CAPTAIN STIRLING’S BRAG OF KEIR (FIELD TRIAL WINNER)
COL. C. J. COTES’ FIELD WINNER PITCHFORD DUKE ON THE RUABON HILLS
COL. C. J. COTES’ FIELD WINNER PITCHFORD DUKE ON LORD HOME’S MOORS IN LANARK
Having obtained pure bred pointers, it is well to remember that nose is even more important than enormous speed. A dog travelling 50 while another went 100 yards would be a crawler; but, as has been said above, nose differs by much more. When, therefore, we consider the comparative merits of two dogs, we should not regard space in lineal measure but in square measure. Thus, if we take the slow speed at 50 yards and the long nose at 100 yards and multiply them together, we get 5000 square yards as the capacity of the slow dog for hunting ground, while that of the fast dog may be 100 yards of speed multiplied by 10 yards of nose, or only 1000 square yards of covering capacity as against 5000 of the slow dog.
This is not intended to be an excuse for slow dogs, for it usually happens that the very fast ones are also the best for nose; but it is meant to imply that a dog should not be exerting his whole energy in galloping, because if he is he will not be thinking about game-finding, and will not find. A pointer must do the thing easily, and go well within his powers. He must not couple and uncouple like a greyhound. He must not gallop like a little race-horse, although he may, if he can, gallop like one of those smashers that are said to “win in a canter,” which means that they are not exerting themselves. Pointers with lively stern action may be taken always to be hunting well within their powers. Some of those that have no stern action would have it if they were not over-exerting themselves in galloping, but this is not invariable; and some of the fastest and best pointers have not had stern action. For instance, Drake had not.
About 1872, Mr. Thomas Statter, of Stand Hall, near Manchester, had as good pointers as anyone and the best setters. His pointers were of Lord Derby’s liver-and-white strain, and Major, Manton, Rex, and Viscount were some of his best. Major appears at no time to have been under much control, but he was a dog of great natural capacity, and his blood told in future canine generations, whereas that of his better trained victors died out. The late Mr. A. P. Heywood Lonsdale had a fine strain of this kind of pointer blood, and at the moment of writing one of the best, if not the actual best pointer in America is descended from dogs exported direct from the Ightfield kennel, which is now particularly strong in setters, but has not many pointers. For the late Mr. Lonsdale, and afterwards for his son, Captain H. Heywood Lonsdale, the late W. Brailsford managed a fine kennel of dogs, as he had previously for the late Duke of Westminster, and before that for Lord Lichfield. His pointers, wherever he went, were of the liver-and-white sort, and were practically of the same strains as those mentioned in Drake’s pedigree. Indeed, it is probable that Brailsford and some other keepers did as much as the dogs’ owners to keep up this race of pointers, which is now stronger in Salop than anywhere. William Brailsford, moreover, founded the National Field Trials during the time he was managing Lord Lichfield’s kennel, in 1866—that is, one year after the first start of field trials in Bedfordshire.
To start breeding pointers of the right sort is as easy as to continue breeding the wrong. There are dogs constantly going to auction whose ancestors have won field trials for ten to thirteen generations. This is a guarantee to a certain extent that puppies will be worth something to shoot over. It is a great assistance to the breeder, who, having the blood, can confine his powers of selection to the choice for external form, which is a great simplification. A pedigree as long as one’s arm is absolutely useless as a mere record of names, but with field trial victors in every generation it is nearly all the help that a breeder can desire. If to these were added good photographs of each generation, it would make breeding almost a certainty.