that a dog has been tested with NAVHDA proves nothing. Any purebred versatile dog can be entered and 'tested'.) Every tested dog has a detailed score sheet, which also includes, temperament evaluation, coat evaluation and any congenital defects noted by the judges. Check it out on the NAVHDA website.) Don't just look at the breeding parent dogs' test results... look at the breeder's progeny test results. Past performance is a pretty good indicator of future potential!
Is the breeder handling their own dogs in tests? Or is the breeder hiring professional trainers to train and test their dogs. Serious hunters should be able to handle their own dogs. (Check it out on the NAVHDA website.) Well bred gun dogs should do well in NAVHDA Natural Ability tests without the need for professional trainers. I've repeatedly seen junior high and high school age handlers get fantastic results with our pups in NA tests.
NAVHDA Breeders Awards are a strong indicator of the breeder's real commitment to producing quality genetics and following up with the puppies and their new owners to see what is really being produced. We are proud of our 2012 and 2019 Breeders Awards from NAVHDA. The Breeders Award is based upon impartial judges from the international organization, evaluating young dogs in field situations on various hunting attributes. The puppies are also evaluated for physical defects, coat and temperament. You can't just spend money and buy your way to a NAVHDA Breeders Award, like some other hunting dog organizations' titles. You have to have superior genetics and prove it with your pups before they pass the 16 month testing age limit. As of 2014, over the prior 10 years, on average, less than 10 WPG breeders in North America achieved this honor per year. We like to think that speaks very clearly about the quality of the puppies we are producing, and sets us apart from the backyard breeders and volume breeders. Unlike some breeders, we don't require our puppy owners to test in NAVHDA, although we strongly encourage it and believe it to be very beneficial. So we don't get as many breeders awards as some breeders who do require it. But our tested puppies' scores speak for themselves! Almost half of our pups tested have obtained maximum scores in their NAVHDA Natural Ability test. (As of 2020, the overall average score for our tested pups in the NA test is over 104 points out of a possible 112 points).
Ask to see the hip evaluations of the parent dogs. We only breed dogs with a Penn Hip score on the better side of average for the breed.
Ask about any medical issues the breeder has had with their pups. Ask about behavior issues. Ask if any of their dogs have ever been aggressive with people or other dogs.
How many litters per year is the breeder producing? Proper socialization of puppies and early exposure to birds is very time consuming. We don't operate on volume. We have our litters when we believe we can improve the breed, not when we need to pay the bills. If you look at our breeding history, we have had years when we didn't breed a litter. We have purchased expensive dogs for our breeding program that didn't make the grade and were neutered/spayed and sold instead of being bred.
We have placed pups from New Brunswick to British Columbia, Texas to Alaska. In all, 12 states and provinces, and the reports we get indicate they excel on whatever bird species there is to hunt there. We do follow up surveys with the owners at approximately 1 year old and adjust our breeding decisions based on the feedback we get from those surveys. We believe that each generation of our pups gets better. That's our goal.
Ask for references of hunters who have bought their pups from prior litters. Call and talk to those people. Decide for yourself if they are hunters.
The best way to be sure you are buying a dog from true hunting bloodlines, is to ask the breeder to take you hunting, or at least show you their dog working in the field on birds. All serious gun dog breeders have access to pen raised birds in the off season,and should welcome the opportunity to show off their dogs any time. Be wary of any breeder purporting to sell hunting dogs, who doesn't jump at the opportunity to show you what their dogs will do in the field. We are proud of our dogs and welcome every opportunity to show them off!
We invite you to call us and inquire about your next hunting buddy. Better yet, schedule a visit and come see for yourself.
Phil Matteson
