Please welcome Auchstein “Ox” Hemingway Rohrscheib, the newest addition to our family. We’ve been on the lookout for a GSP (German Shorthaired Pointer) for Spencer for a few months now, I fell in love w/ the breed a long time ago. Our goal is to train him to be an Autism Support Animal that can accompany Spencer in a lot of situations that will bring us peace of mind.
While Bogey is still a huge part of our family, he’s getting up there in years and we thought that it would be a good idea for us to go ahead and add “Ox” when the opportunity presented itself. Ox is still with his family right now in Missouri, but we will be picking him up on May 2nd. I’ve had a lot of people ask about the GSP breed so here’s some information I pulled from Wikipedia.
Wikipedia: The German Shorthaired Pointer (GSP) is a medium to large sized breed of dog developed in the 19th century in Germany for hunting.[1] A versatile hunting breed, being an all-purpose gun breed of dog suitable for both land and water,[2] she is streamlined yet powerful with strong legs that make her able to move rapidly and turn quickly. She has moderately long floppy ears set high on the head. Her muzzle is long, broad, and strong, allowing it to retrieve even heavy game. The dog’s profile should be straight or strongly Roman nosed; any dished appearance to the profile is incorrect.[2] Her eyes are generally brown, with darker eyes being desirable; yellow or “bird of prey” eyes are a fault. The tail is commonly docked, although this is now prohibited in some countries.[3] In the current breed standard the tail is docked at approximately 40% of its length before it curves. In competition she is penalized if the tail is curved either up or down while the dog is moving.[4] When the GSP is in classic point stance, the tail should be held straight out from the body, forming a line with the pointing head and body. Like all German pointers, GSPs have webbed feet. They are known for going after waterfowl in the water.
History: The precise origin of the German Shorthaired Pointer is unclear. It is generally believed they originated from Germany and that’s where part of their name comes from. It was when German Hunters spent generations cross different breeds until the GSP came during the 1800s. They were very successful that they are among the top-winning breeds in competitive hunting events.[16] According to the American Kennel Club,[5] it is likely that the GSP is descended from a breed known as the German Bird Dog, which itself is related to the Old Spanish Pointer introduced to Germany in the 17th century.[17] It is also likely that various German hound and tracking dogs, as well as the English Pointer and the Arkwright Pointer also contributed to the development of the breed. However, as the first studbook was not created until 1870, it is impossible to identify all of the dogs that went into creating this breed. The breed was officially recognized by the American Kennel Club in 1930.[5] During World War II affected the breeding of GSP. Toward the end of the war many of the breeders hid their gold, diamonds, and their GSP and more. Then the best dogs were sent to Yugoslavia for safe keeping. Rick Bass wrote a book called “Colter: The True Story of the Best Dog I Ever Had”. Today the GSP ranks 19th among the 155 breeds and it varieties recognized by the AKC.[18]
