Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

John Van Houten

Active member
Well my hunting buddy Bruno,(Boykin Spainel), is starting to slow down. He's 12 years old but hunts like a champ. I've been researching Wirehaired Pointing Griffons and wondering if anyone has some input on them. I'll be using him mostly for ducks.
 
John:

I have a hunting buddy who is about 7 years into his second WHPG after 12 good years with the first. Both have been great dogs in the field for partridge and woodcock and very game on ducks in warm or cool water. (And that's coming from a guy who generally prefers flushing dogs for upland work.) Cold tolerance was an issue in the late season here where we often hunt ducks on the ocean with snow on the ground and ice in the water. They were game, but shivered even before they got wet and it's clearly not the dog for those conditions. Both were fine on the salt in the early and mid season, and good hunting late season partridge in the snow and cold so long as you kept them moving.

Both had very sweet dispositions, too. The dogs my friend had were only available to owners who agreed to at least some level of training as versatile dogs, including upland, water work, and even tracking large game. That may not be true for all breeders, but it seems common for Griffons I've seen in Maine.

Another friend had a rescue Griffon from the pound they got about age 2. It was a sweetheart, but compared to a Springer or Lab with similar background didn't seem to have a lot of interest in birds. They didn't hunt so this was no issue. That may mean early exposure to birds and training is important for the breed, but I'm judging based on a sample size of one untrained dog from uncertain origins. They had no problems teaching it basic obedience despite a clear lack of that background when they got it, and as I said, she was a sweetheart once she had a little training.
 
At Pheasant Fest in Feb I talked to a couple guys with the Bohemian Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Club. http://bohemiangriffon.org
I was very impressed with their dogs. They most all had nice coats. There is a lot of good things that come out of these types of clubs.

With using these taller thinner versatile dogs for waterfowling I'd make sure to pick a breeding that will produce thicker dogs. Not just weight but thickness seems to be an important factor for water work.

Can't help with any specifics with WPGs but I think you will have fun with an ugly dog.

Tim
 
John Van Houten said:
Thanks for the input guys. By the way Tim my buddy thinks they have the color of a possum,lol....

Hahaha... you know what, they sort of do. The more liver you can get in a Wirehaired dog the less they look like a giant rat. [;)]

Tim
 
I attached a picture of my WPG Blue. This hunt was funny as we were having a decent morning and paying close attention for any teal moving through this narrow fen as we needed to react quickly to have any shooting. At some point we turned around to see that Blue had snacked on the head of a teal and was looking at us like nothing happened. She has been a great woodcock and pheasant dog. I hunt with her mainly in that early freshwater season here in New England and leave her at home for the cold hunts in late December and January. She is definitely a little muskrat and loves the water. Hair not fur so no shedding and although she needed tons of exercise when younger she never seemed as wound up as a lot of bird dogs I have met. View attachment 285128_3986107370907_1464357306_n.jpgView attachment 298278_928141919134_939586753_n.jpg
 
I’ve got a 4 year old WPG and love the breed. We hunt mainly ducks and geese on the lake and also a good bit of grouse and wood cock here in Vermont. It’s a versite breed so you’ll probably want to do some upland with the dog too. Mine hunts cold with me right up to the end of the season in December. I do warm him up after retrieves in cold water using a wool blanket but he has high enough drive to want to go get the next one every time. There are other breeds that may be better in cold water. I don’t take him once it gets downt to about 10 degrees. The breed can have issues with not ranging far from the owner which for me makes long retrieves more of a challenge.

Great family dogs. Doesn’t shed. Easy to train. NAVHDA is a great organization for training and testing verisitile hunting dogs like the WPG.
 
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