814 
FOREST AND STREAM 
June 28, 1913 
The Pointer 
By WALTER H. DEARING 
T he evolution of the gun has played such 
an important part in the development of 
the pointer that the relationship of these 
two adjuncts to the hunting field appears to be 
so closely intertwined in their gradual changes 
of outward aspect, and their method of fulfilling 
their respective inanimate and animate duties, as 
to almost leave an impression that the two have 
been ordained by the hand of fate to travel 
along the same road to their journey’s end. No 
doubt if the countries in which the pointer has 
been reared and developed were inclined toward 
the Mohammedan belief that “the fate of every 
man (and every dog) is hanged about his neck,” 
there would be a general tendency to believe 
that the pointer is destined to keep on develop¬ 
ing until the period of universal peace shall 
have come, when the lion shall lie down along¬ 
side of the lamb,” etc., and the need of firearms 
shall have disappeared from the face of the 
earth. At least, we would seem to be justified 
in accepting some such belief as this, were it 
not that our methodical methods of reasoning 
lead us to look from cause to effect, and in so 
doing we are forced to the conclusion that the 
gunsmith has been the cause and the pointer the 
effect, and that the hand of fate has had very 
little to do with the whole business. 
At any rate, the old Spanish pointer is quite 
generally supposed to have gained his popu¬ 
larity when the flint lock gun first made its 
appearance on the hunting field. Up to that 
time hunting had been carried on by means of a 
net, and setters and spaniels had been used 
almost exclusively. It was customary at that 
period to drive the game into the net, and when 
the gun was finally brought into use in the 
hunting field, the Spanish pointer w'as evidently 
found to be better adapted to its use than the 
old-fashioned spaniels and setters of that day, 
and in consequence of his natural adaptability 
to this line of work he practically superseded 
all other breeds as a field dog. 
But the old flint lock gun with its clumsy 
appendages could not satisfy the inventive genius 
of man for long, and it disappeared as most 
clumsy inventions do, to give place to the lighter 
firearms of a later period, and with the change 
came a demand for a faster dog to keep pace 
with the more modern gun. In consequence of 
this demand, the Spanish pointer appears to have 
been crossed and recrossed with one or more of 
the other breeds, probably the greyhound, or 
with an indirect cross of the greyhound, through 
the foxhound, or possibly both. So that if the 
old Spanish pointer became popular through the 
advent of the gun in the hunting field, he also 
became distinctly unpopular through its later de¬ 
velopments, and was eventually forced to give 
place to the modern pointer through a series of 
crosses and recrosses that led from the keen- 
scented but clumsy old dog to the lithe-limbed 
animal of to-day; then from the old-time blunder¬ 
buss to the modern shotgun. 
There were those wdio contended that while 
speed and beauty had undoubtedly been attained 
by the development of the pointer, he had dur¬ 
ing the process lost much that his ancestor, the 
Spanish pointer, had possessed. The extreme 
delicacy of scent of the latter had always been 
one of his greatest advantages, and it was 
thought by these critics that in crossing with 
the hound the pointer had inherited the hound 
tendency to track its game through the foot 
scent, rather than through the body scent, and 
STAUNCH IN ANY POSITION. 
that this tendency led to pottering (nosing about 
with their heads to the ground). Continuous 
breeding to the best strains has produced a breed 
of dog that would be hard to surpass, however, 
and the habit of “low hunting” or looking for 
the foot scent is not met with to anything like 
the extent that it was in former years. The 
modern pointer possesses all of the fineness of 
scent of the old-time breed, combined with the 
speed of the foxhound. In some cases he is al¬ 
most as fast as a slow greyhound, and has all 
of the latter’s graceful beauty of outline, ac¬ 
centuated by an appearance of strength and sta¬ 
bility that is all his own. 
The pointers of some thirty years ago were 
said to remain on point for hours unless dis¬ 
turbed, and it is thought by many of the early 
writers that some of them would have stayed 
in a state of catalepsy until exhausted for want 
of food had they been allowed to do so. It 
seems improbable that any of the modern point¬ 
ers would stay at point for such a length of 
time, and it would not be a particularly advan¬ 
tageous attribute for them to possess even if 
they would. 
It would hardly be a source of gratification 
to an owner of a well-bred young dog to know 
that the animal was liable to wander off some 
day, and upon discovering a pig stall or cow 
barn, become suddenly cataleptic and refuse to 
leave the spot until told to do so. And as many 
young dogs are apt to point at almost anything 
they come across during the first stages of their 
training, especially when trained by amateurs, 
such an incident might very easily occur. Even 
a pointer might find it advantageous at times 
to know when to quit. 
It would not be appropriate for me to try 
to pass upon the much mooted question of the 
merits of the pointer as opposed to those of 
the setter. Both dogs have their adherents who 
swear by them as the sumnium boniim of perfec¬ 
tion, and both of these opinions undoubtedly are 
correct. They each have their particular ad¬ 
vantages for particular varieties of country and 
clime, but aside from this the question probably 
rests largely on individual experiences, and 
where you find one man upholding one breed, 
you will quite probably find his next door neigh¬ 
bor upholding the other with equal force and 
logic. Both would be right in the light of their 
individual experiences. A great deal depends 
upon the dog — and the man that owns him. For 
this reason I prefer not to rush in “where 
angels fear to tread” in an attempt to settle a 
question that has been argued by men who have 
grown gray in the dog and hunting fraternities 
without any apparent advantage on either side. 
Mr. Root, who for many years acted as 
secretary of the Pointer Club, claims a distinct 
advantage for the breed in the fact that the 
pointer does not as a rule need to be broken 
to his work twice within a year. When once 
broken, he seldom forgets, and a man who has 
properly trained his dog in the early part of 
the year need not fear that he will be put to 
the arduous, though not unpleasant task, - of 
breaking him again in the fall, when the hunt¬ 
ing season sets in. This is naturally a great 
advantage to the man of small means who has 
little time to himself, and who cannot afford to 
employ a professional trainer, or to the business 
man who cannot get away from his desk for 
more than a limited period of time and prefers 
breaking his own dogs for the pleasure he de¬ 
rives from it. 
The claim that the pointer cannot stand the 
heat upon the heather of the moors, or endure 
the cold as well as the setter, because his feet 
are not as well protected and his coat is 
thinner, and he does not possess the advan¬ 
tages of the setter’s thick hair, is often refuted 
bj' sportsmen who have used him as a hunting 
dog in a country where he has been forced to 
meet with all of these adverse conditions, and 
has come off with flying colors. They are will¬ 
ing to admit that nature has protected the setter 
in the points mentioned to a greater extent than 
has been the case with the pointer, but claim 
that the latter performs his work under all cir- 
