A curious thing the English language is it not? When we talk about a gunman we mean a man with a gun, usually a man with a gun that he is quite prepared to use to shoot somebody for whatever reason. Note that we also run the two words, “gun” and “man” together to make one word.
The term, “gun dog,” does not mean a dog carrying a gun and no record exists of a gun dog, note the two separate words, ever having shot anyone or any creature; not deliberately anyway! Of course we all know exactly what we mean by both descriptions, don’t we?
The use of specially trained dogs to sniff out game and point to its whereabouts, so that a person with a gun can shoot it goes back to long before the invention of firearms. In olden times the shooter would use a bow and arrow. The employment of other breeds of dog to retrieve the game once shot and bring it to the hunter undamaged apart from the fatal wound is an equally ancient practice.
In the modern world many people will not be comfortable with this use of dogs and this article does not seek to argue the case for or against. However, approve of the shooting of game and similar activities or not, gun dogs do exist and they are dogs.
In fact some of our most lovable breeds owe their existence as we know them to having been bred over many years to perform the duties of gun dogs. The most obvious ones are the spaniels, particularly the dear old cocker and the retrievers, golden or otherwise. They are the ones who go and retrieve the game once it has been shot.
The setters are some of the best known of the breeds that are used to find game birds and indicate their whereabouts so that they can be flushed out. When they then take to the air they become targets for the guns once they have reached a suitable height above ground. Setters work by picking up the airborne scent of the birds as they move about with their noses raised in the air. Once they locate the game they do not chase after it as many dogs would. They stop and adopt a crouching stance with the nose pointing towards the location of the game bird(s). Called, ”the set”, this stance is what gives rise to the generic name, “Setter.”
Think here of those beautiful red setters and the white ones; The Irish and English setters and others. Like so many of our most adorable breeds of dog, these all owe their existence to practices which nowadays many people find at best controversial.
This article was provided by Pete Hopper,
The Dorset Copywriter.
