GSP & ENGLISH MIX BREED

jtcwces · Post by **jtcwces** » Mon Jul 27, 2015 12:50 pm

ANYONE HAVE OR HAVE HAD ANY BRED THIS WAY AND WHAT WAS TEMPERMENT AND GENERAL THOUGHTS ABOUT IT?

Post by **Sharon** » Wed Jul 29, 2015 9:12 pm

I see you didn't get any answers yet.
I've never owned a purposely chosen mixed breed gun dog.
My GSP had a lot of white and I used to be kidded about it being English Pointer too.
An English pointer and a GSP might turn out to be a good gun dog.

RayGubernat · Post by **RayGubernat** » Wed Jul 29, 2015 9:34 pm

Fifty years ago, a lot of folks didn't much care about which breed. Many were far more interested in getting a good bird finder.

I hunted over a few different mixed breed dogs most were predominantly pointer/setter mixes. they called them "droppers" and they made fine bird dogs. My uncle was given a purebred fully trained GSP, with field trial wins, because the owner was being sent to Saudi Arabia by Esso, for (I think) four years. heckuva dog from what I gather. I never saw him hunt. Over the next few years there were several dogs in his kennel with some shorthair in them. They hunted just fine and aside from the longer, coarser hair, you had a hard time telling that they weren't all pointer.

RayG

Collins1527 · Post by **Collins1527** » Wed Jul 29, 2015 10:14 pm

I personally think any dog with hunting genetics will be a good hunting dog if it is trained right whether it is a purebred or a mixed breed. We had an oops litter (GSP/EP) in January and luckily we found some wonderful homes that have been working them ragged and are keeping in touch. They have all turned out to be great hunting pups. As far as temperament of this litter, all are very driven, happy pups just like mom and dad are. I think temperament really depends on genetics too. That being said, I don't see a reason to purposefully breed for a mixed breed when there are great breeders out there that strive to breed for the best genetics/traits in purebreds, but luckily ours turned out the be great little pups. Here's some pictures of how our oops pups turned out. They just turned 6 months.

Collins1527 · Post by **Collins1527** » Wed Jul 29, 2015 10:19 pm

Here's some more

Collins1527 · Post by **Collins1527** » Wed Jul 29, 2015 10:20 pm

And the others.

cjhills · Post by **cjhills** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 5:41 am

This was quite common in the days before DNA. My first Trial bred dog had a well known white dog about four generations back in his pedigree. Every litter he sired had at least one pup which looked more like a pointer than a GSP.
He and his pups were all extreme bird dogs. There are some advantages to hybrid vigor and probably no such thing as purebred.........Cj

RockyDD · Post by **RockyDD** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 6:59 am

The hot news in my area was the breeding of a small munsterlander to a drahthaar. They were trying to get the sm trainability and co operation with the DD intensity and verstatility. The first litter did it and was a great success. There was a big demand for more puppies and they did a second breeding. It was a miss. I think if a breeder was willing to do something like this on a long term basis and only use the best dogs, we could see some great dogs targeted for local hunters but they would all be off the books.

DonF · Post by **DonF** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 9:25 am

Are you thinking about having a litter like this or are you thinking of buying a pup from one? Either way, I wouldn't do it!

RoostersMom · Post by **RoostersMom** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 9:40 am

You can get the best of both breeds - or the worst of both. Either way, it's not a planned breeding (I HOPE it's not) and so you know absolutely no thought went into which dogs should be paired up to produce excellent hunting machines. I like a breeder that does his/her research - puts the important traits together to produce a pup that is better than both the sire and dam.

GSP4ME · Post by **GSP4ME** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 2:39 pm

DonF wrote:Are you thinking about having a litter like this or are you thinking of buying a pup from one? Either way, I wouldn't do it!

While I wouldn't encourage anyone to intentionally make this breeding, I cant for the life of me understand why you'd suggest someone not buy such a dog. I mean assuming he has no plans of trialing the dog, and has seen and likes both parents, whats the problem? You're not exactly mixing a Pomeranian with a German Shepherd. There's certainly some differences between the two breeds, but not so much that you're likely to end up with a problem dog. No, most likely what you'll end up with is a good bird dog, running partner, shed finder, blood trailer, Frisbee dog, best friend... All breedings, intentional or otherwise are a crapshoot. Certainly there is some homework you can do before making a pairing to increase the likelihood that certain traits will be exhibited in offspring, but many a good breeding on paper has failed to turn out dogs matching the sire and dam and many a wise dog man has ended up with the "wrong" pick of the litter.

