re: Anyone here own a German Wirehair Pointer?

Those dogs look badass.

Much diff they retrieve

This is one of the 5 breeds I would love to own. I worked with a few in my younger years and they were full of personality. Very Alpha, and you have to assert yourself with them. Definitely a more energetic breed. Hopefully in the next two years I can settle in to a place where I can own one. I know right now I couldn't dedicate the time a breed like this deserves.

I have many buddies with GSP and they are incredible hunting dogs but many are not the best retrivers, not saying they cant be but they are pointers first and formost. As good as a Golden Yes, all day everyday, Lab and Chesapeake, that is a tough question i have only had 1 lab and it was incredible, but I am a DD owner now so i am a little biased but on blind retrives yes just working big open water all day give the edge to the lab but that is not the reason to get a DD you get a DD if you like to hunt multiple species Rabbits, Upland Birds grouse phez woodcock quail chucker huns, Waterfowl, blood track down game, if you are going to spend 90% of you time hunting 1 species get that type of dog, The genes in DD are just incredible all you will need to train is the call name sit stay no down fetch & here everything else is hard wired.You can spend more time making the dog polished to be like a trial dog if that is what you want.
You can walk out into a dove field and set down on you chair, my dog will sit and start watching the sky for dove, now if i get up and start walking the field she will start working the field looking for upland birds. Another trait that is hardwired is they will hardly ever get more than shooting distance away from you as you hunt a field you will see the dog constantly checking in looking at where you are. If you shoot a phez and wing when it and hits the ground they run and they can run very fast the dogs are great for dispatching the bird quickly, I had a situation where i took a buddy who never had hunted geese before we were in a WMA at an island and he shot his first goose steel shot the damn thing was still flying and bleeding out till it got to shore 150 yards away the dog marked it we took off in the boat got to shore dog takes off we cant see her becouse of the elevation but we hear kids screaming climb the hill and we see few hundred people at a girls cross country track meet and there is my dog dispatching a 12 pound goose right in the middle of the crowd uncomfortable. Are they perfect no but very close to being a omnipotent dog. Now the kicker is price expect to pay 1000. or more for a pup that is where many people go astray with the GWP they are much cheaper.
yes they are alpha dogs but you cannot be heavy handed with this breed at
all it wont work.
Here was a day that it was 8 deg, beard frozen with feathers in it. Gratuitous pics

Dude, I want that dog

GWPs have the reputation of retrieving better, but there are GSP kennels out there that teach their dogs to water retrieve with success. My experience with my GSPs is that they get bored with non-living animals. Now if they see a duck swimming they get after them and don't give up, but just going back and forth picking up birds isn't what they'd rather do.

As far as being as good as labs, it all depends. There are guys who use boykins all the time and prefer them to labs, so I'd say it's just preference.

quote:

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The Energizer Bunny of the dog world.

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Not when compared to other bird dog breeds...

I wanted a wired haired and I just absolutely couldn't find one. I got a Vizsla instead, although I had to drive a couple of states away to get him as well.


I wish I had just gotten another blue heeler.

Up north? This was ~7 years ago. I found a Drahthaar in Cali, but the price of it was just too much.