German Shorthaired Pointer Breed History

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- Presents a Short History of the German Shorthaired Pointer -

Westwind GSPs are steeped in the history of the breed. German Shorthaired Pointers have an interesting history that has been the subject of several books. This is an abbreviated look at the most important mile stones and the events surrounding the development of German Shorthairs and some of the best German Shorthair Breeders of all time.

What Americans refer to as the German Shorthaired Pointer is known in Germany as simply the Kurzhaar (Shorthair) and in Europe as the Deutsch Kurzhaar. To the originators of the breed, pointing was only one of the many traits the German Shorthair should possess. Therefore a good portion of the breed’s ancestry was derived from the various hounds of the day as well as from the Spanish Pointer, English Pointer and Arkwright Pointer - that were used at various times to reinforce pointing instinct.

It would be more accurate to consider German Shorthaired Pointers, especially before 1900, as scent hunters. In Europe our breed, along with other sporting breeds, is often referred to simply as a Barque - a French word which loosely translates into “hounds hunting by scent.” The German Shorthairs of today owe their superior tracking abilities to the early introduction of scent hounds into the genetic make up of the breed.

However, one of the most common misconceptions about the GSP - that English Bloodhounds were used in putting the breed together - owes its origin to a simple translation error. Early English speaking breed historians read from original accounts that Schweisshunds (a German word that means Bloodhounds) were used and assumed that meant English Bloodhounds. Blood Scenting Hounds were an existing class of dogs developed in Germany to trail wounded big game. Specifically the Hanovarian Schweisshunds and the Wiemaraner had been developed in Germany from the St Hubert Hund and the early French Gascon Hounds.

In the very early years, before the advent of firearms, the focus was on developing a dog that could hunt both fur and feather from both land and water at night without commands. At this time the nobility and wealthy landlords had huge kennels of specialized dogs - pointing dogs, trailing dogs, retrieving dogs. They were Falconers that did most of their hunting with birds of prey in daylight. The Kurzaar, unlike the Wiemaraner that was developed by the royalty of the Wiemar Republic, was very much the dog of the common man.

It is important to our breed today that those less fortunate were forced to feed their family by hunting game with nets at night in a manner that would be consider poaching by today’s standards. Because of this it was also a good idea for their dog to be quiet enough to be kenneled indoors so no one would know it existed. It is from this social dynamic that the very earliest dogs were developed. Today the German Shorthair is still known for being and exceptionally biddable family dog that can do virtually anything in the field.

Unlike nearly every other sporting breed the German Shorthaired Pointer wasn’t developed from the inbreeding of a single specimen. Most breeds and virtually every line of sporting dog are the result of the liberal and purposeful use of a particular specimen who possessed the desired characteristics of the breeder. In tracing our dogs back to the very beginning of the German Stud Dog Books we noticed something very interesting. There are many places that the pedigrees would eventually end with “Sire Unknown” “Dame Unknown” and they were not the same animal.

Oddly, when the breed was first recognized and records of actual breedings were being kept the Kurzaar hadn’t even developed into a recognizable type. The result being that our modern Greman Shorthair genepool comes from many different sources. The drawings and early photos of Kurzhaars clearly show this. Some of them were:

Hector I whelped in 1872 – the No 1 entry in the original German Studbook - was white and liver. Yes, there have always been white and liver German Shorthairs. Many of the early German breeders would dunk the whites because they didn’t want their Deutsch Kurzhaar to resemble the English Pointer. Much to their frustration they were unable to eliminate the white coats. What they didn’t understand was that white is a recessive gene that is carried by animals that aren’t white themselves - like red hair and blue eyes in humans.

Feldmann I, an early experimental animal, who looked more like a Basset Hound was tri-colored. Yes, there are still a few tri-colors born today - although most are quickly killed by ignorant breeders who assume that something they didn’t know about must have happened at breeding. NFC/FC Patrica von Frulord who won both National Field Trial Championships in 1971 was a tri-color. Normally a tri-color will have a small patch or two that is tan in color.

Treff 1010 whelped in 1881 - an important early dog used for his energy and drive - was solid brown. Because the patching gene that allows a dog to be a solid color is a dominant gene every solid dog alive today will trace back to him. We have dogs in our genepool that we have traced back to Treff 1010, largely through his descendent Axel vom Wasserschling who was used so often by the Germans after World War II.

