B.A.W. (Breed a Week)

My new book covers over 50 different breeds of pointing dogs from Continental Europe. I'd like to share some of the things I've learned about each one of them and post a selection of photos for readers to enjoy so I've decided to post a BAW (breed a week) feature article every Monday for the next 52 weeks. Let's start with one of the most popular pointing breeds on the planet, the Britanny or, as it is known in its native France, l'Épagneul Breton.

In the introduction section of the Brittany chapter I wrote:

Sooner or later, if you hunt the prairies long enough, in a truck that’s old enough, you’ll get stuck the middle of nowhere. It happened to me, 
last year. After chasing sharptails most of the day under an early-season sun that should have kept me under a shade tree, I found myself in a lifeless pickup truck at the end of a dusty trail in southern Saskatchewan.

My GPS unit showed that the nearest service station was a two-hour hike down the gravel road. With the hot sun sinking near the horizon, I had no choice; I started hiking. After about 20 minutes I heard a vehicle coming up the road from behind. I flagged it down. A friendly farmer—there’s no such thing as an unfriendly farmer in Saskatchewan—leaned out the window.

“Lost?”

“No, my truck won’t start. I think its the alternator.”

“Hop in, I’m on my way to town. Garage is open till 8.”

I climbed into the cab and shared the seat with a white and orange dog wagging a stubby tail. I almost said, “Hey, an Épagneul Breton!” But I remembered that out there on the prairies that’s not the name they go by.

“Nice Brittany,” I said.

“Thanks, he’s getting old. But he still loves to hunt”.

On our way into town the old Brittany held its head in the slipstream and lapped at the wind. I’m sure he was prairie-bred; probably from prairie-bred parents. But I knew his heritage ultimately traced back to little dogs from western France that went on to conquer the hearts of hunters around the world.


Like many of the pointing breeds, the Brittany has a fascinating history. But finding information from the time before the breed was officially recognized in the early 1900s is not easy. Curiously, I've found that there is actually more information available in English than in French about the kinds of pointing dogs that existed in Brittany  in the 19th century. Here are some excerpts from the history section of the Brittany chapter:

Geographically, La Bretagne (“Brittany” in English), is a peninsula in the far west corner of the French hexagon. Culturally, its people have always felt somewhat separate from the rest of the country. Their traditional language, Breton, is not a French dialect, but a Celtic language related to Welsh and Cornish. In fact, until the turn of the 20th century, much of Brittany’s population did not even speak, read or write French. So it is not surprising that very few French texts make any mention of what kind of dogs there were in Brittany before 1900. Fortunately, many of the British sportsmen who travelled to the region in the 1800s wrote articles and published books about their adventures. Recently, many of the old publications have been made available on the internet. Reading through them today, a fascinating picture emerges of what the dogs in Brittany were like in the mid-1800s.

One of the most detailed accounts is from a book titled The Wanderer in Western France written in 1863 by George T. Lowth. In it, Lowth describes short- and long-haired pointing dogs that were “found everywhere” in Brittany:  

There is also a breed of setters, quite equal to any in England, and, in fact, not to be distinguished from them. These animals are claimed in Brittany as a native breed, but one cannot help suspecting that it owes its origin, not very many years since, to some of our emigrant countrymen, settled, since the war, in various parts of that country—so tempting to them from its moderate cost of living, and its many advantages in sporting—two irresistible attractions.

English sportsman John Kemp also wrote about his hunting adventures in Brittany and said that it was common practice to cross spaniels and setters. 

I have put a spaniel to a well-bred setter bitch, and been lucky enough to combine the ranging qualities of the latter and the hunting perseverance of the former. The French have tried this cross very frequently. I lately purchased one of the produce; and I can say that few dogs perform better in the field than this one

Another classic book from the same era is Wolf Hunting and Wild Sport in Brittany, written in 1875 by Edward William Lewis Davies who lived in Brittany for two years in the 1850s. He mentions seeing all kinds of dogs: Harriers, Poodles, double-nosed Spanish Pointers, and “mongrels of the lowest type”. He also wrote about a “Brittany Pointer”. This has been interpreted by some as the first mention of the Brittany Spaniel in English. But there are other, earlier descriptions such as the one above, and it is clear that the Brittany Pointer described by Davies had a short coat: 

They certainly are not so fine in the skin as the Spanish or English pointers; but, although they do not carry long-haired jackets and feathered stems like setters or spaniels, their coats are thick and close set, and well-adapted to the rough country in which they do their work.

