I think some of this attributed to the fact that they are hardwired to hunt birds so well. You have to remember that these dogs have been breed for bird hunting(some better than others) and bird hunting is exactly what they will do.ĮPs will tend to be a bit more hard headed early on and tend to mature a bit later. Don't sell any breed short just because of generalization you may read on the internet or in magazines, do your homework and find a breeding that is more along the lines of what you want in a dog.(hunting style, personality, drive, and whatever else it is that you look for) In the end it is your job to get the dog to hunt the way you want it to and be the dog you want it to be. Any dog can be a truelly great dog with the right amount of training and conditioning to what you want. In the hunting world and especially the hunting dog world you only get out of it what you put into it. I have seen many EPs that were out of sight when the tailgate dropped and I have seen many others that would hunt hard all day right in shotgun range. None of this would be possible without the right amount of constant training and working on my part. Together they feed off each other and back each others weakness and make for a good team. To her the thrill of tracking and retrieving a downed bird is just as fun as finding them before the shot. The other of my two is a big ranging dog as well but is a cripple tracking machine. Not to say that she won't routinely track, find, and retrieve cripples but you can tell by her actions that she craves a truelly wild rooster that is operating at 100%. She has an extreme desire to find birds and point them but her drive on cripples lacks some. She is a hard charger and a big runner when the conditions warrant it. I have one who loves to be the lead dog in the field and will not stop short of trying to find every bird before the other dogs with her. I have GSPs and both are totally different from one another even though they are a mother daughter tandem. The ranging is something that can be controlled with the right amount of training from the beginning. I have also seen the other side of the fence where the dog wants nothing more than to find birds and find birds it will do all day. I have seen many EPs handle like a dream and love the after the shot attention that many bird dogs recieve from a happy hunter. I think more than not people tend to key in on generalizations about a breed and stop there. So my advice is forget breed, and pick an individual, who's parents and grandparents had the traits you are looking for, with size a qualifier as well. I have had Pointers, Britts, Shorthairs, who hunted the next section over, spurned any handling, weren't interested in any bird not capable of flight,disdained human interaction, and usually managed to find the truck about dark, which is the last place I saw them in the morning. All these are generalities, I have had pointers that were as cuddly as a lap dog, and handled like a dream. You are an equal partner with an EP, if you need a dog that you can handle constantly in field, you'll find the process frustrating because EP breeding encourages independence in search. Be aware EP's keep score and will hunt in front of the guy who reliably shoots the birds, whether it's the dogs owner or not. Best relationship with the hunter, is an owner who hunts often, goes at it hardcore, doesn't need a dog that will fawn all over him, handles with a minimum of fuss, the dog hunts, you follow the dog, your job is to keep track of the dog, and shoot what the dog finds. Most trial bred dogs, do not run so big as to scare anybody, and most adjust their range to field conditions and how you customarily hunt. Some are excellent retrievers, most will at least find dead birds. Size doesn't make any difference in birdability. Come in all sizes from 40#s to nearly 90#. Hunting never say die machine willing and able to cover as much ground as necessary to find birds. Thoughts on years of owning English Pointers.
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