And then there is a dog named Golo Holzweiler who was whelped in 1902 clearly from an English Pointer cross. His stellar field performance is solidly behind most of the successful German lines developed before World War II. These were the great field dogs that were imported by early American enthusiasts. The names of the German kennels are familiar to breed historians today. These were the Sudwests, Blitzdorfs, Radbachs, Beekes, Wildburgs, and Beckums that are behind all Westwind GSPs of today.

In 1912, fearing loss of pigmentation and eye color, the Germans outcrossed to the solid black Arkwright Pointers. It is from this cross to the magnificent solid black Pointers done in Prussia that we get the black dogs of today. Carried for some time in a separate Prussian Kurzhaar Stud Book these dogs have for generations been recognized as Kurzhaars in Germany. Because black is a dominant gene one of the parents of every black Kurzhaar had to have been black. Some of the great German dogs of the past generation trace directly back to this influx of pure pointer genes.

Mars Altenau whelped in 1914 - was a traditional tick-patched breed pillar. It really wasn’t until his time that the early dogs would have been recognizable as a German Shorthair by today’s standards. In fact the majority of Kurzaars that existed previous to WWI didn’t much resemble German Shorthairs of today. Unlike most breeds that were developed by a single person from the get of a single speciman the German Shorthaired Pointer was developed by many people - each with their own ideas as to what mix of existing dogs should be included. Therefore the dogs looked very different from one another and carried very different genes even though they were registered as Kurzhaars.

Often there were heated arguments among the original breeders as to what the new Deutsch Kurzhaar should look like and how best to breed this versatile dog. Most of the breeders before 1900 felt that "ideal form" needed to be bred for. There was much ill-advised nationalistic pride involved in the decisions made by these early breeders. Oddly the Germans didn’t have an identifiable bird dog. The English had their pointer – developed from crossing the Old Spanish Pointer with Fox Hounds. The French had their Braque Francias de Petite Taille (Small French Pointer) that looked very much like modern dogs. But the Germans didn’t have their own pointing dog.

Although the Klub Kurzhaar had been organized in the 1870s it wasn’t until after 1900 the idea that “form will follow function” was adhered to by most breeders. The acceptance of this idea lead the Germans to develop their testing system. Originally it was meant to simply be a way to publicly demonstrate the traits of dogs that might be used at stud by other breeders. Dr. Kleemann, after whom their most important competition the Kleemann Seiger or KS was named, was the person most responsible for championing this line of thought.

Inside Germany the Kurzhaar underwent tremendous consolidation following WWI, with breed development reaching a crescendo of incredible progress by the 1930s. The German National Dog had finally arrived and it started to draw the interest of sportsmen from around the world. The German breeders were ecstatic that people who had been importing dogs from England, Ireland and France for years were finally interested in their dog. Their response was to put their best foot forward and send some of their very best blood to the United States, Denmark and England. Interestingly they sent no blacks and only a few solid brown dogs to the US and a large number of really nice white and liver dogs to Denmark.

It was from the dogs originally sent to Dr Thorton of Wyoming as early as 1925 as well as Jack Shattuck of Minnesota, Joseph Burkhart of Wisconsin and Walter Mangold of Nebraska in the 1930s that our breed standard was written. Which is why black and tri-color were expressly excluded from the AKC breed standard even though they were clearly being registered in Germany at the time. From these original imports the old American lines like Columbia River, Pheasant Lane, Big Island, Schwarenburg, Waldwinkle, Strauss, Oak-Crest, etc. were developed. All of which are gone today - having been absorbed into and forming the basis for other lines.

The Danish developed a love for the beautiful white dogs they originally received. All of these dogs descended from Nikita v Dubro Glinosee (whelped in Germany in 1917) who stamped his stellar body type on future generations. He was solidly behind Holevgaard’s Wotan II - the Danish taproot who carried Nikita’s traits forward into the Moesgaard, Doktogaarden and Skovmarken dogs. Unlike the Germans the Danish didn’t try to eliminate the recessive white gene.

And then it happened World War II. Hitler invaded Poland virtually overnight. Although the first part of World War II went very well, Germany would eventually suffer the devastation of being over run by Allied Forces. Knowing that they were going to be over run, the Nazis hid all of their most precious treasures. The Germans hid their gold, their diamonds, their artwork, their Lipizzaner Stallions and their Kurzhaars.