However, Davies does write about local hunters cropping the tails of their dogs. Could some of the dogs been naturally short-tailed, a defining characteristic of the first Brittanies? 

There is a sad disfigurement practiced on Brittany Pointers...the tail, that indicator of all a dog’s thoughts, that silent tongue that explains all he means, is chopped off in puppyhood by the braconniers (poachers). Yet the poor uneducated peasant of Lower Brittany, the braconnier who gets his livelihood by the chase, shooting partout (everywhere), breaks a pointer for his own use immeasurably superior in many respects to the highly-trained dogs so often met with in our turnip fields and grouse moors. ...he will, as already stated, face the thorniest brake, never rake in drawing for his birds, and, above all, will retrieve his wounded game by land or water perfectly.

Today, the Brittany is known the world over for its "maximum qualities in a minimum volume" and has become the poster-child for the French approach to breeding gundogs.



Read more about the breed, and all the other pointing breeds from Continental Europe, in my book Pointing Dogs, Volume One: The Continentals

Welcome to the Pointing Dog Blog!

This is Jack, a dog I kept calling "Jacques" due to his French heritage. He is from Aspen Glo Kennel and one of the best looking Wirehaired Pointing Griffons I've ever had the pleasure to photograph!

Yes, I know. The world needs another dog blog like Winnipeg needs more winter. But please, humor me.

In return, I promise to post pointing-dog related rants, ravings, ruminations and retorts as well as photos, videos, links and anything else I can convert into bits and bytes. I will also use the blog to supplement and expand on the content of Pointing Dogs Volume One: The Continentals and to keep readers posted on the progress of Volume 2 and other book projects now in the pipeline at Dog Willing Publications. I will also do my best to answer any questions that come my way and respond to the feedback, good, bad or ugly, I receive on Volume One.

So let's get ready to talk pointing dogs and please, don't be shy, post a comment or three!

In the meantime...

I've had quite a few inquiries about how the Mega Book Project from Hell® is progressing so I thought I would post a quick update.

Pointing Dogs Volume One: The Continentals is now at Friesen's Printing sitting patiently in the "on deck" position. Early next week they will send me a proof copy of the entire book and a high-res version of the book cover. As soon as I give those two items the green light, the fine folks down at Friesens will press the shiny red "GO" button on the humungous printing machine! A week or two later, the book will be delivered to our storage facility, probably by some sort of gigantic truck with reinforced axles and a sign on the front saying "wide load".

Currently, I am finalizing a brand new website and hatching a marketing plan that will be launched in the first week of May. So stay tuned for all kinds of stuff coming from Dog Willing Publications to a forum, facebook page, website and magazine near you.

Now, in the meantime how about some light entertainment for your viewing pleasure? Here is my greatest youtube hit ( over 18 thousand views!). Please forgive my feeble video skills and "great face for radio" face and just sit back and enjoy some grouse hunting with Henri, Souris and Uma!

Important Rules for Writers

Rule #32: 
Always proof read to make sure you haven't any words out. 

  

It has taken me about 12 years to gather the information and photographs for my upcoming book Pointing Dogs, Volume One: The Continentals. In one of the final chapters I sum it all up with the following lines:

I have watched double-nosed Spanish Pointers hunt quail in the arid hills of Guadalajara, and I’ve seen Old Danish Pointers seek partridge under the wind turbines of Jutland. I’ve chased ruffed grouse with Pont-Audemer Spaniels in Manitoba and hunted sharptailed grouse with a small herd of Large Munsterlanders in Saskatchewan. I saw a Weimaraner kill a roe deer with a single bite on the island of Baltrum, and I’ve seen German Shorthaired Pointers and Brittanies just about everywhere I’ve been. And everything I’ve seen has led me to one conclusion: a pointing dog’s raison d’être is to put a smile on its owner's face.

