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
that existed 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 even 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 well 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 not even
in the same decade.
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
Grerman Shorthair genepool comes from many different sources. The drawings
and early photos of Kurzhaars clearly show this. Some
of the more important dogs were:
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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
hair is a
recessive gene that is carried by animals that aren’t white themselves - like
red hair and blue eyes in humans. Recessive genes are
nearly impossible to completely breed out.
Feldmann I,
an early experimental animal, who
looked more like a Basset Hound was even 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. Most German
Shorthair fanciers are of the mistaken impression that solid brown is a color
when in fact it is genetically a patch - one solid patch that covers the entire
dog. Because this
patching gene (that allows a dog to be
one solid color) is a
dominant gene every solid
dog (either brown or black) alive today will trace back to
Treff 1010. We have dogs in our genepool that we
have traced back to Treff 1010, largely through his
descendent Axel vom Wasserschling
the solid liver
who was used so often by the Germans after World War II.
Another interesting thing about Treff 1010 is his number. Although he was
79 in the German Stud Dog Books he is known by Treff 1010 because he was dog
1010 in the Austrian Stud Dog Books. The Austrians were actually
registering Kurzhaars years before the Germans - maybe they should
rightfully be known as Austrian Shorthair.
And
then there was 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.
Not only did Golo have the characteristic dish face of an English pointer, his
coat was short and of a white and brown ticked nature very similar to that of an
English Pointer. Interestingly his coat color was rapidly absorbed by the
dominant roan ticking gene of the German dogs he was bred to - there were
virtually no white descendents of Golo even a generation later.
The white dogs
developed by the Germans - thru their attempt to rid themselves of white - are
of a different genetic code than the white of the English Pointer. While
white is a dominant gene in the English Pointer it is a recessive gene in the
German Shorthair - all of the dominant genes were culled. Genetically
white hair in the German Shorthair coat is what geneticists call "self colored"
or without pigment - genetically the same as the "blue" hair in breeds like the
Austrian Healer and Great Dane. Furthermore the white hair on a German
Shorthair is longer and much softer than the pigmented hair on the same dog.
This fact accounts for the fussy outline of one side of a patch on a real German
Shorthair - as the longer white hair in the ticked area overlaps the edge of the
patch giving it a fuzzy outline.
In addition the
recessive white of a true German Shorthair has a translucence to it - much
different than the short, coarse and opaque white hair of an English Pointer.
Some of the original Danish dogs imported into this country after WWII had hair
on the back of their hind legs long enough to nearly resemble the feathers on
and English Setter. If your dog's coat has short coarse opaque white hair
that is the same length as its pigmented hair you might have good reason to
believe that its coat color didn't come from the recessive white gene developed
by the German breeders more than a century ago. In fact it was the
softness of the white coat {which didn't dry out as quick} and the corresponding
lack of pigment on the pads of the feet which the old Germans felt made the pad
less tough that drove them to try and eliminate the white coat in their
versatile dog. So contrary to popular lore not all modern white coats are
the result of illegal pointer crosses - although some clearly are.
In 1912,
fearing loss of pigmentation and eye color, the Germans outcrossed to the solid
black Arkwright Pointers. It is from this cross to these
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 born since 1912 had to have been black.
Therefore some of the great German dogs of the past
generation trace directly back to this influx of pure pointer genes.
For years the black dogs accounted for as few as 5% of the dogs registered in
Germany, but over the last decade their numbers have steady increased with
estimates as high as 20% of pups being born in Germany today are black - many of
those solid black. The black dogs survived largely because of the efforts
of the Pottmes Kennel - which is solidly behind many of the top performing dogs
in Germany today.
It is truly
amazing how ignorance contributes to so many myths about black German
Shorthairs. Over the years we have heard so called experts state as "fact'
that black has to be the result of illegal breeding to black and white English
Pointers or of all things Labradors. And many show people seem to be
worried that once the black gene is introduced into the show ring that it will
take over the genetic code. Nothing could be further from the truth.
With black being a dominant gene it must be displayed in one of the parents or
no puppies from any resulting litter or from the decedents of any resulting
litter could possibly be black. Actually it is more of a wonder that any
blacks survived until today.
Virtually all of the traditional liver and roan coated
shorthairs trace back to Mars Altenau whelped in 1914 - who 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 specimen the German
Shorthaired Pointer was developed by many
people. Each of these
original breeders had 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 all registered
as Kurzhaars.
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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
breed 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 explains 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. Virtually all of the lines
developed in North America before WWII were tick patched dogs, with a few solid
brown dogs thrown in.
The Danish
however developed a love for the beautiful white dogs they originally
received from Germany. All of these dogs descended
from Nikita v Dubro Glinosee (whelped in
Germany in 1917) who stamped his stellar body type
and recessive white gene on all future Danish 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 white coat - in fact they bred for it.
When any breeder breeds recessives genes together he will only produce recessive
genes - as the dominant genes were permanently eliminated long ago. This
explains the extremely high percentage of white dogs in Denmark in the middle of the
last century.
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And then it
happened 1939 - World War II started. 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. By the end of the war the
Germans knew they were going to suffer defeat. Knowing that they were going to be over run, the
Nazis hid all of their most precious treasures
- they hid their gold, their diamonds,
their artwork, their Lipizzaner Stallions and their Kurzhaars.
The
Germans transported their
very best dogs to Yugoslavia and
Czechoslovakia where they would be safe.
Unfortunately for the breed these countries ended up being behind the
Iron Curtain after WWII.
As Germany was divided after WWII
- it left what became West Germany without access to the best
Kurzhaars. In addition, as the Allied
forces overran Germany most breeders
inside Germany 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. The toll on the gene pool that
survived in West Germany was horrific.
Therefore,
following World War II the West
Germans were faced with rebuilding their beloved Kurzhaars
from a very limited genepool. The United States, Denmark,
England and even Russia had access
to better specimens than
the West Germans. 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 important Breeders
during the reconstruction of Germany and
imported a few key animals when they returned home. 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 effectively limited the
importation of any new blood for nearly a decade
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. These dogs had been meticulously line breed from some of German's very best stock by
the knowledgeable breeders who cherished them. Dogs with genetic material
perfect for the new imports.
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 53 in one recent year) America had less than 200 DCs in the first 50 years of AKC
sanctioned competition. In fact it became so difficult to achieve a Dual
Championship that the AKC lessened the requirements a couple
of years ago.
Today, unfortunately, there is a major social 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
by animal rights people 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
North
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.
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Here at Westwind
GSPs we feel this responsibility and take it very serious.
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 successfully
blended the superior US stock that existed after WWII with the
few key 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 influence in the Westwind GSPs of today.
We have
dedicated ourselves to keeping this vision of the German Shorthair alive
- if not in title in
type.
At Westwind
GSPs we remain committed to breeding superior animals. We believe strongly in testing our linebred stock
in the toughest arena left - hunting wild
game birds
on the Great Plains of North
America. Everyone is aware that there are less than ethical people
breeding German Shorthairs today - individuals
pursuing ego driven titles - that
knowingly bastardize the German Shorthair. 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 our goal of 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