Hancock Gundogs

Their Past, Their Performance and Their Prospects
1. Auflage 2013
ISBN: 978-1-84797-631-4
Verlag: Crowood
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 240 Seiten

This book is about gundogs, those ever-willing companions of both sportsmen and discerning dog owners. Gundogs is not a manual covering training, grooming, nutrition and dog care; it is very much a celebration of the gundog's contribution to the sporting and companion dog scene, an examination of their past, their performance and their prospects in an increasingly urban society. Painstakingly researched, it covers the well-known recognized breeds and the more obscure ones from overseas, some quite unknown to the British public.David Hancock's earlier books have been highly praised, as have his many articles in sporting magazine in the last thirty years. When reviewing one of his previous books, the revered writer on sporting dogs, the late Brian Plummer, described it as a 'masterpiece'. Reviewing his Sporting Terriers, Dogs in Canada magazine stated that it 'has the quality of a classic'. A reviewer of his last book, Sighthounds, stated that 'Hancock's work provokes thinking in the reader the way a good discussion stimulates and refreshes our minds.' A Canadian reviewer of another of his books gave the view that David Hancock is 'perhaps the most important living writer about dogs.' A comprehensive survey of the gundog's origins, its role and its future, Gundogs is essential reading for all those with an interest in these loyal dogs, especially gundog and country sport enthusiasts. Meticiously researched and packed with information it covers the well-known recognized breeds as well as more obscure ones. Superbly illustrated with 360 colour and black & white photographs. David Hancock has studied dogs for over half a century and is a past winner of the Dog Writers Association of America.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hancock, David

Leseproben

INTRODUCTION

THE CHANGING FORTUNES OF GUNDOGS

The main body of this family is composed of Spaniels proper, the Setters and Retrievers, while pointing dogs and diminutive allies are the miscellaneous members of the group. Head characteristics are rather broad skulls which are convex or ‘domed’ across the top, well-defined stop, fairly thick, long and pendant ears, loose lips, and rather full round eyes. Body formation is generally lithe and muscular, with the back slightly sloping to the set-on, legs of substantial but not coarse bone, and feet fairly large with toes that are capable of spreading out on soft earth. Tails are naturally long (except in some foreign Pointers which are purposely docked, and most British Spaniels), tapering and flagged with long fine hair on the underside. Coats are always soft, usually medium in length and well feathered. Employment is usually in flushing, setting, pointing and retrieving game.

Dogs in Britain by Clifford L.B. Hubbard (1948)

Native Breeds Admired

Britain has every reason to be proud of her contribution to the breeds of gundog in the world. Our sportsmen, supported by the landed families, developed the renowned breeds that are still active in the field today – pointers, setters and spaniels – although some of these breeds sadly are little used in the shooting field. If you want sheer style on the grouse moor, a dog that excels at flushing, starting or springing game, or a specialist retriever for picking up, our sporting breeds are still supreme. But if you want a dog that is capable of hunting game, pointing out where it is and then retrieving it to hand when it is shot, then you must choose a breed from overseas. In a later chapter I suggest that this should be rectified – that we in Britain should develop our own ‘hunt-point-retrieve’ breed. It is strange that British gundog breeders, revered the world over, have not responded to the contemporary demand for all-round skills in a gundog. As the paintings of George Morland, James Barenger and Ben Marshall illustrate, our Pointers once used to retrieve, as did some setters, as the Paul Jones painting of 1859 shows. Dog breeders are not usually so slow to respond to the marketplace, as our exports of gundogs in past centuries demonstrate.

Partridge Shooting; an engraving by C. Catton after George Morland, 1763–1804.

Partridge Shooting by James Barenger, 1804.

The Artist with Two Pointers by Ben Marshall, 1767–1835.

Retrieving Setter by Paul Jones, 1859.

Popularity has its Price

This book is a tribute to the gundog, whether a bird-dog, a water-dog, a decoy-dog, a flushing dog, a retrieving dog or a versatile all-rounder. Modern living presents many problems to sporting dogs, ranging from contemporary lifestyles that do not suit such active creatures to unwise unskilled breeding, often in the unashamed pursuit of money. But for some breeds, especially some gundog breeds, there is a special danger from their being appreciated, wanted, coveted and therefore over-bred – their sheer popularity. The sport of shooting is thriving; it is vital that the hard-working dogs providing irreplaceable support in the field to this sport are well-served, not just by trainers and shots once mature, but by their breeders, breed clubs and parent bodies. It would be good to see an energetic organisation like the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) extending their remit still further in the promotion of healthier, better-bred and sounder gundogs, as well as the conservation of our native minor gundog breeds.

