DOGS AUSTRALIA GROUP 3 · UTILITY GUNDOGS
Two breeds. Both built for the same job.
Eight breeds sit in the utility gundog category in Australia. We breed two of them. Both are pointing breeds; dogs expected to find game on their own initiative, freeze on it, and retrieve it to hand. Everything else they do comes second to being fit for that work.
001 · THE CATEGORY
Three jobs in one dog.
A utility gundog is expected to do the whole task, not part of it. Before these breeds existed, a hunter needed one dog to point, another to flush and a third to retrieve. Three hundred years of European breeding went into consolidating that into a single animal.
That history is the reason these dogs are what they are to live with. A dog bred to work a kilometre out and think for itself is not a dog that will be satisfied by a walk around the block. The intelligence, the stamina and the stubbornness are all the same trait wearing different clothes.
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Hunt
Range out and find game on their own initiative
Not waiting to be directed. Covering ground, working the wind, and making decisions at distance.
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Point
Freeze on it, and hold, until released
An inherited trait, not a taught one. Training turns it into a formal stance the dog will hold until the handler releases them.
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Retrieve
Fur and feather, on land and out of water, to hand
Delivered to the handler, undamaged. This is the part most often lost in breeds selected only for looks.
002 · THE TWO BREEDS
Same work, different dog to live with.
German Shorthaired Pointer
Deutsch Kurzhaar · Germany · 53–64cm · 20–32kg
The larger of the two, and the breed most of our dogs are. Liver and white, ticked or solid, with the short double coat the name describes.
Strong, fast, extremely intelligent, and physically capable of cornering larger game. At home they are affectionate to the point of having no concept of personal space. They are also the more demanding of the two to keep well — a bored GSP will dismantle your garden.
First registered with the German Kennel Club in 1872. Australia’s lines are a mix of American, British and eastern European.
Brittany
Épagneul Breton · France · Smaller build
A French pointing breed from Brittany, and the smaller of the two. Orange and white or liver and white, with a longer coat than the GSP and a naturally shorter tail.
Bred for the same three jobs, but a different proposition day to day: less dog to physically manage, generally softer to handle, and often the better answer for a home that wants a pointing breed without the sheer scale of a GSP.
Still a working gundog, though. Anyone expecting a smaller dog to mean a lower-energy dog has misread the breed.
003 · HOW WE BREED
Measured against a standard, not against opinion.
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Frequency
Ethical Breeding
Not a volume operation. It means the waiting list is long and slow, and it means every litter gets our full attention.
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Health
DNA tested, hip and elbow screened
Every dog. Ask us for the results and we will send them, do the same with any breeder you talk to, and do not accept reassurance in place of a document.
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Registration
Dogs NSW registered, prefix EdelJager
Every dog registered with Dogs NSW and through them Dogs Australia. Breeder prefix EdelJager #210101373. NSW Breeder Identification Number B001009350.
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Work
Our dogs do what they were bred for
Alongside their show titles they are trained in obedience and gundog sports. A pointing breed that has never been asked to point is an untested dog.
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For life
Lifetime support, and we will take a dog back
If you buy a dog from us and can no longer care for it, we will always take care of it. That is the condition on which we are prepared to breed at all.
004 · WHERE NEXT
Read the honest version first.
Before you enquire about either breed, read the two lists. It is the document most likely to talk you out of one of these dogs, which is exactly what it is for.