German Wirehaired Pointer Club of America

[lwretrievers]

Hello folks
I have trained several retrievers over the last couple years. I currently have three labs. ALthough I have always been curious on the pointing breeds, I have yet to own one. Until saturday when i picked up an 8 week old female. She has a 7 week old yellow lab to buddy up with for a couple weeks. Any one have any advice for me?

[Jon]

There are many differences. The first that comes to my mind is that you shouldn't expect your GWP to retrieve bumpers till the cows come home.
They get bored with repetitive training. Know when to stop on a good note.

I'm sure folks will have other thoughts.

[whiskerdog1]

They dont shed if stripped, theyre cleaner, they point and track and are alot more aggressive on game including cats/coons etc. The drive in some not all, can be high. Some are late to mature. They might be months behind a Lab as a youngster possibly-if not youre lucky. Go slow, make it fun. Most are soft in terms of corrections. Hard corrections work for other dogs better than a wire. Stern is best unless you have a knothead. Most live to please.
Generally speaking their noses are far superior to anything a Lab brings to the table, you will find this duck hunting on cripples. When your Lab cant find it, send out your wire and he will! A Navhda group might benefit you.
I like Labs, great at what they do-sit,mark,cast,fetch and take direction. Wonderful family dogs, but wires are pretty good too!
Nothing will find cripples better than a good wire or DD though, Ive recovered many left over by many retreivers with mine. Good luck.
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Real men hunt Wire Dogs

[lwretrievers]

Thanks for the advice. So far I am extremely impressed with the breed. I became interested in pointers when I sold my top upland retriever to a gentleman that also hunts with shorthairs. The two have become quite the team honoring and hunting together. I don't think the guy ever loses a bird. The shorthair finds the cripples and the lab goes and gets the long difficult retrieves. Its quite a sight. So I had to get one of my own of course. Last night she was pointing a wing on a string. Now I know its just sight pointing but I got excited.