PART I BIRD DOGS

The bird dog is a canine creation evolved solely for the benefit of the sportsman.

—A. F. Hochwalt

In 1901, a remarkable book was published, entitled The Pointer and His Predecessors. It was written by William Arkwright, a wealthy Englishman who spent nearly a decade studying the history and development of the Pointer. About halfway through the book, Arkwright provides a wonderfully evocative description of the bird dog’s essence:

Still, of course, the chief glory of the sport is to shoot over a brace of raking pointers, matched for speed and style, sweeping over the rough places like swallows, and passing each other as if they were fine ladies not introduced. Let one of them get a point and the other will, as if connected by invisible wire, instantly point at him (i.e., back him); and as the pointing dog advances to make sure of the birds, the backer will do the same—often with an absolute mimicry of his leader’s movements. When his master has come to the spot, how proudly will the first dog march him up to the game with outstretched neck, flame in his eye, and foam at his lips, while his companion watches from a distance with perfect self-control; and, when the birds rise, both dogs instantly drop to the ground, not to move till the game is gathered, and they are bidden to resume their search.

For Arkwright, Pointers were not just for the sport of wingshooting, but for the glory of the sport. They were well-bred and well-raised, their instincts distilled through careful breeding and honed by skillful training. They didn’t just run; they “raked” across the fields. They were fast and powerful, yet agile enough to “sweep” over the terrain as deftly as though they were birds themselves. Ideally, they ran in wellmatched pairs, canine equivalents of a matched pair of London-made shotguns. They were focused on one thing only: finding birds. Even as they ran, they maintained perfectly proper British good manners, paying no attention to one another “like ladies not introduced.” Only when one of them pointed would they become one and mirror each other in their actions.

When on point, it wasn’t a hunter or partner joining them; it was their better, their master. Yet the dog was no cowering servant. He “proudly marched” his master towards the birds. Both dogs perfectly represented the Victorian ideal of controlled passion; the dog on point has “flame in his eye and foam at his lips” while the backing dog retains “perfect self-control.”

Even after the birds are shot, the play-by-play continues to reflect the Victorian class system. The dogs knew their place and played a precise role—to seek and point game. Full stop. Retrieving was left to the lower classes, servants, or other “lesser” kinds of dogs. Yet the Pointer also understood his subservience to the master, waiting patiently for the order to resume the search.

Arkwright’s brace of Pointers represented the pinnacle of over 500 years of bird dog development. By the time his book was published, the golden age of Pointers and setters had already come to an end in Britain, even as it was just dawning in America and Europe. Today, 120 years later, the British and Irish pointing breeds have surpassed the greatness of their ancestors. They’ve conquered the hearts of millions of sportsmen and women around the world and are considered the gold standard in field trials everywhere, but we have reached an inflection point. Like the men and women who created the British and Irish pointing breeds, we face an ever-shifting cultural, technological, and ideological landscape fraught with risk and opportunities. The decisions we make and the stands we take today will determine the future of hunting, field trials, and bird dogs. While no one knows the future, it is safe to say that no matter what, the glory of the sport of wingshooting will always belong to the British and Irish pointing breeds.

In the chart below, the dates of some of the more significant political events that have had an impact on the British and Irish pointing breeds are indicated in brown.