Fritz seemed like a good name …
Never having a GSP before we weren’t sure what to call him. We were used to English dogs either with long hair or short hair, mostly white and will long tails. He was really different looking and normal dog names didn’t seem to fit.
So we settled on Fritz - I know not that creative but alteast is sounded German - somehow it seemed to fit. So Fritz it was and it was Fritz who taught me what a bird dog should be.
Not that the Elhew pointers and Grouse Ridge Setters were bad dogs, no not at all. But Fritz was different. He had a need for human interaction and human contact. He was the first bird dog I had ever been around that didn’t try to avoid your stare. He would look me right in the eye. As if to say “What do you want me to do?”
From Fritz I learned that the German Dogs were much more bidable than the English dogs. At the time I didn’t know why but I knew what I was seeing - and I liked it.
Is that a coon dog with no tail?
When I first got him he was timid and nervous. He had strayed in about 3 months after hunting season to a farmer’s house. While I didn’t know it at the time I came to believe he had been shot at by his owner. In those days – before electric collars – people would “pepper” their dogs with the pellets from a shotgun when they got out of range or were running rabbits.
He was poor but he had done a good job of living off the land. And while he was friendly there was an undercurrent of distrust. All in all nothing a little extra food and a little extra lovin’ couldn’t fix.
He was a small for a male German Shorthaired Pointer especially compared to some of the overly large strains in those days. Dark liver and roan patched – a truly classic looking coat. But to someone who grew up with English Pointers he looked like some kind of a coon dog with no tail.
The Right Stud Dog
I remember talking with The Ol’ Pointer Guys about how important the stud dog was in their breeding programs. While each of them had a slightly different take on it they all agreed that while the sire of the litter was important it wasn’t as important as how many crosses you had to “the same old dog” - meaning a dog that was long since dead.
So in picking a German Shorthaired Pointer Stud Dog look deep into the pedigree to see what is behind him. If he comes from the same line of dogs he is more likely to be able to throw the traits that line is famous for. Why else would you be breeding to him?
The First Shorthair Pups I Ever Saw
I will never forget the first litter of German Shorthaired Pointer Pups For Sale I ever saw. Actually they weren’t 100% Shorthair - they were half Brits. And while most of them were roan all of them had at least some red hairs.
In the area I grew up it was not unusual for people to have “dropper” pups on purpose. It was believed that the pups from two purebred dogs were not so hyper and easier to handle. Remember in those days people didn’t have electric collars so dogs being out of control was much more of an issue than it is today.
Most of the time at least one of the dogs used would be a pointer or a setter which were considered to be the only “real” birddogs. I can’t say I ever saw any really good dogs come from these crossbred litters but people generally believed in the concept. For me all it did was cement the idea that a purebred bird dog was the way to go.
Linebreeding and Me …
My first understanding of linebreeding came from listening to The Old Pointer Guys. These were bird dog people who grew up in the middle of Quail Country in the Great Depression. They literally walked to country schools and learned how to cypher.
Maybe their reading and writing lacked some but boy could they ever trap and shoot. They were forced to live off the land when they were growin’ up. And the Quail were abundant. I remember old homesteads that helds 3 to 4 coveys per 80 acres even when I was a kid - which was at the tailend of the Great Quail Populations.
These good ol’ boys knew their bird dogs to say the least. They would raise a litter and keep only one pup. The other’s made the ‘bone pile’ behind the barn. And when they talked about how to bred the best bird dogs they would say “Yah gotta have lots of rear crosses to the same ol’ dog”
They couldn’t pronounce homozygosity let alone spell it but they knew what it meant. They knew that linebreeding on the get and grand-get of a great dog kept the greatness around. And they had great dogs.
You can read more about how knowing The Ol’ Pointer Guys has influenced the way I breed German Shorthairs today by using the link in the blogroll section.
My First German Shorthair
My first GSP was given to me when I was 16 years old. He changed the way I look at bird dogs. Unlike the English Pointers my father had this German Shorthair would look me in the eye to see what it was I wanted it to do.
Boy was that different …
Over the coming posts I will give more details on how this first German Shorthaired Pointer changed my life. Or you can just visit my site - it tells all about what people now call Westwind Kennels.