Uncover the historical past of the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, from Eduard Korthals’s imaginative and prescient to the myths and realities that formed the breed we all know in the present day.
On this episode of Looking Canine Confidential, host and canine historian Craig Koshyk takes us deep into the fascinating historical past of the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon. Starting within the 1800s with Eduard Korthals’s imaginative and prescient as a younger Dutchman working for a German prince, by way of worldwide debates over crossbreeding, nationalism, and breed requirements, Craig traces how the Griffon emerged as a flexible gundog with its personal distinctive identification. Alongside the best way, he explores the myths in regards to the breed’s looking model, its ups and downs by way of wars and membership politics, and the passionate breeders who formed it into the canine we all know in the present day.
Hearken to previous episodes right here: Looking Canine Confidential Podcast
Podcast Episode Transcript
Hey all people. Welcome to the Looking Canine Confidential podcast. My title is Craig Koshyk, and I’m a gun canine nerd. In in the present day’s episode, we’re gonna be looking at these wild, woolly, great beasts we name wire-haired pointers. So keep tuned for this episode, and if you wish to be updated on the entire episodes and also you wanna know precisely once they’re gonna drop,
hit the subscribe button on the YouTube channel or in your platform of alternative for podcasts. And, as all the time, if you’d like extra details about these breeds, you wanna learn extra particulars about them, you wanna see extra photographs—photographs, work, engravings of them—take a look at my books Pointing Canines, Quantity One and Quantity Two, accessible from Challenge Upland or from me at dogwilling.ca.
Alright, let’s get into this episode. Let’s see some Griffins and different wiry beasts from approach over yonder. Anybody who needs to dig deep into the wirehaired pointing breed’s historical past has an issue to unravel earlier than they even get began. And that drawback is: the place and when to begin. As a result of it’s laborious to say precisely the place and when.
The primary general kind of wire-haired pointing canine was developed as a result of woolly, rough-coated, wiry-coated looking canine—properly, they had been discovered throughout most of Europe for hundreds of years. Wherever you had shorthaired looking canine and curly-haired or woolly-coated canine—and that was nearly all over the place in Europe for hundreds of years—you’d discover that crosses of these canine produced not less than some puppies with a wire-haired coat.
The genetics are comparatively easy, so it will need to have occurred on a regular basis. However the genetics are unstable, as any breeder of any trendy wire-haired breed will inform you. Getting a wire-haired coat is fairly simple. The laborious half is perfecting it and sustaining it. Again within the day, coats will need to have popped up right here and there randomly on a regular basis, solely to vanish simply as quick—and simply as randomly.
So the additional again you go, the fuzzier the story will get. We get glimpses of wire-haired coats in outdated work and descriptions of canine within the outdated literature. But it surely wasn’t actually till the mid-1800s that we begin to see stable proof of individuals really making an attempt to pick out for—and, most significantly, to stabilize—a predictable wire-haired coat.
So the place, geographically, can we begin? We may go east to Germany or Bohemia, Poland, and Russia, however that may be like making an attempt to untangle a wad of fishing line on the backside of a sort out field in a tippy canoe. So let’s depart that till we’re on firmer floor and begin in France, the fashionable dwelling of the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon—recognized in a lot of the world because the Korthals Griffon, named for its founder Edward Korthals, a Dutchman who created the breed whereas working for a prince in Germany.
And yeah, even that sounds fairly difficult to untangle. And it was. Once I was writing my first e-book, not solely did I’ve to seek the advice of German, French, Dutch, and English references to the breed, however I needed to reduce by way of lots of spin. Every one put their very own model on the occasions that led to the creation of the breed and the way it ought to look and carry out in the present day.
Heck, even the title of the breed took me a complete web page to elucidate. But when we go over the phrase “Griffon,” it’s going to assist us perceive the entire different wire-haired breeds, as a result of similar to “Braque” and “Epagneul,” the phrase “Griffon” can be utilized as a kind of catch-all time period to explain all wire-haired breeds.
Yeah, and let me simply again up a bit and add a fast observe about pronunciation right here. As soon as once more, as I discussed in earlier episodes, I are likely to pronounce French names with my French Canadian accent. So when chatting with my spouse or every other French speaker, I say it that approach. However once I say the title in English, I do it with my Canadian English accent, which on this case follows the British pronunciation.