Challenge to British Breeds

If you look at the annual registrations of gundog breeds with the Kennel Club (KC), you can quickly see the fairly recent popularity nowadays of the hunt-point-retrieve (HPR) breeds from the continent. In the first decade of the twenty-first century, twice as many German Short-haired Pointers (GSPs) were registered here as our own native breed of Pointer; 1,000 more Hungarian Vizslas were registered than the combined totals of our Clumber, Field, Sussex and Irish Water Spaniels; more Weimaraners were registered than all our native setter breeds put together. More Italian Spinoni were registered than the combined totals of our Curly-coated Retrievers, Irish Red and White Setters and two of the minor spaniel breeds. Less than fifty years ago, only around 540 GSPs, 330 Weimaraners and under 100 Hungarian Vizslas were registered each year and no Spinoni. But nearly four times fewer Irish Setters were registered in 2000 as in 1975. Is this entirely down to sheer merit in the newly popular foreign breeds or an indication of our fondness for the exotic, the casual pursuit of novelty or copycat fashion-following?

Even fifty years ago, the shooting men went for British gundogs; not any more. The preference for hunt-point-retrieve breeds has largely caused this, but our national fascination with all things foreign plays a part too. The sustained popularity of the Labrador and Golden Retrievers and the English Springer and Cocker Spaniels must not be allowed to mask the worryingly small numbers of far too many of our native gundog breeds. In succeeding chapters I discuss this alarming decline in numbers in far too many of our long-established British breeds.

There is also a regrettable fickleness in the fancying of gundog breeds. Take the Gordon Setter as an example: in 1908, 27 were registered; in 1927, 74; in 1950, 100; in 1975, 255; in 1985, 586; in 2001, 288; in 2009, 192 and then 306 a year later. Such comparatively wide fluctuations in a small breeding population calls for extraordinary shrewdness from breeders if top-quality dogs are to be bred and a virile gene pool maintained. Another of our native gundog breeds, the English Setter, is declining alarmingly, with 240 being registered each year either side of the First World War, as many as 1,700 in 1980, a drop down to 768 in 2000, then further drops in 2009 (295) and 2011 (234). To lose 1,500 registrations in 30 years is a dramatic loss of patronage and of enormous concern to breed enthusiasts. This cannot be put down purely to changes in shooting habits.

Hungarian Vizsla pup, 1998.

Three Springer Spaniels by Reuben Ward Binks, 1944.

The Many Colours of the Cocker Spaniel (courtesy of Dogs In Canada magazine).

Fashioning Fame

If you look at the list of the twenty most popular breeds of dog, as registered with the Kennel Club in 2011, you see a wide range of types. There are terrier and spaniel breeds, gundogs and herding dogs, foreign breeds and British ones, toy dogs and working breeds. The Labrador Retriever easily heads the list, with nearly 40,000 registered, as in the previous four years. The Golden Retriever and the Cocker and English Springer Spaniels feature high in the popularity stakes, with all three breeds proving popular overseas too. The fashion-following of the dog-owning public can be seen in the changing fortunes of two British breeds: the Cocker Spaniel and the Fox Terrier. In 1910, over 600 Cockers and 1,500 wire-haired Fox Terriers were registered. The wire-haired Fox Terrier was top dog from 1920 to 1925 and again from 1928 to 1935. It was still the third most popular breed half a century ago. Eighty years ago it was the third most popular breed in the US too. Now fewer than 700 are registered here annually, only one third of the numbers registered in 1956.

The Cocker Spaniel was top dog here from 1936 to 1953, with over 7,000 registered each year in the 1950s. In the US in 1977, as many as 53,000 were registered, the breed having been top there even thirty years before. The registrations here of Cockers went up by 1,600 between 1989 and 1998, with the breed moving into third place here in 2000, with 13,000 registrations. Unlike the Fox Terrier, this is a story of sustained popularity. There seems no discernible reason for such varying fortunes. The Fox Terrier has lost its working role but perhaps the rise of the Jack Russell has contributed to its fall. The Cocker Spaniel is not worked as much as it once was, but the steady rise of another small spaniel breed – the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel – has not affected its numbers. It is now more popular than the English Springer Spaniel.

Labradors: FT Ch Peter of Whitmore and Ch Type of Whitmore by Maud Earl, 1914.

Golden Retriever Vesta of Woolley by Reuben Ward Binks, 1928.

Success Stories

The gundog breed success story of the twentieth century here was undoubtedly that of the Labrador Retriever, with the Golden Retriever, the Cocker Spaniel and the English Springer not far behind. In his Dogs since 1900 (1950), Arthur Croxton Smith wrote:

The year 1903 was memorable in the history of Labradors, which had hitherto been little known except among a few select sporting families… I must admit that before 1903 I had never seen one… Then in that year a class was provided for them at the Kennel Club show at the Crystal Palace.

In 1908, 123 were registered, in 1912, 281, in 1922, 916, by the 1950s 4,000 were being registered each year, in the 1980s 15,000 a year, rising to nearly 36,000 in 1998 and over 45,000 a year after that. No other breed in the history of purebred dogs can match that rise in popularity. This degree of popularity calls for visionary breeding control, both a voluntary one at breeder level and firm leadership at the top, both at breed club and KC level. Sadly, this has not been entirely successful and far too many unsound unhealthy dogs have been born – and bred from – to respond to public demand. The breed, and indeed the public, deserve better and I argue for that in succeeding pages.

Stabyhoun or Frisian Pointing Dog (courtesy of Dutch...