Home Forums Birds & Dogs Hunting Dogs Pointing Griffons

Based on the recent offering in the classifieds plus research of my own, I am considering this breed for my next dog. Any insights or recommendations appreciated, plus or minus. Mixture of ducks and upland. No intentional geese but a variety of upland from pheasants, partridge to grouse of all types plus quail is the intended quarry. I am in Fargo/Moorhead area.

Mornin, I'll get shot but here goes. I had a dog, Griffon, German wire haired pointer??? No I don't know the difference!!! Mine looked more griffon, needed a shave more than most GWPs. I think they are related anyway (my idea not anyone else's. Hunting fool, dove under water to retrieve his first duck! No he didn't duck his head under he disappeared under, last thing I saw was that big old stub tai disappearing. Bird crazy, cousin went with us once, said that he had hunted this little bush before & not to expect much. We took 5 birds out of there. He couldn't believe it, if your going out again some time call me I'm in!. If you don't want him on anything else don't show him anything else, mine would point rabbits. My bad not his. Besides I like rabbit stew. Best companion I've ever had, would do stuff just to make you laugh! Played with him when he was a pup catching snow balls, he learned to do a back flip & every now & again if you maybe had a bad day with your shooting were feeln a little down he'd do a couple just to make ya laugh. I'm 68 yrs old now & he left us last Christmas or so. No I don't want another one, I can't go through that again!!!! Besides I'd always compair one to my Diggzz & that wouldn't be fair. Good luck!!! Bill out. 🐾👣🐾👣🇨🇦

I've had them since '99 and raised a couple litters. One is snoozing under my chair as I write this. I love the breed but each pup is an individual and hard to generalize personality. Very intelligent, all that I've known have had a very strong hunting/pointing instinct. From my own experience they are not a good breed to kennel or tie out, they want/need to be with their people. There are two schools of Griffon breeding, one that adheres to the original Korthals developed breed, and a more recent linage crossed with the Cesky Fousek. They are all under the umbrella of "Wirehaired Pointing Griffon" and there's still a lot of friction between the two groups. Most people don't know or care however there may be a difference in how they act in the field. Best to look at the parents and see if their style matches your wants. My first Griff, from French Canadian bloodlines, conformed more to the original breed and was great in the thick stuff for ruftails and timberdoodles. She didn't do well on wild pheasants, she was too slow and deliberate in working out the scent trail and they'd run away before she could pin them down.

My experience with Griffons goes back to the 1950s. As an all around dog they are hard to beat. Most have a strong hunting drive that will take them into the thickest cover, driest desert, or coldest water after game. They're loyal to a fault and are a smart breed but a bit hard-headed. That hardheadedness can be channeled to nevergiveup.

My new one is of the hard headed type. She does have that never give up attitude which is good on some things but not on others. She still has not given up trying to chew my arms off and never gives up trying to get food off the countertop or the table.

She is learning the basics, sits, shakes, lays down, kennels, rings a bell with her nose when she wants to go out. Already pointing birds in the yard and neighbors say she's caught and killed a magpie, Robin, and a blackbird. Found another dead blackbird in the lawn the other day.

Bb

I have my first WPG sleeping under my chair now. She is 11 months old so has not had any real hunting experience yet. I will endorse that these are not dogs to be tied out or kenneled as they always want to be with their people. Neither my wife or I have been to the bathroom by ourselves since we got her. We don’t have a lot of game birds down here so I plan on primarily training her to be a tracking dog. May not take too much training though, at 5 months she tracked a buck one of my friends had shot. Only downside is she has been pretty hard to house train but overall, great little dog.

Great breed. I have another on order from a future litter.

I got mine on a lot of wild pheasant her first two years on a private ranch in ND. She is deliberate but learned that as soon as she hit a scent trail she would sprint a 100 or so yards ahead and attempt to head off the running roosters. I think if you get the dog, while young, on a lot of wild birds ( pheasant, huns, ducks, chukar, grouse, quail) they will figure it out if they have a good prey drive and genetics. She loves waterfowl hunting most of all it seems. Fun to watch the light bulb go off over their head. lol

I couldn't imagine kenneling one outside or leaving alone for long periods without a lot of exercise. They do seem to take a bit longer to house train maybe due to their stubbornness . Im a big fan