So I, as a Canadian, say “Griffin,” just like the Brits say it. I say “Griffin.” My American associates—properly, they are saying “Griffon.” And that’s cool. It’s simply one other instance of the entire tomato/tomahto, both/eether argument. You say it your approach, I’ll say it my approach. However should you wanna understand how the French say it, they are saying “Griffon.” The phrase “Griffon” may be traced again to Greek and Latin roots that imply hook, claw, and even hawk—i.e., a chicken that has claws.
Way back, it was the title of a legendary beast with the top of an eagle and the physique of a lion, with clawed ft. After all, finally the phrase “Griffon” grew to become related to most of the rough-coated canine breeds discovered all through Europe.
In North America, the breed known as the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon—or, for my American associates once more, the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon. Whereas in a lot of the remainder of the world, it’s known as the Korthals Griffon. In France, it’s the Griffon d’arrêt à poil dur Korthals.
The phrase “pointing” is within the title to point that, not like the Blue Gascony Griffon (a sort of hound) or the Belgian Griffon (a companion breed), this one is a pointing breed. The title additionally has the phrase “wirehaired” in it, to distinguish it from different Griffons that don’t have a wirehaired coat. There was a French woolly-haired Griffon, and there may be the Brussels Griffon, which might have a easy coat. So the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon is the title of a pointing breed with a wirehaired coat that’s a part of the general household of Griffon-type canine.
Easy sufficient, proper? Effectively, not fairly. We have to needless to say the time period “Wirehaired Pointing Griffon” solely got here into widespread use after the flip of the twentieth century. Relying on the supply, rough-haired canine had been known as all the pieces from Polish and Hungarian water canine to Poodles, Boules, Hessian Tough-beards, and an entire bunch of different issues.
Actually, when the primary Wirehaired Pointing Griffon was imported into the U.S. in 1887, it was listed as a “Russian Setter.” Even Korthals himself didn’t use the title “Griffon” till the Eighties. Initially, he known as his canine Smousbaarden in Dutch. And when he moved to Germany, he switched to utilizing the German time period Drahthaariger Vorstehhund, which simply means “wirehaired pointing canine.”
Ultimately, he and members of a newly fashioned worldwide breed membership settled on the time period “Griffon.” Elsewhere in Europe, different breeds of pointing canine had been developed from the identical Griffon-type ancestors. The Spinone Italiano, the Český Fousek (Slovak Tough-haired Pointer), the Wirehaired Vizsla, the German Wirehaired Pointer, and the Pudelpointer are all “Griffons” within the broadest sense of the phrase. They’re wirehaired pointing canine, and the French name all wirehaired pointing canine “griffons,” or take into account them inside the bigger Griffon household.
And since all of them level, and all of these breeds have wirehaired coats, properly, in essence, they’re all “wirehaired pointing Griffons.” In order that’s why lots of people world wide use the time period “Korthals Griffon,” as a result of there are different Griffons within the broadest sense of the phrase, and there are different wirehaired pointing Griffons within the broadest sense of the phrase.
Alright, let’s get again to Korthals. How did he go about creating his breed and getting his title stamped on a breed in Germany that finally grew to become a French breed? Korthals began his growth of the breed within the 1870s. He was the son of a rich Dutchman, rising up close to Haarlem within the Netherlands.
In 1873, at age twenty-two, he left his homeland to additional his breeding tasks on the property of a rich patron named Prince Albrecht of Solms-Braunfels in Germany. Korthals’s fundamental job on the prince’s fort wasn’t really breeding his gundogs. I imply, he did that form of as a sideline. His fundamental job was coaching and dealing with Pointers and English Setters in discipline trials for the prince.
However Korthals wished to go one additional than the Pointers and Setters, which he discovered magnificent breeds and had lots of success with within the discipline. He dreamt of making a gundog that possessed the most effective qualities of the Setters and the Pointers, but additionally had a eager want for retrieving on land and in water, in addition to a wonderful means to trace wounded sport.
