I was wondering if there was anyone with experience in pointers? A friend of mine is really interested in getting one as a first dog (she has lots of dog experience from home :-) )what are they like with young children? any querks or habits that i should warn her of? I've been searching on the threads for 'pointer chat' but there don't seem to be many owners online...any out there?! :-) any suggestions or comments would be great so i can pass them on to her (she has no internet. bless... :-) )
Thanks everyone!!
Liz

I have 3 pointers. The oldest is 10 and the youngest is 5 months. The only querk I can think of is that they will want to do what they were originally bred to do and that is to hunt and find game. They range out further than my spaniel and gwp and need a lot of free running exercise. Mine are fine around other dogs but one of mine can be wary of people and two don't like children (they've not really been around children).

If your friend has any other questions, email me (hvfoster@btinternet.com) and I'll try and help. Mine are working pointers from working lines so am unsure if show pointers are any different.

Helen

Liz
We have a 9 mmonth old pointer called Morse who is gentle with our 4 kids - aged 5-14 and has been socialised to other dogs after training. We got him aged 6 months from a cat and dog home, with very little training, but he is now obedient for his age. As Helen says they do range further away than other dogs and have ahabit of pointing - freezing with nose to tail in a rigid line - before flushing and killing birds if allowed. You can train them to bring the bird to you alive as their mouths are soft. Ihave found Morse to be a picky eater and slow to gain wieght - they seem to be big dogs who grow till they are 2. They need plenty exercise and are curious intelligent dogs - I played hide and seek with Morse once to train him to come on call and he started hiding from me that day.. Until Helen posted I didn't have contact with other pointer owners either, and obviously this all based on Morse! I'd love to hear from other pointer owners too.

:-) :-) we used to have a spaniel that was really good at 'flushing' us out at hide and seek when we were kids...she had to be on the side of seeker though, as she was too excited to remain hidden when the seeker was close!
Is there any difference between show and field lines in the hunting instinct? Will untrained dogs point on walks instinctively? what was you experience with rescueing...what did the process involve? As for pointer owners on here...there are lots of breeders listed, but i guess they require so much exercise the owners can't spend all day on champdogs as well!!! One of my earliest memories is climbing into the puppy pen of pointer breeder friends of ours, and mum going made as she'd lost me...i was quite content though ;-) actually since may friend started questioning me about them i've started reconsidering...i've been wanting to find a lab for ages(posted on here ages ago), but my fiance had reservations...but we have both found common ground on a deep rooted love of pointers (shows you're always learning about people!!). Your comments are convincing me further! Do you plan to work Morse?

Hi Yes Morse points instictively on walks and they start this at 6 months apparently- don't know anything about his background so I know absolutely nothing about show or working pointers at all. When I say we "rescued" Morse, I really mean he came from the pound - in Edinurgh that's what the Cat and Dog home is. He'd been in a week and was given up as "too big". We got the dog, a sensiblebooklet citing Gwen Burrell and were able to call the Home for help - they were lovely especially when he got kennel cough in week one at home. He had a van drive to the vet's and an escort home who showed me how to givehim antibiotics and adjust his puppy harness. His bigbad habits are very common in rescue dogs - pulling on the lead and lack of socialisation. I'm pleased to say MOrse is now very well behaved for a young lad and we receive compliments on him - today he played with his pals and came when called rightaway, yesterday he stayed without his lead while I hid in bushes until called. I have worked hard and wept copiously as I did all the right things and waited for success, but he's young, a gem and I have patience so it's okay.The hardest thing is nothaving anyone who knows pointers to ask about. Working Morse is a vexed question - I'm told nothing will do but putting him to the gun, and have noproblem with this, but we believe shooting is an expensive hobby - if anyone knows different let me know! We think tracking or agility could be good when hes older.THey start training them at 2 when they're grown. Iwould have another pointer any time as they are such graceful gentle dogs and I love being outside myself. My husband loves pointers too after having Morse and we went looking for a nice little crossbred pup too!

sounds like your hard work is paying off though!! maybe you could try to chat to Helen who posted second on this thread...pointer people seem a bit scarce, but she seems to have experience!! I guess you must be able to do something other than gun work..they are so active and responsive to training! have you spoken to the pointer club? there must be some support for you out there... :-) Liz x (ps...we were in Edinburgh last summer..gorgeous place!!)

Hi LIz we have tried to contact the pointer club of scotland without success as their contact number is out of order - can I e-mail Helen off the forum - thought this was an invitation to you and your friend and dont want to annoy her.

Anyone is free to email me if you want tp talk pointers.

If anyone has emailed me, can you try again as I've been busy this week and have had too many emails to deal with so have had to delete.

I'll give you some background on our pointers and what we do with them. My husband works for the Game Conservancy Trust had uses the pointers and gwp, to count grouse in Northumberland. They work for a month in spring and are working for a month at the moment. We don't shoot over them but use the gwp instead. There aren't very many opportunities to shoot over them as they are only really used for grouse and grouse shooting is very expensive. I have recently read somewhere that they are used for partridges as well.

We've never tried any other activities with the pointers but I do know of someone who does agility near edinburgh with a couple. If you are interested, I could ask my friend who attends the club, which one it is. I seem to recall that the owner works them as well.

Helen

Hurray pointer pals! Yes I'd really like to know about the agility club near Edinburgh and maybe visit to see what's involved. It would also be good to see what Morse will look like when he's grown. Bad news about grouse shooting being expensive - could be agility or dog trials would be a better source of mental stimulation for us. Thanks Helen

I've got the details of the agility club. It's held at www.oatridge.ac.uk which is an agrictultural college. My friend tells me that there is a woman there who has two pointers who she works as well so maybe a contact??

Good luck and let me know how you get on.

Helen

Thanks Helen oatridge is just up the road from us so Iwil investigate. Morse is 10 months now so they might ask me not to bring him till he's older but I'll go along and find out. Hope the weather is good on your moors.