01/13/2024
HOW I FELL IN LOVE WITH THE GERMAN SHORTHAIRED POINTER: A SHORT STORY
When I was in junior high school, I had a classmate that owned the dog pictured here. Her name was GG, which stood for Good Girl. She had been dumped in their cul-de-sac as a puppy, and they took her in. She was a gorgeous liver/white/patched/ticked female. She had such a great expression, and loved to play. She was ball obsessed, and would run down their steep slope of a yard, clear jump a 6-ft fence, retrieve the ball, climb back over the fence like an Army Ranger, and drop the ball at your feet. She relentlessly hunted birds, squirrels, and moles, and nothing would stop her end game. You could ask her to dig holes to plant trees and bushes, which we did quite a bit on that steep hillside. She was just as happy to lay in the tent with us in the back yard while we pretended to camp in the Sierras on the back lawn. I was forever impressed with her zest for life, her laser focus on tasks, and desire to please, and still want to just hang out with us kids. I swore some day, when I had enough land for a dog of such caliber, I would get at least one.
Fast forward 35 years. I moved cross country onto four acres. I got my first GSP in January 2021 (I've owned many rescue dogs in between). She was field-bred, drivey, and obsessed with ball retrieve. I joined my local kennel club and was introduced to the whole world of dog performance sports. FASTCAT, barn hunt, tricks, field hunting, and I have yet more to try this year. With Shatzi I started studying the GSP breed standard; I learned that her temperament and conformation were not ideal. After breeding horses for 20+ years with careful research back generations, I knew I needed to do a lot of homework before purchasing my next GSP. That year of research led me to Halestorm Kennel and our dog Breeze. She is a lovely dog in temperament and conformation, she trains easily to new tasks, has drive and birdiness, but is not crazy. She has an off switch and loves to snuggle. My 10-year-old daughter showed her in a double-double Junior Hunt test weekend to her JH title with high marks. I was misty-eyed every time Cora called her back and Breeze would return to her. We are working multiple performance sports with her, in addition to AKC Junior Showmanship and AKC Grand Champion title. I've handled many horses and foals through breed inspections, so conformation showing to AKC GCH is an important goal for me to increase my skillset. I'm studying books, interviewing breeders, handlers, and owners to learn more about the history of the GSP. One can get lost just trying to connect call names to registered names 😜.
GG may not have been a perfect representation of the breed, but what she instilled was a love of a versatile breed that literally can do anything--and for that, I will be forever grateful to the Sidlo family, and their dog GG.