And he wasn’t the one one who wished these varieties of canine. Others had comparable objectives, they usually had been additionally trying to create their very own variations of a rough-haired, wirehaired, all-around gundog. Pudelpointer breeders had been utilizing Pudels and Pointers, and others had been experimenting with different combos of canine and completely different coat varieties.
Korthals principally used something he may get his palms on. In his handwritten kennel e-book, you’ll be able to see that between 1863 and 1876, he bought twenty canine, together with numerous varieties of Griffons and Spaniels. He obtained a Retriever, a three-quarter English Pointer. He purchased a German Spaniel, or Hühnerhund. He used a Barbet, which is a curly-coated French water canine.
He obtained a German Shorthaired Pointer and two Pointer–German Shorthaired Pointer mixes. Ultimately, by crossing all of these canine—and others he didn’t even listing—he developed his personal pressure of wirehaired pointing canine that may finally make him well-known world wide.
However success didn’t come simply. You see, Korthals was a Dutchman, however he was residing in Germany, creating a world breed of gundog with a French-sounding title.
And that was throughout a time when political tensions had been nonetheless operating excessive after a conflict between France and Prussia in 1871. So there have been loads of naysayers and Detrimental Nellies round, able to dismiss his canine as curs or mutts or worse. One German author even wrote that, quote, We are going to depart the Griffons and the water spaniels unnoticed. In any other case we must take note of the pig as properly, as a result of that animal can also be educated for looking poultry, unquote.
The overwhelming majority of Korthals’s work was achieved beneath the patronage of Prince Albrecht, and that prince was one of the vital influential personalities on the German gundog scene at the moment.
But Korthals by no means actually achieved the extent of acceptance amongst German hunters that he had hoped for. It’s now clear that he fell sufferer to 2 highly effective forces: competitors and nationalism.
You see, as Korthals was engaged on his breed, there have been different gundog breeds beneath growth in Germany, which had been promoted as being extra fascinating than the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon—primarily as a result of it had a French-sounding title and there was a Dutchman answerable for it.
Korthals was additionally accused of utilizing international blood, one thing he all the time denied. And “international blood” to a German at the moment would nearly routinely imply English Pointers and English Setters. And yeah, it is sensible to accuse the man of doing it. What was he doing for his fundamental full-time job? Effectively, he was coaching and dealing with Pointers and Setters on the earth’s largest kennel of Pointers and Setters.
In the meantime, his Griffons had been in one other barn somewhat methods again, the place he was breeding his personal pressure. Now, did he use a few of these Pointers and Setters? Effectively, you make up your personal thoughts. However that’s what the Germans had been accusing him of. As a result of at the moment, to really try this—to really cross your breed to Pointers and Setters—was seen as a no-no. The Germans at the moment, a lot of them within the gundog group, had been nationalists, they usually form of hated something that was English. They wished to get as far-off from something English as they probably may. In order that’s why they made the accusation, and that’s why Korthals—properly, that’s why he denied it. He didn’t need that round his shoulders.
Ultimately, inside the general rough-haired or wirehaired breeding group, two sides fashioned. On the one hand, you had these nationalistic supporters of the German breeds, they usually believed that their canine had been the one true rough-haired or wirehaired pointing canine, and no matter Korthals had was nothing greater than impure mutts. Then again, there have been internationalists. They believed that each one rough-haired breeds—all of the wirehaired breeds, all the pieces from Pudelpointers to Stichelhaars to Griffons to Spinoni—belonged in the identical bigger household.
They had been multi function household with numerous strains, merely reflecting the non-public desire of their breeders. And for some time, the worldwide “one large household” opinion held sway, and breeders would merely cross between any of the breeds. They crossed Pudelpointers to Stichelhaars, to Griffons, to Spinoni.
They had been simply glad to do it inside the entire household. However when some breeders started to additionally cross their rough-haired canine to shorthaired canine—specifically, German Shorthaired Pointers—properly, that unity fell aside. In 1888, a membership was fashioned for the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon. It was worldwide in scope with German, French, Dutch, and Belgian members, they usually created a studbook.