As long as you know what you're getting, know that your trialing options...well, don't really exist, and you know that there will always be those who look down their nose at your mixed breed dog, I say go for it. And then have a blast with your mutt as he finds just as many birds as the next guys champion pick of the litter.

DonF · Post by **DonF** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 3:57 pm

If he get's it from a litter of eight, wonder how many will end up in a shelter? Could be the breeder would sell them all, I have a brother that used to do that. But he sold them cheap just to get rid of them. Wish I knew how many of those ended up in a shelter. maybe I don't want to know. Whole lot easier to dump a $50 dog that a $500 dog.

GSP4ME · Post by **GSP4ME** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 6:17 pm

Not sure how many will end up in a shelter but i do know that if he gets one, it'll be one fewer than had he taken your advice.

MGIII · Post by **MGIII** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 8:21 pm

There are plenty of people that would love to take a mixed breed like that for hunting. I bet they would make great hunting companions.
If it was an oops then hey, it happens but to do it intentionally is kinda irresponsible.

jimbo&rooster · Post by **jimbo&rooster** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 9:39 pm

The absolute best wild bird dog I have owned was a GSP/EP that I found for free on this forum. Gator was a for sure bird dog, he produced birds. Ran a strong shooting dog race, which was perfect for big farm/coal country bobs. I turned down some significant money for him last fall before losing him this past winter to a grass awn. I would have put that dog on the ground against any gun dog or shooting dog in the country.

As far as temperament, you could not have asked for a better dog. Most GSPs are reasonably affectionate fogs, and I have yet to meet an EP that wasn't as friendly as you would want.

GSP4ME · Post by **GSP4ME** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 12:14 pm

jimbo&rooster wrote:The absolute best wild bird dog I have owned was a GSP/EP that I found for free on this forum. Gator was a for sure bird dog, he produced birds. Ran a strong shooting dog race, which was perfect for big farm/coal country bobs. I turned down some significant money for him last fall before losing him this past winter to a grass awn. I would have put that dog on the ground against any gun dog or shooting dog in the country.

As far as temperament, you could not have asked for a better dog. Most GSPs are reasonably affectionate fogs, and I have yet to meet an EP that wasn't as friendly as you would want.

Sorry you lost him, he sounds awesome. Do you have any pics of Gator?

Back to the Original Post - obviously you never know what you'll get with any dog purebred or not. All depends on your intentions with the dog but I assume hunting is a part of that so i'd like to know how the parents are in the field. I'm not the seasoned bird dog guy that most everyone else on here is, but I know dogs. I know how to read dogs. I know a biddable dog when Im around one and both parents of my My GSP/EP were from great bloodlines, and both hunted several days a week for a local preserve owner. My Ranger can run all day, has an out of this world prey drive, natural retrieve to hand everytime, soft mouth, loves the water as much or more than many duck dogs I've trained and so far has done a good job finding and pointing birds. The upcoming season will be his second. And prospect of watching him work the fields putting our practice/training to use has me for the first time in my life not the least bit concerned with deer season. I wouldn't take a million dollars for him (of course that's true of any dog I've ever owned)and consider the $100 that bought him the best money I ever spent. He was bought to be little more than a running partner, antler shed finder, companion to my wife, and foot warmer. He's been all that and so much more. He's the reason I got into quail hunting. As a trainer in all disciplines from basic obedience to schutzhund for nearly 3 decades, I'd never once trained a pointer breed for upland hunting. Though still in our infancy, I've enjoyed this journey with him as much as any I've ever endeavored. He's a stubborn little sucker at times but he's awesome all of the time. And he's taught this trainer a few tricks along the way. Mainly to shut up.

jimbo&rooster · Post by **jimbo&rooster** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 8:23 pm

I've got several pics of him, but no way to post them here

Gun Dog Forum