Home Forums Birds & Dogs Hunting Dogs German Short-haired Pointers - Comment?

Care to comment? I'm thinking late next spring.

Cautions?
Opinions?

Harold

Never owned one myself, but have known several. Fabulous upland bird dogs, loads of personality, but need LOTS of room to run.
M

I haven't owned one either, but have known serveral and they were very smart dogs. Not to mention sociable and gorgeous too.

I've had one for a year and a half now. She's from good lines, but really shows little desire to point anything. She's young and I haven't really gotten her as much work as I had planned on when I bought her, but to this point, I'm not really impressed. I will also say that this is my first pointer, so I'm sure the learning curve is against me here too. We'll see what happens in the nex couple of years.

Had one for 13yrs, 2 year break by the wifes orders, she couldnt deal with losing her, just got a pup in Feb. You need a lot of time and they need PLENTY of exercise!
If our old gal went two days without a good long run she would start doing laps around the dining room table. For like 45 minutes. Our new pup just gets downright ornery if she doesnt get run daily. Shes chasing robins, but does not really point yet. All in all, I love em to death.

Have had three. Fantastic dogs. Methodical, very good retrievers, good water dog in decent climates, superb noses, mine would hunt themselves to death ... I needed to watch one in particular to keep him from getting heatstroke. He never knew when to quit.

Two were absolute sweethearts. The male, however, had a bad temperament. He would bite kids. Also, I wear a scar on my ring finger from another Shorthair that bit me when I was 7.

Some lines have absolutely unbelievable style on point. I had liver-and-roan, but I think liver-on-white Shorthairs are drop-dead gorgeous.

I'm doing Springers now, but I would do another Shorthair. Great hunting dogs.

rb

I've had 8 I think. Trying to remember. Great dogs from field lines. Lot's of energy. Can't think of any real down sides to them. Also have had 6 English Pointers and trained a good number of English setters, Britt's and a few Vislas so my opinion of GSP's is not without something to compare them to.

Some are runners and some want to stay close. The trend today is toward the runners and these are harder to train as they are on go all the time. A good one will do it all but requires a lot more time and training then the ones that stay close and those dogs often stay so close that they are in your lap when you set down. Think of it this way: Most dogs will hunt but the good ones will mind with very little training on the hunting part as it comes natural. And the dog that is busy running hard has very little time to learn to mind your commands.

Don't think you can expect anything in particular. If you get a recent import from German lines or dog from an "Americanized" line, there will be huge differences in range, build, sharpness, to mention a few. Do your research into the breeder before making a decision.

I've hunted over several shorthairs. They always look like they are starving to death..... Fine dogs, mostly, but the bounding-thing somewhat irritates me, and they don't have a tail I can see in tall brush. JMO, Dutch.

I am on my 3rd and 4th GSP's. If you do your homework on the parent dogs, you'll have excellent family, house and bird dogs.

My two dogs love being with children and are rock steady. They are from hunting lines, small for the breed, naturally work close to medium, and have pointed since 8 weeks old.

For upland and family dogs, if chosen carefully, they are my preference.

My friends have had shorthairs. Can only speak of the ones I have been around. They don't seem to like real cold weather. Don't like water, crossing creeks, etc. if cold. They always seemed to cut easy, milo stalks, barbed wire, thin skinned I would say. Some have been a little "watch yourself" or get bit, tempermental some days just fine, others seem grumpy. I guess am saying they have a personality of themselves & what they want to do, not one that they will do what ever you want, when you want it. Like most labs, they want to hunt for themselves.

Usually good hunters, good noses. As they say before, you will have to make sure you aren't getting a BIG RUNNING field trial blood line, or they will do just that RUN BIG, & you will think you need binoculars & a helicopter to keep up. That is fine if you hunt great big open flat fields, they will cover the ground for you. It is just what you want, these guys I hunted with were field trial competitors. Like all breeds try to fit what you want to the dog.

I actually have one and have had for bird seasons and hunted over many others, also hunted over pointers, setters and brits extensively.