And that studbook was saved in German, French, and Dutch. When it was revealed in 1888, the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon really grew to become the primary breed to have an official studbook and the primary to be represented by a world membership. All through the Eighties and into the Nineties, Korthals continued to develop his breed, and he was instrumental in establishing the primary formal testing system for versatile canine.
His canine actually did properly in these checks and shortly gained a powerful following in Germany, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Tragically, simply as he was profitable the very best praises of the sporting canine press, Korthals developed most cancers of the larynx. He finally died of the illness on July 4, 1896. The dude was solely forty-four years outdated.
After the loss of life of Korthals, and within the years main as much as the First World Struggle, the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon in Germany grew to become roughly marginalized. Numerous its supporters simply deserted it, they usually joined the German Wirehaired Pointer motion, taking a few of their greatest canine with them. By the Nineteen Thirties, there have been virtually no Wirehaired Pointing Griffons left in Germany.
Surprisingly, after the Second World Struggle, the unique breed membership was reformed in Germany, the place just a few diehard breeders managed to maintain their strains alive. In France, after the loss of life of Korthals, the lads who continued his work tried to comply with his imaginative and prescient and did their greatest to maintain their strains pure—not less than at first.
Within the Nineteen Twenties, in all probability motivated by competitors from Pointers and Setters in discipline trials, some French breeders tried to reinvigorate or regenerate their strains by crossing to these English breeds. Former president of the membership Jacques Clément wrote about this era in his e-book revealed in 1998. He claims that in 1925, as breeders grew to become fearful in regards to the state of the breed, and particularly involved about its means to compete with different breeds in discipline trials, a French canine professional “set hearth to the powder” by advocating a cross to the Pointer, unquote.
Apparently, quite a few distinguished membership members agreed with the person’s suggestion and did certainly cross Pointers and Setters into some strains. Clément mentions {that a} well-known breeder really had a darkish pseudo-Griffon named Homer that was out of Pointer strains, and that canine was exported to the U.S., the place it was used for breeding.
He wrote, quote, The outcomes of the offspring had been horrible, and on the time undoubtedly introduced a tough knock to American Griffons. Unquote. No person is aware of simply how a lot crossbreeding really did happen in France within the twenties and thirties. In all chance, there was some, however with the onset of World Struggle II, canine breeding of any form got here to a standstill.
However curiosity within the breed was rekindled after the conflict. The Griffon inhabitants expanded and continued to increase all through the fifties, sixties, and by the seventies, the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon was one of the vital well-liked gundogs in all of France.
In North America, regardless of a really early begin—I imply, the primary Griffon arrived within the U.S. in 1887—the breed has all the time performed a comparatively minor function on the gundog scene. Not like the Brittany and the German Shorthaired Pointer, which coincidentally had been promoted by a number of the identical people who imported a number of the first Wirehaired Pointing Griffons, the Griffon has by no means actually caught the eye of mainstream hunters and discipline trialers within the U.S. or Canada.
A breed membership was fashioned within the U.S. in 1916, and the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon managed to realize some notoriety within the twenties and the thirties. However like each different breed, the Second World Struggle dealt a tough blow, and the membership finally folded. Curiosity was rekindled within the fifties, and there have been quickly sufficient Wirehaired Pointing Griffon breeders within the U.S.
To kind an AKC-affiliated membership for the breed, the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Membership of America (WPGCA), members labored with a number of the unique inventory introduced over from earlier than the conflict, in addition to quite a few newly imported canine from France and Germany. Members of the WPGCA made some progress towards creating stable looking strains.
Nonetheless, and not using a formal breeding program and with no checks or trials to actually consider their canine, it was sluggish going. Even when the membership established its personal testing and breeding program within the Nineteen Seventies, the scenario didn’t actually enhance. There have been nonetheless too many canine from untested and unproven—and unknown—dad and mom being bred within the U.S. And regardless of just a few excellent people, the general high quality of the breed—for hunters anyway—remained comparatively uneven.
By the Eighties, membership members had been sounding the alarm. They may see that they had been in serious trouble and that one thing needed to be achieved. However they solely had three choices: preserve breeding in the identical circle of canine that they had with solely the great ones (however that may actually restrict the gene pool), import Griffons from France or Germany, or use international blood—cross to a different associated breed.
