“PRIOR TO THE BEGINNING OF THE 18TH CENTURY THERE WERE ONLY A SMALL NUMBER OF POINTERS IN GERMANY AnD IT IS DuRIng THIS CenTuRY bReeDIng exPeRImenTS weRe DOne TO ImPROve THe quAlITIeS OF THOSe geRmAn DOgS.”
time dogs, in addi- tion to other items, were exchanged as prized gifts. Period writings indicate a braque or point- ing dog was being used throughout Central Europe, France, Italy and Spain and its con- formation was very
on how to get there, evident by some of the earlier breed prototypes. It is important to note the use of lower case “p” in the spell- ing of “pointer” as this is an indication of an attribute and not a proper name as in the English Pointer breed. Italian, French and the mediterranean region of Spain pointer stock was used along with the original German pointer and subsequently the Hannover Hound. By 1872, breed development continued but a standard set in 1879 eliminated a large number of breeding stock for not exhibiting the legendary ancient German lineage, i.e. didn’t look like the early Ger- man pointers. In 1887 at a field trial, the body type of Waldin (wh. 7/26/1884) brought renewed vigor and a turn in breed- ing development occurred. As Germany unified, it along with the German pointer continued to evolve. Unfortunately, two world wars involv- ing Germany caused vast gaps in the breeding stock. Some kennels that flour- ished before WWII found rebuilding afterward di ffi cult. Th ere was little to no information about the kennels of East Ger- many as very little of the breeding stock
much like that of the modern German pointer. Th ese dogs were white with brown marking or white speckled or brown spot- ted and hunted with their noses held high and highly sought after. With the improvement of firearms, it was popular to shoot birds on the fly and the use of pointers came into its own. By the middle of the 18th century, pointers were being used all over Europe as well as the British Isles. After the 1848 revolution the non-aristocracy of Germany had an opportunity to participate in shooting and subsequently own gundogs. Prior to the beginning of the 18th century there were only a small number of pointers in Germa-
ny and it is during this century that breed- ing experiments were done to improve the qualities of those German dogs. Since little was recorded not much was known about the results other than most of the crosses were done with dogs indigenous to Ger- many as Herr Seiger states, “ Th ere was no deeper knowledge in the art of breeding to play a major part in old-time Germany.” He further stated that breeders bred as they liked, but all were in agreement that they wanted a dog that would be an excellent performer in any type of work, whether in the field, forest or water. Th ey knew where they wanted to go and it was pretty much an educated guess
“bY 1872, bReeD DevelOPmenT COnTInueD buT A STAnDARD SeT In 1879 ELIMINATED A LARGE NUMBER
OF BREEDING STOCK FOR nOT exHIbITIng THe legenDARY AnCIenT geRmAn lIneAge...”
214 • S HOW S IGHT M AGAZINE , O CTOBER 2014
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