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The heath hen was yet another member of the grouse family. But sadly, this grouse was last seen in this world back in the 1930s. Its closest living relatives today are facing similar challenges, so what can we learn from this bird’s story to prevent it from happening again?

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One of the most interesting - and frustrating - challenges I faced when writing my book Pointing Dogs Volume One: The Continentals was trying to come up with a reasonably accurate profile of the wirehaired pointing griffon. Despite the fact that the sporting literature from the late 19th century contains a wealth of information on the breed and that a good number of books have been written about it since then, I had a hard time coming up with a coherent summary of the breed's development and its current situation.

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If you are new to wingshooting, then dove hunting is the perfect introduction for first-timers wanting to get into bird hunting. It lays the basic foundation for all the other upland disciplines. It's a laid-back and enjoyable experience for beginners, and it's a social hunting event. The action can go from zero to sixty in nothing flat.

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In North America, despite a very early start—the first wirehaired pointing griffon arrived in the United States in 1887—the breed has always played a minor role on the gun dog scene. Unlike the Brittany and the German shorthaired pointer (which coincidentally were promoted by some of the same individuals who imported some of the first wirehaired pointing griffons) the griffon never really caught the attention of mainstream hunters and field trialers in the United States or Canada.

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The missing element is the foundation laid down by black bird dog handlers who stood humbly in the shadows of many of the greatest white dog men and field trial dogs on the American field circuit. From Man Rand and Peck Kelly to Leroy Clayton, Albert Cannon Sr., and Malichi Kalip, a number of great dog men have done everything from managing plantations, to breaking horses to pointers and pointers to bobwhites, to scouting for some of America’s renowned talents at every level of field trial history. I once found myself looking through old photos of field trialers, their dogs, and their horses, and every so often I would catch glimpses of black men hidden in the shadows of an already black and white photograph. I wondered who these men were, but seldom if ever was a description left about these figures in the background.

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The word griffon (or griffin) can be traced back to the Greek and Latin roots meaning “hook” or “claw” or even “hawk” ( i.e., a bird with claws). Long ago, it was the name of a mythical beast with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion—with clawed feet, of course.

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As dog owners, we often look at our dog’s bowel movements as a messy inconvenience that creates work for us. And while I do not enjoy picking up stools out in the yard any more than the next person, I do take advantage of the wealth of information provided twice daily in those little brown piles.

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Using a new shotgun is always an exciting feeling but also somewhat unsettling when putting ol’ reliable aside. For over a decade,  I have been chasing chukar with a 12-gauge Benelli M2 semi-auto with a black synthetic stock that has taken a beating over the years. Prior to that, I used a 20-gauge Benelli Nova pump that I won with a few lucky numbers being called out at a Nevada Bighorns Unlimited dinner in the mid-2000s, and before that I used a Remington 870 pump--all of which have earned the title of being reliable shotguns for chasing birds.

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The pointer itself is not coincidental, but rather the result of strategic breeding in an effort to accomplish a particular set of goals: to defeat the English setter in the field trials of America and to create a dog that could effectively cover the wider expanses of terrain and handle all forms of the native birds of the American continent. The earliest importations of pointer blood were not adequate to suit the environmental conditions of the American continent. The dogs were too large, too heavy-boned, and because of this there were a number of selective breedings that occurred which changed the conformation of the pointer in a very short amount of time--roughly over the span of 50-60 years. 

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What do you see when you look into the eyes of a hunting puppy? Aside from the looming weeks of house training, teething, laundry, midnight trips to the yard, chewed shoes, and coming to terms with your own temper . . . there’s also raw potential. There is hope for a decade or more of hunting trips, brag-worthy bird finds, staunch points, and epic retrieves that you’ll remember for a lifetime. The trick is how to harness all of that potential and turn it into the hunting partner of your dreams.

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