The Pointer

Many have referred to this as the English pointer when; in fact its correct title is the pointer.  The term English was added with the emergence of the European pointing dogs to distinguish one from another but to the purist it was and still is the original pointer, used extensively by people like the 18^th century author and diarist, Colonel Peter Hawker.

This is an elegant dog of graceful lines and an excellent nose.   Unlike the European breeds of pointers, this is not a natural retriever although they can be successfully taught to retrieve.   To use a pointer on a grouse moor is truly an experience.  To watch them range until a mere dot in the distance, to locate and hold a bird on point and then to flush on command is a sight to savour.  The stance immortalised in paintings and engravings is that of the classic gundog that is certainly familiar to all involved with shooting sports

The origins of the pointer are a little sketchy but it seems likely that the pointer is a descendant of dogs referred to as “partridge dogs” by Brumetho Latini, an Italian exiled in France around 1260.  The links to the partridge dog are tenuous but we can be certain that the links to the Spanish pointers that were introduced into Norfolk in the South East of England in the early 1700s are more reliable and that these are the forerunners of the pointer of today.