What's in a name?
Dog Willing
I love the French pointing breeds, braques, épagneuls and griffons. But there is one tiresome necessity that comes along with them breed: the need to explain their breed name to English speakers.
Read MorePointing Dog Blog
The world of pointing dogs in words and images, moving and still.
Drive vs Desire
Dog Willing
All well-bred gundogs, French or German, are hard-wired to seek contact with game. They are motivated by an inherited drive that pushes them to seek game and by an inherited desire that pulls them with the prospect of making contact with game. So what is the difference, in general, that I’ve observed among French and German dogs?
Read MoreThe Best Breed?
Dog Willing
On August 6 1892 an article calling for a massive public confrontation of English and French pointing breeds appeared in “Le Sport et Sportsman Réunis” a popular French sporting journal. The author, a well-known member of the canine establishment, issued a challenge to breeders of all the various breeds of pointing dog to put up or shut up.
Read MoreWhy NAVHDA?
Dog Willing
Let’s hop in a time machine to see if we can find out exactly when, and maybe even where the idea for an organization dedicated to the improvement of hunting dogs came from. We’ll set the time dial to ‘late 1800s’, the location dial to ‘somewhere in England’ and press Go.
Read MorePerdidit in Translatione
Dog Willing
History nerds, language geeks, dog freaks and setter fans, gather round! We all know what a setter is, right? You got your English, your Gordon, your Irish Red and your Irish Red and White. And they are called setters because they used to 'set' ie: lie down or set down when they come across hidden game. Right? Well, maybe not.
Read MoreCastle Gordon
Dog Willing
So this week’s rabbit hole took me all the way across the Atlantic to a “vast stone pile with castellated wings” about a 1 mile north east of Fochabers near the river Spey. I was drawn down the hole by Nathanial Parker Willis, a famous American writer and close friend of Edgar Allen Poe. In 1827 Willis travelled to London, hung out with Charles Dickens, then travelled to Scotland to visit a famous Duke who just happened to love dogs. Among the Duke’s dogs were greyhounds, bloodhounds and a specific string of black and tan setters that would become famous around the world when they were named after the Duke and his Castle. Today, we call those dogs and others related to them Gordon Setters.
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