And as we will see, all 3 ways had been finally tried, however not with out some heated debate that may finally result in deep divisions within the breed that stay to today. On one aspect of the divide had been breeders who selected a mix of the primary two choices. They felt that they might enhance the scenario by utilizing the great canine they already had in North America and by merely going to Europe and importing some new blood from Griffon strains.
And so they have made super progress within the final thirty years, they usually’re now producing gundogs which might be the equal of any of the opposite versatile breeds. Many of those breeders are members of the American Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Affiliation (AWPGCA), a membership fashioned by members of the unique membership who disagreed with a crossbreeding program that the WPGCA finally embarked upon. In 1991, the AKC formally acknowledged the American Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Affiliation because the breed’s mother or father membership within the U.S.
On the opposite aspect of the divide had been members of the unique membership, the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Membership of America (WPGCA). These folks selected that third choice. After a lot debate, they determined to embark on a crossbreeding program involving a breed from the Czech Republic known as the Český Fousek. (We’re gonna check out that breed in a future episode.)
In her e-book Gun Canine Supreme, writer and membership member Joan Bailey defined the circumstances that led to their choice:
“In 1983, we held our annual board of administrators assembly along side the sphere take a look at in Redding, California. Early within the assembly, somebody requested, ‘Effectively, what females do we now have for breeding?’ The reply was few to none. So we confronted the issue squarely. We acknowledged that there have been solely 3 ways to rejuvenate a failing breed. It was agreed that we had tried the primary two strategies again and again with out lasting outcomes. So we accepted the truth that the one technique to save the Griffon was to inject ‘international blood.’”
The membership selected the Český Fousek partially as a result of, like Eduard Korthals, the members figured that each one rough-haired pointing canine had been of the identical household. They claimed that Fousek breeders within the Czech Republic had really used Wirehaired Pointing Griffons after the Second World Struggle to revive their very own breed, and due to this fact felt that utilizing the Fousek to revive the Griffon was not practically as excessive a step as breeding to a different breed, like, let’s say, the German Shorthaired Pointer. They figured they had been merely preserving all of it within the household.
The primary Griffon–Fousek pups had been born in 1986, and extra litters quickly adopted. The outcomes had been typically optimistic, and the membership determined to proceed with this system. Ultimately, nonetheless, resulting from the truth that breeders not had entry to Korthals’s Wirehaired Pointing Griffon breeding inventory and had been utilizing principally Český Fousek inventory since 1985, members determined to easily rename the membership and formally convert it to representing the Český Fousek as a standalone breed in North America. Right this moment, the membership is now often called Český Fousek North America.
Extra just lately, one other membership has been arrange for the Griffon within the U.S. In December of 2022, this membership, known as the Korthals Griffon United States—or I ought to say it the best way People would, the Korthals Griffon United States Membership—was established. Principally, they’re arrange in an analogous technique to the French membership, the mother or father membership for the breed in France.
The Korthals Griffon Membership within the U.S. follows the FCI normal for conformation in addition to the FCI normal for the sphere, or what they name the working normal. The membership encourages its members to check their canine in NAVHDA and the Versatile Looking Canine Federation, in addition to organising their very own discipline trials, which once more are based mostly on the identical system that the French use in France.
And that is one thing that I’ve lengthy advocated for: the French breeds right here in North America. There’s a nice divide between the French breeds and France. There’s not lots of communication or contact between the 2—not like the German golf equipment for the German breeds, which even have affiliated golf equipment in North America which might be totally aligned with the German testing system and the German golf equipment.
Effectively, the French breeds are form of on their very own in North America, with little or no contact or route or supervision from the French membership in France. This new Korthals Griffon Membership in america is among the many first to really have that higher diploma of contact with the mother or father membership within the dwelling nation of the breed, and to really run discipline trials beneath French guidelines and with French judges right here in North America.
I actually encourage all people in any of the French breeds to look into these choices. For me, it’s a no brainer. Simply take a look at how properly the German breeds are doing with that nice, shut contact with the German golf equipment in Germany. I imagine the French breed golf equipment right here in North America, that are fairly small and generally not working along with one another, are remoted.