Germans transported their very best dogs to Yugoslavia where they would be safe. Unfortunately for the breed Yugoslavia ended up being behind the Iron Curtain after WWII - leaving what became West Germany without access to the best dogs. In addition, as the Allied forces overran Germany most breeders were forced to throw open their kennel doors and let the remaining dogs run so they would have a chance at saving themselves during the invasion.

Therefore, following World War II the West Germans were faced with rebuilding their beloved Kurzhaars from a very limited genepool. The United States, Denmark, Russia and even England had access better specimens than were left in West Germany. This is a historical fact that is often over looked. When listening to even knowledge people talk about the history of the breed it is as though World War II never happened, or it is as though WWII had no effect on the breed in Germany - which simply isn’t true.

While the Germans struggled to rebuild their lives as well as the Kurzhaar, the German Shorthaired Pointer enjoyed a time of phenomenal improvement in the United States during the prosperity that following World War II. American soldiers like Dick Johns and Bob Holcomb made lasting friendships with key German Breeders and imported a few key animals. Hjalmer Olsen imported one Danish National Champion after another from his homeland. And there was the chance importation of a single Austrian dog named Greif v. Hundsheimerkogl into California.

Although the war in Europe had limited the importation of any new blood for nearly 10 years things came together nicely after WWII - to make the 1950s a time of very significant advancement for the GSP in the United States. What happened here was similar to what had happened in Germany during the 1930s. The new imports had the good fortune of being breed into the existing American dogs that had been so meticulously line breed from German's very best stock by the knowledgeable breeders who cherished them.

It could be argued that 1968 was the zenith for the German Shorthair in the United States. In that year three of the top four finishers at the AKC National Field Trial Championship already had their Show Titles. This was the era of the true Dual Champion – the single most difficult title for any German Shorthaired Pointer to earn anywhere in the world. While the Germans have had thousands of KS dogs (as many as 37 in one recent year) America had less than 200 DCs in the first 50 years of AKC sanctioned completion. In fact it became so difficult to achieve a Dual Championship that the AKC lessened the requirements a couple of years ago.

There is another dynamic that is a significant threat to the German Shorthair world-wide. Societies are becoming less and less tolerant of hunting and hunters. As more and more people grow up in urban environments disconnected from nature and its harsh realities this will likely continue. Unfortunately, hunting has all but vanished in the countries that were so important to the development of the Deutsch Kurzhaar.

Denmark made hunting illegal long ago - gone are the great kennels of Denmark and their wonderful field dogs. The German’s haven’t had bird hunting, as we know it, for a generation and they are now forced to hold their prized killing of a predator test outside of the borders of Germany. Even Australia recently gave up gun ownership and their fine GSPs will no doubt suffer from it and fall into the uselessness that bemoans any pet breed. While the English still have limited bird hunting their habitat consists of broken up very small fields so different from the great plains of the America. So it falls on the United States and Canada to continue to test and develop the bird hunting GSP for future generations of sportsmen.

It is from the heyday of the true Dual Champion that our breeding stock was selected. We were fortunate enough to know breeders who were steadfast in their attitudes about the importance of the Dual Champion. These were people who had successfully blended the superior US stock with the German imports of the 1950s to create a truly amazing example of what the German Shorthaired Pointer should be. We trust that you can see this in our Westwind dogs.

We have dedicated ourselves to keeping this vision of German Shorthairs alive - if not in title in type.

At Westwind GSPs we remain committed to breeding superior animals. We believe strongly in testing our line bred stock in the toughest arena left - the wild game birds of the Great Plains. Everyone is aware that there are less than ethical people breeding German Shorthairs today - individuals that chase ego driven titles. We have been DNA mapping our dogs for a long time and challenge others to do the same. We aren’t swayed by the latest fades or the hot new National Champion - having seem them come and go time and again.

We remain committed to breeding Serious Bird Dogs for Serious Bird Hunters by preserving our proven and time honored genepool. We believe that breeding true to type is breeding true to the bred. If your attitudes about the German Shorthair are similar we invite you to contact us. If nothing else we can talk dogs.

- Gary Hutchison