MOTHER'S DAY SPECIAL

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For a very limited time Pointing Dogs, Volume One is on sale for only $59.00! To order your copy at the special Mother's Day price, click on the photo below and enter the code: bestmomever.

*Price is in US dollars, North American orders only. 

High Tech Hawking

Birds of prey and pointing dogs have a long shared history in the hunting fields. For centuries they were trained to work together to hunt small game: the dog located the quarry and the bird made the kill. And there are still men and women in many parts of the world today who carry on the sport.

But today I found a video online that shows something that I think none of the old-timers would have ever dreamt possible: a mid-air refuelling! 

Breed of the Week: The Russian Setter

In October 1823, an illustration of a rough-haired dog retrieving a pheasant appeared on the cover of the The Sporting Magazine. The caption beneath the image read “Basto, A Russian Setter”. A description of Basto appears inside.

Basto is of Russian parents, which were highly valued in this country, and their offspring has in no way disgraced the character of these setters! He is distinguished in the lower parts of Surrey and in Sussex as an excellent finder, and of very delicate mouth. Basto brings his game, and has scarcely ever been known to lose a wounded bird, in either corn, furze, or water, which he takes and hunts with the same ease as a smooth-haired pointer hunts a stubble! Basto, like all sporting dogs of Russian blood, is slow, but he often picks up birds, hares, and pheasants, that a fast-hunting pointer has passed in the field. He is about eight years old, and the property of T. Gilliland, Esq.

Driven game hunting in Germany

Fieldsports Britain, an online hunting and fishing program posted an interesting video about driven game hunting in Germany. Weimaraner enthusiasts will want to pay special attention to the action after about the 11 minute mark as a Longhaired Weim is used to track a wounded deer. 

Breed of the Week: The Württemberger

The Württemberger, known in Germany as the Dreifarbige Württemberger or Dreifarbige Württembergische Vorstehhund, was a short-haired, tricolored pointing dog that disappeared just after World War I. Exactly where, when and how it came to be is the subject of speculation.

The most common assumption is that the breed was developed in the Württemberg region of southwest Germany in the 1870s. Some sources claim that Gypsies traveling from Russia brought it to the  Kingdom of Württemberg in the early 1800s, but others insist that it was an ancient breed, known in southern Germany for centuries. Whatever their origin, heavy, tricolored pointing dogs were present in large enough numbers in the 1880s and ’90s to catch the attention of Germany’s Delegate Commission which, for a time, recognized them as a breed. But no separate stud book was ever created for Württembergers and they, along with Weimaraners, were registered in the German Shorthaired Pointer stud book. 

Breed of the Week: The Majorcan Pointer

Of all the breeds I’ve seen and studied, the Majorcan Pointer came as the biggest surprise. Despite finding a good number of historical references to it in the old literature, I was unable to determine if the Balearic Islands’ native pointing breed was still being bred today. And since Googling its name in English, French and Spanish only turned up the same old quotes from same old books, for a long time I assumed that the breed was extinct. 

But only a few weeks before flying to Spain to photograph Burgos Pointers and Pachónes Navarro, I decided to give it one more shot. This time the words I entered into the Google search field were in Catalan, the other official language of the island of Majorca. I typed ca de mostra and ca de caça, then hit return. Less than an hour later I was on the phone to Sheryl Marchand, my very understanding travel agent, telling her that Lisa and I would need to extend the Spanish leg of our trip. Majorca’s native pointing dog was still alive!

Everybody Knows Where Broomhill's At!

Field trials for Setters and Pointers have been run in Manitoba since 1886 when the Manitoba Field Trial Club held its inaugural Derby and All-Age Stakes near Morris, about 50 miles south of Winnipeg.  

Field trials are still held in Manitoba today, but further west, just outside of Broomhill, a small hamlet that most people in Manitoba have never heard of. But among field trialers, Broomhill is almost as well-known as Grand Junction Tennessee. When I interviewed Hall of Fame trainer and handler Colvin Davis last fall during the Manitoba Championship Trial, I asked him about Broomhill. Here is what he had to say.

Stay tuned for more video of Colvin and more on the history of field trials in Manitoba including first hand accounts from over 120 years ago!