So that you’ve obtained the Braque over right here, you’ve obtained the Epagneul over there, and also you’ve now obtained the Korthals Griffon over right here. Effectively, collectively—and particularly with elevated contact and reference to France—they might actually develop one thing substantial, one thing that would profit the entire French breeds.
Now, I’m certain your head might be spinning from the entire ups and downs of the historical past of this breed: completely different international locations, internationalism and nationalism, wars, membership splits, renaming, crossbreeding, and this, that, and the opposite factor. The underside line is that for any hunter looking for a Griffon, there are actually good choices on the market.
You will discover good to wonderful Wirehaired Pointing Griffons should you do your homework. There are wonderful breeders within the U.S., and there are some incredible breeders in Quebec as properly. If, alternatively, you’re occupied with connecting with these individuals who went the opposite approach with the Griffon and finally morphed into the Český Fousek membership, properly, there are some wonderful canine in that breed as properly. I’ll be speaking about that breed in a future episode.
The one factor you actually must be cautious about is avoiding a number of the show-only strains. Now, I don’t imply to be controversial, and I don’t wanna ruffle anyone’s feathers. There are some incredible, hard-hunting Griffons on the market—you could find one, it’s not that tough. However there are some that come from strains which might be technology after technology after technology untested, untried, and they’re a complete crapshoot.
You would possibly get one which has twenty generations of present champions within the background, and it may change into a incredible hunter. Or, extra doubtless, it may very well be a dud. So simply be cautious whenever you’re wanting round for Wirehaired Pointing Griffons. Make the appropriate connections and actually join with a breeder targeted on breeding them for looking and for the sphere.
By way of what I’ve seen of Wirehaired Pointing Griffons, I’ve to say that once I first began seeing them within the discipline—once I first began researching the breed—I used to be form of confused. You see, I’ve had the pleasure of watching a good variety of Wirehaired Pointing Griffons work within the discipline, forest, and water.
I’ve seen them in North America and in Europe. I’ve hunted over just a few proper right here in my dwelling province of Manitoba, and I’ve watched Griffons run in NAVHDA checks within the pothole nation of North Dakota and within the rolling hills of central Quebec. I’ve even seen variety of them run in discipline trials within the sprawling wheat fields of northern France.
I even noticed a younger Griffon hunt in what’s known as apporter within the Netherlands. It’s a small discipline enclosed by dikes. It was close to the town of Haarlem, the place Korthals himself was raised. And every time I noticed one, I got here away with a fair higher appreciation for the breed.
The overwhelming majority of Wirehaired Pointing Griffons I’ve ever seen have left me with little question concerning what they’re meant to do on this life—and that’s to hunt.
And whereas they may not be as hard-charging as some breeds, nor as quick or far-ranging as others, the great ones are excellent all-around staff with an awesome persona and a basic rough-haired look. And whereas there may be some variation inside the breed, on common, Griffons hunt at a easy, sustained gallop out to a few medium vary.
I’ve seen canine from discipline trial strains in France run approach sooner and approach wider than common. But for some cause, the concept that Wirehaired Pointing Griffons are sluggish and tremendous close-working canine took maintain in sure circles—particularly in North America. It’s not unusual to see phrases like “cautious” or “methodical,” and even “plodding,” used to explain a Griffon’s search.
One fellow mentioned that it’s the right outdated man’s canine as a result of it doesn’t actually run quick. One American writer even wrote that the Griffon was, quote, positively the closest-working and slowest, most deliberate pointing breed accessible in North America, unquote. Now, I’m a fairly mild-mannered Canadian man. I don’t like choosing bones with anyone, however I gotta inform you—that assertion actually grinds my gears.
It nearly makes me assume that the writer, the dude that wrote it, had by no means really seen Griffon within the discipline. As a result of in my thirty years of observing the breed, I’ve by no means—ever—seen one that may match his description because the slowest and closest-working breed accessible to the North American hunter.
Alright, granted—perhaps within the fifties or sixties and even as much as the seventies, when the unique membership was actually floundering and struggling to seek out good canine—perhaps there have been just a few duds round. And perhaps these had been the one ones folks noticed, and they also kind of tarnished the breed title in North America and actually gave it that label. I don’t know. I wasn’t there.
