GSP History

After Napoleon

There was another influx of Spanish pointers into Germany brought back by officers of the Guelphic Legion after the wars against Napoleon. By 1813 pointers were becoming ever more popular, as is well illustrated by the following extract from Freiherr von der Borch:

"In recent times so unfavorable for hunting many changes have occurred. The Limehounds have entirely disappeared, as have the Bulldogs, and the number of Bloodhounds has been considerably diminished. Meanwhile the demand for the picturesque pointer has increased. And now this dog is promoted to something like a 'factotum' by many active hunters. Not only in the field chase does he prove himself to be untiring, but also in water he neither shuns cold or hardship, he trials, points and retrieves all types of small game."

In Germany the feudal traditions lingered for a long time and it was not until after the revolution of 1848 that ordinary people had the opportunities to do any shooting and therefore own shooting dogs. And what pointing dogs there were, were owned by the aristocracy and big landlords. After 1870 we come to the period when the conformation of the German Shorthair as we know him today became settled. Up to this time breeding had been haphazard and amateur, but, after 1872 a number of Germans set about trying to breed a stable form of dog which would have the qualities that they required of their dogs in the field. And they proceeded to set about it with typical Teutonic thoroughness; in the same year a Pedigree Register was set up with the first dog called Hector I. Hector looks to us today distinctly weird, and it seems strange that they could not find a better-looking dog to start the register.

In any event, by 1887, considered by the expert Dr. Kleeman as the turning point in the history of these dogs, there appeared a dog called Waldin. He was a fine-looking all-brown dog and he caught the fancy of those who were seeking for the ideal pointing dog. He was mated with a good bitch called Holla Hoppenrade, who had won prizes for conformation in London. There was some confusion among the leading breeders when it was discovered that the new carefully bred "ideal" digs were being beaten in the field by distinctly badly proportioned dogs. However this was over-come by more careful breeding, and it was not long before "ideal" dogs were winning in the field. They achieved this by well-planned line breeding, and inbreeding to only the best individuals of the established families. The experience they had gained was added to by applying the new theories of Dr Mendel, and in order to put their experiments to the test they evolved a series of "Derbies" and utility trials by which to select only the best dogs who showed real promise and achievement in the field.

There was a club for breeders and owners who were interested in breeding and the members submitted to a remarkable degree of control. Members only mated their dogs as advised by a committee and in this way the club completely controlled the breed. These unique authoritarian methods certainly produced some very fine dogs, and we have to thank them for breeding the kind of dog we have in England today. The result is that this breed is still more or less of a pure "working" strain, and so far this is about the only breed of gundog that has not suffered at the hands of the professional breeders. In most of the well-known gundog breeds there are today two distinct divisions, the working gundog and the show dog; in most instances they are not interchangeable and neither would do any good at the other's job. We have to accept that this trend has come to stay, and the tragedy is that as the years go by the division will get deeper, and there is no doubt that after several generations of breeding for show purposes only, the natural hunting, retrieving and pointing instincts will get weaker. On the other hand the confirmation of the show dogs will differ more and more from that of the working dogs. It might be said that the trend could be avoided by shooting-men mating their dogs with good show dogs. The answer to this is that they are reluctant to do so because for some reason it seems to follow that if you breed a gundog for several generations for show purposes only, you get a nervous temperament in the dog which is the last thing you want in a shooting dog.