The Outdoors

By Scott Rall, Outdoors Columnist

Last week I started a conversation about the possibility of adding a pointing dog to my pack of flushing Labradors. I was pretty uneducated about where to start on this endeavor. I looked up a group of dogs called versatile breeds. There end up being 28 different breeds that all fall into this category.

The general description of a versatile dog is one who can point and retrieve game on both land and water. The second quality on this list was the ability to track and retrieve furred creatures as well. I have always been of the opinion that bird dogs and mammals don’t mix. Versatile dog breeds are expected to be able to do both with equal success.

I looked what 28 breeds listed as versatile breeds.  I can’t print them all here or my editor would have a very hard time editing this column to fit in any newspaper. Many of the dogs in this group you will have never heard of so I picked the ones I could at least say I had heard of before.

They include English Setters, Brittany Spaniels, German Shorthairs, German Wirehairs, Gordon Setters, large and small Munster Landers, Pudel Pointers, Vizslas, Weimaraners and Irish Setters. In southwest Minnesota I have seen about half of these breeds in the field but the German Shorthair is by far the most common pointing dog in this part of the state.

So, how do you pick a breed from the 28 choices? I can’t really tell you how, but I can tell what I have done to narrow the choices. Here is where I am going to catch a lot of guff. I am sharing my opinion and not talking up or down any one dog or breed in particular. There are exceptions to every rule, but my research has been done by talking to guys and gals who own or have owned each breed. First off, many point breeds, especially the German Shorthairs, tend to be very high strung.

Lots of yipping and whining in the truck or if kenneled. Other breeds have such long hair that after a day in the field you will need to spend the next hour combing all of the burrs and weed seeds out of their coats. Other pointing breeds are habitually known for being marginal retrievers. I have seen many a pointing dog run to the downed bird and then just stand there barking until the dog owner walks over and picks up the bird themselves. I want any dog I own to bring the bird to me and not the other way around.

Other point breeds, although many of them love water, don’t do well when the water gets really cold. I have seen pointing dog owners carrying their dogs back to the truck when the animal got wet, cold and could just not go on. In the cold department, Labradors hold a pretty high mark.

I also want a breed that gets along with other dogs. I won’t call them out by name, but in the 60 different Pheasants Forever events I have attended over the past 40 years there is one versatile dog breed that is involved in almost every dog fight I have ever witnessed. Obviously, that will not be a breed I am considering.

Dogs of every species have their own health concerns to be taken into account. Some have a lot of issues to keep an eye out for and others less, but each has its own. On the flusher side, Golden Retrievers often have their eyelashes grow through their eyelids and scratch the eyeball. A surgery is required to fix this. There is no versatile breed that has zero issues, but I am looking to minimize the possibility of these types of problems.

I like a medium size dog. One under 50 pounds is my sweet spot. This requirement removed quite a few breeds from my possibility list. Large Muster Landers are giant dogs and would not be a fit for me in the way I house and travel with my dogs.

Pheasant Fest held in Sioux Falls, South Dakota last year had tons of different breeders present and I spent about four hours talking to about five different dog breeders on Saturday. I learned a lot about what I was looking for and which breeds might fit my bill. Each of those folks are pretty proud of their choices but in the end, each wants you to select the right dog breed for you.

I have narrowed my choices down to about three breeds and next week I will narrow that list even a little more. This dog, that dog or the other dog, all I know is life is better with a dog.

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If you have any questions, reach out to me at scottarall@gmail.com.