Other Dogs
 December 2005
If it’s a versatile pup you covet this spring, how about one that’s superior at doing what hunters need most and do poorest for themselves? Face it: We can stumble onto game occasionally, but our eyes are such terrible substitutes for decent noses that we’re lucky to find downed birds on bare bean fields. The very best versatile dog needs to be a retriever first and foremost. Add pointing instincts to that retriever and you have a real workhorse—the pointing Lab. “Adding pointing instincts” usually suggests outcrosses, but that was not necessary or sensible in developing pointing Labs. It’s been about 150 years since the St. John’s water dogs were exported to England, where some gamekeepers crossed them onto pointers and setters to improve grace and movement while hunting and retrieving on land. Because those introduced pointing genes are recessive, they most often failed to express themselves unless joined by a like gene. But they remained in perhaps 10 to 15 percent of the Labs. Selecting almost entirely for retrieving skills during those 150 years could not purge pointing genes from the breed. Learn More 
Jake has shown us what a great lab is. He has an intense desire to hunt and retrieve,and a very strong desire to please. He is robust and intense yet easy for my children to handle. He is not a barker, holds himself with that regal air and does his work with style. His puppies are fast-learning, good looking dogs who are successful hunters, obedience dogs,family companions and even therapy dogs. Featherstorm (Jake) is a true pointing lab. His point is natural, scent-driven, intense and consistent. I have told people flying up to see jake that I will buy their plane ticket if he does not point all planted birds and if they are at all unsure of the instinct, or think that I taught him to point. That offer still stands to anyone. Jake has proven successful in upland and waterfowl hunting. His first trip to North Dakota this year included a "submarine" retrieve where Jake dissapeared underwater and brought-up a wing - shot drake that had dove. My hunting-partner almost fell out of the boat when he saw that. I of course, claimed all credit citing the many successes of my underwater training techniques. Learn More
December 2005 If it’s a versatile pup you covet this spring, how about one that’s superior at doing what hunters need most and do poorest for themselves? Face it: We can stumble onto game occasionally, but our eyes are such terrible substitutes for decent noses that we’re lucky to find downed birds on bare bean fields. The very best versatile dog needs to be a retriever first and foremost. Add pointing instincts to that retriever and you have a real workhorse—the pointing Lab. “Adding pointing instincts” usually suggests outcrosses, but that was not necessary or sensible in developing pointing Labs. It’s been about 150 years since the St. John’s water dogs were exported to England, where some gamekeepers crossed them onto pointers and setters to improve grace and movement while hunting and retrieving on land. Because those introduced pointing genes are recessive, they most often failed to express themselves unless joined by a like gene. But they remained in perhaps 10 to 15 percent of the Labs. Selecting almost entirely for retrieving skills during those 150 years could not purge pointing genes from the breed. Learn More 
Talon GMPR, SH, owned by Brad Donald of HIghpoint Labradors in South Dakota is a fox red color with a great temperament and a lot of drive. Talon is an extremely athletic, ripped, bird finding, pointing machine! Lean More
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by Steve Nyhof Enterprises, Inc.