Now that the book is headed to the printing press, I can sum up the writing/editing/designing part by saying that American journalist Gene Fowler was correct when he wrote: Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.

The image above is a co-creation from the über-talented artist Fontana Swing. It shows me doing what I've been doing for approximately 16 hours a day for the last 18 months: Writing, pausing, writing some more and trying my best to make sure that I haven't any words out.

Missed it by THAT much!

Q: Hey, February has come and gone, and still NO BOOK? What’s the holdup!?!
A: Murphy. Yes, that Murphy. The one with a law named after him that says: "If anything can go wrong, it will."

Technical issues? Check. Darn computers! You’d think that with all their secret pixie dust and magic electrons, they would never do us wrong.....Wrong.

Health issues? Check. I spent most of the weekend at the emergency vet clinic while one of my dogs underwent surgery to remove some kind of towel he ate! Good timing Henri! Oh, and after paying the good Doctor for his emergency services, my credit card is now in the intensive care ward, with some kind of banker-priest standing by, just in case.

Drama? Check. Don’t ask. Let's just say that I now have 30% less hair and my complexion has taken on a whole new level of fish-belly pallor.

Weather? Check. My outside thermometer quit last week. Just got up and left. It was last seen boarding a flight to ANYWHERE but here. But I must say, today it seems a bit warmer. We may get up to minus 20 this afternoon and the weatherman just downgraded the blizzard warning to “apocalypse-lite.”


Q: So when the book will be done!?!
A: Despite all the setbacks, the book is actually written, proofed, poked, prodded and massaged into super-fine form. It fact, it is basically done. The only things remaining are a few final tweaks to some photos--we were having color issues with one of my computers. Everything should be at the printer's by March 21, and the book should start shipping a couple of weeks after that.


Q: Is there any silver lining to all this?
A: Yes indeed! In order to solve one of the technical/design issues we had, we decided to actually expand the book. It is now a massive 384 pages! And at last count, there were over 400 photos with descriptions of over 50 different breeds, dozens of expert contributions, charts, graphs, appendices, an extensive bibliography, glossary and index. In fact, it is so big now that if you plan to order a copy, you may want to consider adding a buttress or two to the coffee table it will sit on.

And speaking of ordering, a brand new www.dogwilling.ca website will be launched in the next couple of weeks. You will be able to order the book directly from the site for quick convenient shipping to your front door (I hope you have a sturdy mail carrier!).

Stay tuned.


Wheels are in motion.


I just hope Murphy is on vacation!

An English system for German dogs?

Recently, a thread was started on the Working HPR gundog forum about the creation of a club for German hunting dog breeds in the United Kingdom. I found the subject very interesting and offered the following observations:


The development of our pointing breeds,British and continental, and the breeding, testing and registration systems we've invented for them has followed the ebb and flow of various cultural, social and political forces. Let's not forget that all the pointing breeds started in southern europe. They then spread across the continent and into the UK in the 1600s (longhaired setting dogs) and after the War of Spanish succession in 1715 (short haired pointing dogs "braque" and "old spanish pointers").Then for the next century and a half, they sort of languished on the continent, taking on regional characteristics but not really advancing beyond the fairly primitive model from the south.

Meanwhile in the UK, the 1700s and 1800s were years of unbridled innovation and advancement. Aided by the huge leap forward in livestock breeding techniques pioneered by Robert Bakewell in the 1770s, and driven by fierce competition within a growing class of nouveau riche, landed gentry and various other social climbers, pointing dog development shifted into high gear. British innovation, a genius for animal husbandry and the free enterprise system transformed long-haired setting dogs and short-haired pointing dogs into the various Setters and the Pointer.

And after the fall of Napoleon in 1815, these improved versions of the old breeds returned to the land of their ancestors. When they did, it was as if a bomb had gone of on the continental sporting scene. It is hard to overemphasis the impact. British Pointers and Setters were light years ahead of the continental breeds and stunned the dog-men of the day. Breeders across the continent stampeded to either get some of the dogs for themselves or to breed their dogs to them. Some even admitted it, many, due to nationalism and other social restrictions, did not. But it is safe to say that there is not a single, solitary pointing breed on the continent that does not have at least a drop or two of British blood in it. Some are clearly half breeds, others, more like 9/10th breeds.

