The Sporting Dog

Any study of sporting dogs needs to acknowledge that Great Britain provided the stock for every one of our dogs of sporting breed. We use setters and pointers, foxhounds and beagles, and several breeds of water retrievers. These breeds are all British. So how do they differ from the British dog of the same breed? Water retrievers not much, though the Chesapeake Bay dog is an American development.It is foxhounds and shooting dogs which have become, under American conditions, something essentially different. Reduced to the simplest terms, the dry climate, the nature of the game, and methods of hunting have produced a faster, lighter, animal; perhaps not more sensitive of nose, but quicker in the reflexes of judgment and action which are the sequences of scent. Their speed and endurance are built upon strong muscle on a light bony structure, a heart action beyond the ordinary, and a nervous energy, even more necessary in a dog than in a racehorse, because whip and spur cannot force unwilling or failing powers. To these ends American sportsmen have chosen their dogs. "The Sporting Dog" is a fascinating study of the development of the American hunting dog.