From what I’ve seen, and what Korthals himself declared proper off the bat, the Griffon is something however a sluggish, plodding outdated man’s canine. Jean Castaing, one of many biggest French consultants—who wrote a complete e-book about Griffons within the Nineteen Forties—mentioned this about Korthals Griffons. He mentioned, quote, Korthals Griffons are the bridge between the shorter-range continental pointing canine and the quick and wide-running English canine.
All it’s important to do is learn a number of the discipline trial experiences from again within the day from Korthals’s personal canine operating in discipline trials. Get this—in opposition to Pointers and Setters, and gaining placements and even victories over Pointers and Setters. That’s proper, Griffons within the very earliest days didn’t run in opposition to the opposite continental breeds; they ran in opposition to Pointers and Setters. That’s as a result of Korthals’s unique imaginative and prescient was to get a canine that was nearly like a Pointer or Setter—not fairly as far-reaching, not fairly as quick, however simply as dynamic. Besides it additionally had a powerful retrieve, a powerful monitoring nostril, and lots of ardour to work within the water. That was his concept.
And there are experiences—you’ll be able to learn them on-line in the present day—from newspapers, from reporters who had been eyewitnesses to these explicit canine operating in discipline trials in France, Germany, and Belgium. And so they speak about canine reaching out to the horizon. They speak about canine that had been so quick that they had been, quote, astonished by their velocity.
That was the unique Korthals Griffon. And actually, to today, there are nonetheless canine like that. I’ve seen rockets within the fields, particularly in discipline trials in northern France. I’ve seen Griffons that had been simply—once more—rockets. They had been looking like their ass was on hearth.
Now, the common Griffon that I’ve seen in France in addition to right here in North America has been principally a very good, medium-speed, medium-range canine.
Galloping, slamming on level, holding a classy level gundog. They’re very comparable of their operating and pointing and looking traits to the opposite wirehaired pointing breeds. They’re something however a sluggish, plodding outdated man’s canine. Now, I’ll get off my soapbox for now, however please take that to coronary heart.
Don’t imagine these people who find themselves saying {that a} Griffon is an outdated man’s plodding canine. They aren’t. Can you discover one like that? Yeah, in all probability. There are canine like that in nearly each breed. There are just a few exceptions to the rule. In any case, should you take the time to hunt out a well-bred Wirehaired Pointing Griffon in North America or in Europe, you’ll quickly understand that it’s not the slowest, most deliberate pointing breed accessible.
And in the case of pointing and exhibiting a breed-specific model whereas it’s going about its job, properly, the French normal for the breed offers an in depth description about how the canine ought to do its job when approaching and pointing sport. I’ll quote from the usual right here:
“Whether or not it’s a sudden cease or after working into the scent cone, the top and the nostril are in keeping with the again. The physique is tense and inflexible, the neck prolonged, and the legs are sometimes bent. The canine could also be semi-crouched, and the tail ought to be inflexible and should not flag.
The roading model is all the time feline and achieved with willpower and drive. The canine crouches increasingly as he approaches the hidden sport; he can find yourself together with his stomach on the bottom when he lastly stops.
It is just in the course of the act of working into the scent cone and in the course of the act of roading in in direction of sport that Griffons tackle this feline motion, which earned them the nickname of ‘Korthals’s Cats’ within the final century.”
When describing the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon’s persona, homeowners and breeders typically use phrases like outgoing, fun-loving, and desperate to please. The standard Griffon is alleged to be an awesome household canine, good with youngsters, and simple to get together with. Griffons usually reply greatest to softer coaching strategies and calm trainers quite than the drill-sergeant strategy.
But regardless that a trademark of the breed is a candy, pleasant persona, the FCI breed normal really refers to a pure protecting intuition inside the breed, stating that:
“A Korthals Griffon is connected to his grasp and his territory, which he guards with vigilance.”