The British influence is still very strong to this day. The English setter is the most popular pointing breed in France and Italy where over 20 thousand (!) are bred each year. Pointers are very popular everywhere and are still used (by the light of the moon) to add speed, range and nose to many breeds. The British competitive system of field trials and dog shows still dominates in many countries and now regularly produces Setters and Pointers that would run circles around their relatives back in the UK. So what happened?

Why are we now discussing setting up a German based non-competitive system in the UK? How did the Brits go from absolute monarchs of the pointing dog kingdom to net importers of types of dogs that the average 19th century English Sportsman would have considered curiosities at best, and wooly-haired pointing pigs at worst? Well it turns out that the "wooly-haired pointing pigs" were actually damn good dogs. And when the British pointing breeds made their way to the continent in the early 1800s, they rocked the world of hunters there. So breeders set their sights on building an even better mousetrap.

Some, like the French, Italians, Dutch, Danish adopted the British system of competitive trials and conformation shows. They now produce some of the best pointing dogs in the world. The Germans, Czechs, Slovaks and Hungarians came up with their own system of non-competitive tests. And they too succeeded in building better mousetraps for the average hunter that wanted a do-it-all kind of dog.

Meanwhile, back in Jolly Old England, it was the Brits' turn to let their pointing breeds languish. Pointers and Setters split into (mainly) show and (very few) field lines and the average British rough shooter migrated to spaniels and labs. Where there were once over a hundred kennels and dozens of lines of working Pointers and Setters, there were soon only a handful, if that.

So after couple of world wars and several decades of British servicemen and women being stationed in Germany and elsewhere, the continental breeds began to arrive on British shores. And they were no longer thought of as wooly-haired pointing pigs. They were now seen as fantastic do-it-all dogs that the Brits christened "HPRs".

The German breeds were the first to really take off. They rekindled interest in pointing dogs in the UK but found themselves to be a sort of square peg in a round hole. They were breeds from a system that was not based on field trials and dogs shows. They were products of a non-competitive all-round testing system.  But no such system existed in the UK. The only venue available to them to prove their abilities under judgment were field trials and dogs shows. So they adapted. Some, like the Weimaraner, became a mainly a show dog (and couch potato), others like the GSP retained and even improved some aspects of its working ability via the field trial system. But none of the German breeds were tested for the exact same things in the UK as they were tested for in German and so they tended to diverged from the original design.

So here we are today, wondering what sort of system could be established to reconcile two very  different approaches to breeding and proving pointing dogs. My answer is "I don't know'. The Brits could look at the North American model and systems like NAVHDA and go from there. Or they could just import, wholesale, the German system like some clubs have done in the US. But I am not British and I have no idea what sort of thing would stimulate enough interest and gain enough gravitas to succeed. However, I am an optimist, so I do believe that a system could be created or imported.

But here's the rub... and it is a big rub: I fear that the age of innovation and excellence in pointing dog breeding has come to an end. The very hunting culture for which our dogs were designed is in slow but steady decline and the doors now seem to be closed to new breeds or new initiatives.

Let's face it, the very essence of kennel clubs is not innovation, evolution or progress. Kennel clubs are  the social equivalent of aspic in which we seek to seal our breeds "as is" forever and ever, despite paying lip service to the idea of "improving" them. The last great systemic shakeup in pointing dogs, I believe, was the creation of NAVHDA in the very early 1970s and the creation of North America chapters of the German clubs in the 70s and 80s. So from here on out, despite all the improved communication the Internet has brought us and despite more exchange of genetic material via cheap travel and pet passports, inevitably, the pointing dog culture will become increasingly marginalized until it is truly a niche, within a niche, within a niche.

So does that mean one should not try to create a British system for HPR evaluation? No. Does it mean no one should try to form a UK chapter of a German breed club? I don't think so.

But what is does mean is that the task will become more difficult every year. So if you are going to do it, do it now. None of us is getting any younger -- when was the last time you saw a group of 20 somethings discussing dogs and hunting and testing and trials? The clock is ticking on the fate of hunting in many countries. This may be the last chance that the continental pointing dogs in the UK will ever have of getting their act together.