Pointer: One of the most popular hunting dog breeds loved by hunters is certainly the Pointer.
Pointing dog par excellence, the Pointer is widespread all over the world and bred with some almost distinctive peculiarities in Great Britain, Scotland, America, as well as in Italy, France, Denmark and Norway. The Pointer, even in terms of character, is now more of a myth than a dog. It is in fact a dog with a very difficult character to define so much so that someone, fond of the authors of the English classics, defines it as a hunting machine to be treated exclusively as such therefore in need of a comfortable kennel, appropriate food and frequent and consistent hunting trips. Those who have had a Pointer, however, maintain that despite the proud character, at the same time it is a dog capable of bonding in a sweet way to its master. Taken the right way, the Pointer can be submissive and little interested in the closeness of man; the pride with which he is endowed allows him to suffer less from the distance from the hunter and the possible segregation in the kennel.
The response to dressage is also good since very few corrections are enough to obtain the desired results from the Pointer. Training the Pointer means taking into account the specific prerogatives of the breed. Dressing must have as a prerequisite the fact that you have a perfect machine at your disposal, therefore capable of carrying out every task necessary for hunting, but which precisely because of this perfection has greater needs than those of other breeds since the qualities of the Pointer.
A common mistake in training the Pointer is not to take it to the countryside before it is one year old or even beyond; this involves, in addition to the lack of solicitation of certain reactions at the right time (stops it for example!), the accumulation in the dog of a repressed greed that would make it difficult to control during training because it is intent on venting all the potential accumulated and up at that repressed moment. Those who want to train a Pointer must therefore start with concrete experiences in the wild and in the countryside even before this has completed six months. Very important during dressage, for the necessary corrections, is the use of means and methods commensurate with the generally very high sensitivity of this dog; interventions that are too strong could even be not understood by the dog or excessively depress its action and performance as it would curb its enthusiasm by transforming it into a succubus rather than a collaborator.
Another common mistake in working with the Pointer is to expect it to carry out its action at a short distance from the hunter; the Pointer needs space, initiative, even when it operates in difficult environments such as that of the woodcock. If you want the best you don't have to clip his wings by giving him the way to apply all the passion, the sense of smell, the intelligence he is gifted with to his work.
The Pointer is the ideal dog for the true sportsman, for the hunter who does not consider the value of the game bag from the weight or from the heads but from the way in which the game that compose it was acquired by the dog that accompanies it.
The Pointer's father, the English William Arkwright, author of an incomparable text on this splendid breed, stated “we go hunting with our dogs for fun; their beautiful hunt with the head held high and the lively tail will disperse our fatigue as if by magic on more than one corner of the ground… ”therefore“ the so varied and instantaneous attitudes of a fast dog amply compensate for some casual and inevitable forgetfulness; they provide the true and ardent hunter with a magnificent spectacle, such as would never be offered by the sight of a hundred still caught by an animal that trots in an ordinary way ".
Among the functional defects of the Pointer first of all there is precisely the character as it is quite frequent, no more than other breeds, to find hypersensitive specimens, difficult to dress or even shy, fearful of shooting, of the wild and of people. Another defect sometimes found in the Pointer is the discernment, that is the ability of the pointing dog to distinguish the emanations deriving from the game actually present from those that instead originate from traces, feathers or dust; this is because his very fine sense of smell commands his intellectual faculties sometimes with excessive rigor therefore it may happen that the Pointer stops empty by insisting on useless signals.
Furthermore, you could find yourself a dog with an excessively indomitable character which would make it excessively independent from the master; in the case of certain specific hunts, such as that of woodcock or rock partridge, it would be problematic to have to face stubble hills or mountain slopes calling at the top of one's lungs. It could happen today to find Pointers lacking in terms of style but what is really rare is a Pointer that does not stop, that has little nose or little passion. In the carryover the Pointer can sometimes be reluctant to perform it from the thorny dirt, but it can be initiated to this performance as long as it is at the right age and in a convenient manner. If we are about to choose a Pointer puppy to start hunting training it would be good to give preference to those that do not have excessive characters even if already typified, for example evident stop, well placed eye, sober ear, round lip not excessively pendulous, etc; the risk is to find a coarse adult specimen and instead of a Pointer we would end up with a long-tailed boxer. As with other breeds, it is good for the puppy to be particularly lively and give the impression of already using his nose well, responding sensibly to olfactory stimuli. The bones of the puppy should not be underestimated, which should be sturdy, straight and sober, not too thin nor too excessive; a suitable skeleton can greatly facilitate the work of the dog on the hunting day.
Another aspect to consider is the Pointer's tail; it is said that “the Pointer is from the head, but whoever really knows him looks at his tail first”. In fact, a distinct tail, which tapers gradually and is well carried, constitutes an almost infallible distinctive sign of a serious and competent selection. If you choose an already older specimen of Pointer, you must give precedence to the character precisely because in the puppy, contrary to what happens for the puppy, the character is already very evident; the puppy Pointer must walk boldly on a leash, pulling if possible, not have any fear of people approaching him, nor of sudden noises (clapping of hands), heard which must start at most, reassuring himself as soon as he has ascertained what it is without ever show the slightest sign of genuine fear.
It would also be good to take into account the sternum, checking that it is harmonious, of the withers well elevated, of the shoulder blades with the points close together; all aesthetic elements but of direct relevance to the mechanics of the animal. Likewise, the rear, whose angles must be rather open but not too much, and the metatarsus which must be well perpendicular to the ground without leaning forward or back. A forward inclination in fact indicates an excess of opening and, consequently, relaxation of the tendons, while a position inclined backwards indicates a lower possibility of opening during the thrust for the gallop and therefore less mechanical efficiency.
For the purposes of efficiency, the shoulder is also very important, which in the Pointer must be long, inclined between 45 ° and 55 ° with respect to the horizontal line, well equipped with long and well-arranged muscles; a short shoulder would reduce the width of the stalk and therefore the efficiency of the gallop, while a straight shoulder while allowing greater speed would tire the animal more.
The Pointer is one of the few dog breeds capable of giving maximum performance not only in the broad soils of the stamen in the hills or on the mountain slopes with rock partridges but also in more difficult areas, such as in woodcock woods or snipe swamps (better still walking or in the paddy field), often regardless of the weather conditions.
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