The German Griffon Membership appears to agree, stating on their web site that the breed is thought to be household canine however has a pronounced safety drive. Personally, I’ve by no means encountered a Griffon that I assumed had an excellent sturdy protecting intuition, however I’m certain they’re on the market. A pal of mine used to have them within the Nineteen Seventies and 80s in France, and he mentioned, yeah, his canine had been fairly protecting of his yard.
I don’t know. Is your Griffon protecting? Why don’t you allow a remark within the remark part of the YouTube video or on the podcast platform and let me know? However typically talking, these are candy, cuddly canine in my thoughts. And certain, perhaps they’ll defend home and residential.
However past the canine themselves, my analysis into the historical past and growth of the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon actually opened my eyes to the truth that canine breeds normally are actually simply bodily manifestations of the hopes and goals of the individuals who breed them.
With the Korthals Griffon, properly, you’re wanting on the bodily manifestation of the hopes and goals of a twenty-two-year-old man in Haarlem who went to work for a German prince in Germany. And over the course of simply twenty quick years, not solely did he and the prince discovered a testing system that also exists to today, however he created a complete breed that carries his title in the present day.
And it’s a beautiful breed of wirehaired pointing canine that’s loved by many hunters world wide. And we must also needless to say Korthals was working in a really troubled period. Yeah, it was kind of the golden age for breeding gundogs and for creating your personal breed of gundogs. We’re gonna take a look at a pair in coming episodes that had been invented by different folks round that very same time—those who had simply as a lot monetary backing, simply as a lot imaginative and prescient for his or her breeds. However these breeds by no means survived or by no means reached the degrees that the Korthals Griffon has.
However that period was additionally rife with political dissension, with tensions amongst teams, with tensions amongst breeders, with completely different concepts. Which approach ought to we go? Are all Griffons associated? Ought to we have the ability to breed between the entire completely different wirehaired pointing canine that we now have? Ought to we additionally have the ability to take shorthaired canine and breed them into a few of our strains?
Effectively, all of these questions had been finally answered, they usually gave us the breeds that we now have in the present day. But it surely was a rocky time frame, and that’s the time frame that we’re gonna check out in our subsequent episode—after we see what occurs when a Poodle and a Pointer have a one-night stand and set off a revolution within the gundog breeding world.
Effectively, that wraps up half certainly one of our take a look at the wirehaired breeds.
{
“@context”: “https://schema.org”,
“@kind”: “PodcastEpisode”,
“@id”: “https://projectupland.com/project-upland-listen/hunting-dog-confidential/where-did-the-wirehaired-pointing-griffon-come-from/#episode”,
“title”: “The place Did the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Come From?”,
“description”: “Discover the origins of the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, from Eduard Korthals’s Nineteenth-century imaginative and prescient to the myths, politics, and passionate breeders that formed the versatile gundog we all know in the present day.”,
“url”: “https://projectupland.com/project-upland-listen/hunting-dog-confidential/where-did-the-wirehaired-pointing-griffon-come-from/”,
“partOfSeries”: {
“@kind”: “PodcastSeries”,
“title”: “Looking Canine Confidential Podcast”,
“url”: “https://projectupland.com/class/project-upland-listen/hunting-dog-confidential/”
},
“mainEntityOfPage”: “https://projectupland.com/project-upland-listen/hunting-dog-confidential/where-did-the-wirehaired-pointing-griffon-come-from/”,
“associatedMedia”: {
“@kind”: “AudioObject”,
“@id”: “https://projectupland.com/project-upland-listen/hunting-dog-confidential/where-did-the-wirehaired-pointing-griffon-come-from/#audio”,
“title”: “The place Did the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Come From?”,
“embedUrl”: “https://www.buzzsprout.com/2464261/episodes/17938703-where-did-the-wirehaired-pointing-griffon-come-from.js”,
“contentUrl”: “https://www.buzzsprout.com/2464261/episodes/17938703-where-did-the-wirehaired-pointing-griffon-come-from.mp3?obtain=true”,
“encodingFormat”: “audio/mpeg”,
“inLanguage”: “en”,
“transcript”: “https://projectupland.com/project-upland-listen/hunting-dog-confidential/where-did-the-wirehaired-pointing-griffon-come-from/#transcript”
}
}
The put up The place Did the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Come From? appeared first on Challenge Upland.
