Continental Shift

You are as likely to see an HPR as a baseball cap at a smart shoot, says David Tomlinson. So, if you’ve done the training, how do you get to work your well-trained continental pointer?

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OLD taboos take years to die in the shooting field. Many decades passed before over-and under were accepted and if you go farther back you will discover similar prejudices against hammerless guns, even yellow labradors. Of course, some prejudgments still remain. Turning up at a smart shoot wearing a baseball cap is hardly acceptable and nor is having a continental gundog sitting beside you at your peg. In the past 20 years, I can recall only seeing one HPR being used as a peg dog. It was a weimaraner and acquit itself satisfactorily. I’m sure that if it hadn’t its owner would never have been invited again.

It’s some 70 years since the first German shorthaired pointers appeared on shoots in the UK and, since then, those pioneering hunter, pointer retrievers have been joined by a host of other continental breeds. The choice today is considerable. Would you like a lovely russet-coloured vizsla from Hungary or, perhaps, a big white spinone from Italy? If neither appeals, there’s always the Spanish water dog, a game little animal that looks like a sporty poodle. I like the Brittany, the most spaniel-like of the pointing breeds, while I’ve seen some great work by Korthals griffons.