That's one of the reasons we look closely at breedings and what the parents did. We ask questions such as: What age did they title? What age did they reach certain goals? How are previous litters doing and are those pups titling or meeting goals early? Picking the right litter is equally as important as picking the right pup from that litter. I have a dog that we knew going into it would be a late bloomer and she has just started to shine at 2 y/o while I have one 8 months younger running the same setups. It's all about doing your homework and the drahthaar breed organization has made that easy to find out, almost as easy as the retrievers.