America’s sporting press was booming in the late 1800s. And, like the sporting press of today, if featured articles on hunting, fishing, firearms, dogs and field trials. But back in the day, many sporting magazines and newspapers also included articles on everything from poultry shows to yacht races, to poetry and opera. Here is an extract from a weekly newspaper called The Fanciers' Journal: Devoted to Dogs, Poultry, Pigeons & Pet Stock. It features a photo of two field trial handlers and their dogs. One of the dogs, Pitti-Sing, may have been named after one of the characters in Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta, The Mikado which opened in 1885 and was still running at the time the photo was taken.
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Sketches made by our special artist at the field trial for dogs, held September 10, 11, and 12, at Westport Lake, in the vicinity of Sauk Centre, Minnesota, under the auspices of the Minnesota Kennel Club.
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The Pointer is still a relatively popular breed in North American and across Continental Europe. But in it’s homeland, the UK, the breed has languished at the low end of the popularity list for over 100 years.
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Here is another nugget I’ve come across as I research various breeds for Volume Two. Like the previous post, it features a Russian Setter, but this time, the story is about shooing snipe in Delaware, in the spring. It appears in a book published in 1853 entitled “American Game in its seasons, etc.” by Henry William Herbert.
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Why does it take me so long to write my books? Well, for one, I get lost down rabbit holes. Here’s what happens: I come to a part in a chapter where I need to gather bit more information on a particular aspect of a breed, region of the world, or of a particular period in history. So I open a book, or go online to see what I can find. Yet despite my best efforts to spend an hour or two looking only for what I need, I end up going down some obscure rabbit hole that occupies me for the next week.
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First, the bad news: There's a storm on the horizon, and we are not doing enough to prepare for it. Now, the good news: We've weathered a similar storm before and not only did we survive, but the storm gave birth to our modern pointing dogs.
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