GSP's on the whole are NOT worried about water or wet cover, thick cover, or cold all of these DO apply to the pointer or english pointer as some call them.

Shorthairs are family oriented, they do make good guard dogs and can be sharp if the owner doesn't take the time to properly introduce people to the dog. They are very smart and a bit stubborn. They like any other dog can vary in mannerisms. However they generally have superior noses, drive and point to all but the pointers, and that's a wash. They do not run as big as pointers in general but they are very natural retrievers which pointers are not. They are eager to please and tough dogs. They are easy to maintain witht he short dense coat, they do shed some.

Bear in mind that there is as much variance in dogs as in the pointing breeds. GSP's do tend to be mainly hunting dogs with most all kennels leaning to working rather than show dogs.

A fine kennel with outstanding dogs is Honey Run Shorthairs out of PA. Good looking and performing dogs. You might look at the sight.

Know what you want and how the breed you are looking at fits that desire. GSP's can live in the house and hunt awesome, they do require excersise and a commitment to properly train them for field and home.

I have had four. two in the past and two at present. I live in wisconsin and hunt upper michigan grouse, wisconsin grouse,south dakota pheasant and nebraska sharptail.I have never had a problem with cold temps. Actually the dam dogs love the cold snowy days best of all.
As for temperment I can honestly say that I have read so many articles about the gsps being so high strung and needing a lot of room to run and that they dont make good family dogs that I could PUKE.
Of all of the people that I know of that have shorthairs will totaly disagree with the typical things stated about the breed.
They are great hunters very loveable family pets, and your best friend no matter the day you have had.
Good luck and go for it.

Look into NAVHDA lines. "Hunting" lines that are straight AKC appear to me to have a lot of Field Trial emphasis which is where the run comes from that others have mentioned. Field trialers can be bird finding machines but much harder for average guy/gal to handle.

The hard to handle thing means the handler needs training most of the time. I'd recommend using the Wolters book [/i]"Gun Dog"[i] for pointing dogs and [/i]"Water Dog"[i] for retrievers as a starting point. Dogs aren't a mystery to train if you have an idea of what you are doing. Like children consistancy and understanding they aren't as smart as you makes all the difference.

You may not want a field trial dog because the hunting traits they have do not fit your style. Most foot hunters do not want a dog that makes 600 yard casts or doesn't retrieve. Many hunters want pointing dogs to be in gun range and that's just silly. Know how the dogs from that line hunt and what you really want before you make a choice.

There is as much variation in dogs of the same litter as between breeds, remember that.

If you look at the original standards of MOST of the versatile European breeds, you will find that those breeds are SUPPOSED to hunt "under the gun".

If you don't want a close hunting dog, don't choose one of those breeds. If you want a dog that "runs big" pick a BREED that suits your desire, don't turn a BREED into something it is not.

The Deutsch Kurzhaar standard calls for a close hunting dog for the foot hunter. If that's not what you want, get something else. JMO, Dutch.

It is not reasonable to expect a GSP to stay inside 40 yards, if you want that get a lab or a springer or some such. A Munsterlander may stay that close.

If you want to have a dog that makes 600 yard casts, get a pointer. JMO, Dutch.

I don't want a boot licker or a 1/4 mile dog and thusly I run a GSP who is a 3250 max more like 125 most of the time dog. He isn't underfoot and he isn't in the next county a perfect foot hunting dog. My caution was that most foot hunters do not want the 600 yard dog and if you want one always in gun range avoid a pointing dog because they aren't wired that way.

All ist klar?

I'm on my fourth GSP and love the breed. My favorite was my third whose name was Homer and he died of cancer at eight. I've included his picture. He would break through 1/2" of bank ice on a river to get a mallard in single digits, hold on a woodcock a foot away. He pointed and retrieved his first bird(cockbird pheasant) at eight months. Best retrieve was a wounded male woodie clinging to root underwater. The dog came up with him.
What a dog! A real blessing from the Lord!

Qtip
Soli Deo Gloria