Fly Fishing Trips, Vacations, Equipment & Gear: Points on Pointers

Buddy pointing Mearns Quail in AZ

Spot backs Cruz on a Covey of Huns

The first Pointer that joined my team of Britts was Ted , who came to me via a Field Trailer that deemed Ted would make a good Bird Dog but was not going to cut it as an All Age Trail Dog which he was seeking,Ted is a full on Miller Pointer who at age 5 has had a ton of wild bird experience ,but what really "sold" me on the English Pointer Breed was how early Ted turned on , at nine months he was on the A-Team ,clients could not believe a puppy was finding and pointing the amount of Birds that he was .
As much as I love my Britts I needed dogs with more bottom end than the Brittany breed has to offer ,and with my move to Arizona I needed low maintenance (minimal grooming) dogs and with all due respect to the Brittany crowd , there is nothing like covering an English Pointer point ,Setter fans may argue that a Setter is prettier because of the way the wind moves the feathers in the tail ,I am not after pretty I want intensity which the English Pointers has hands down.
Some of the myths about Pointers ( from people that don't own Pointers ) is that they don't make good house dogs, they run past their birds and that they don't retrieve.
We have 3 English Pointers in the house ,we would have more but there are already 4 other house dogs plus the Cat.Pointers like any breed if properly socialized respond well to it , and lap up affection.Most of my pointers will retrieve however they are not Labs nor do i expect them to be ,and contrary to the comment about running past birds Pointers get to the Birds quicker , probably one of the reasons why they win so many field trails , some Pointers may not be great "singles " dogs but because I run dogs in braces I will run a big running dog with a closer working dog so finding singles is not an issue.
Training wise ,Pointers generally are soft dogs and you need to get things right with them sooner than later , otherwise it seems to hard to "go back" with them. It seems if training is fun they respond well ,If a lot of pressure it put on them they don't ,so all training situations are geared for the dog to succeed .
The big advantage with Pointers is that the prey drive and hunting desire to please is there at an early age ,all one has to do is bring that out via exposure to birds and pointing and backing should fall into place .Breaking Pointers is also easy as they seem to be naturally staunch to begin with.I break my dogs by discouraging them not to chase birds , that's it ,and although they are not Field Trail broke
they will hold point until the flush and shot ,for the most part most will not chase birds (except for the dogs 2 years and under) for me breaking is a safety issue not a milestone of a well trained dog.
If you are looking for a great Bird Dog that gets it done you may want to consider an English Pointer ,they are tough but biddable ,hard working and make great Family Dogs so don't sell yourself short get a Pointer.