I started another post in the upland bird forum with more pictures. But, I can now honestly say Id love to own a cross between an American Pointer and a South Africa "English" as they call them. Yes, their Pointers point with low tails and the dogs tend to crouch down much more than our Pointers, which point tall and proud with a 12 o'clock tail, but screw the tails, Id MUCH rather own an African bred Pointer than one of ours. Their dogs are bird machines. They range, hunt, and point very well. But here's the kicker, their "Englishes" retrieve like a lab and LOVE the water! They retrieve as well as any lab in a duck blind and will swim all day long, then they will range out for upland birds and are tough as nails. The dogs I watched were probably the most versatile pointing dogs I have ever seen. After a hunt we made the mistake of watering the dogs in a 25-50 acre pond that held several hundred ducks, and one of the pointers decided to go chase swimming Ducks. I honestly thought the dog was going to drown he chased them for so long. He was on the water for a solid 20 minutes swimming after hirds in the middle of the pond. It was pretty amazing and really opened my eyes on what different breeding programs can do to a breed. We also hunted over a couple of GSP's that reminded my a lot of ours, only a little bigger. Here's a picture of the Pointer heading out after the ducks. The little v in the water is the dog heading out.
In fairness those dogs probably see more birds in a month than most will in ten years of hunting...anywhere.
There's a lot of hubris in the Pointer world here, particularly within AF circles (and rightly so) but it has also led to some narrowing of the gene pool over the years and led people to ignore what the rest of the world has to offer in terms of Pointer genetics. I like the 12 o'clock tail, high head, etc but that obsession among field dog breeders here has kept out some good genes over the years.
The above said, I have a Pointer pup right now, that loves water and already has the beginnings of a nice natural retrieve. Most of the breeding is cover dog and NSTRA blood. Get out of the South!
There is a thread or two on Upland Journal where people compared European Pointer/setter lines versus American ones. You should post your observations there and see what people think...
http://www.uplandjournal.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard312a/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=2;t=93645http://www.uplandjournal.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard312a/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=2;t=93470
