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German Longhairs |
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German Longhaired Pointers are amongst the oldest of versatile hunting
dogs. The breed standard was established in 1879. Five
of the finest longhair males were chosen to establish the breed.
Their names were Mylord, Job, Don, Roland, and Kalckstein. All
but one of these studs was a braun-colored longhair. Kalckstein
was a hellschimmel (light roan) dog.
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Even today, we still see that a majority of German Longhairs are
braun in color (with or without a white chest patch). Thanks
to Kalckstein's genes, we have a few other colors as well. You
will see longhairs in the following colors: Braun (brown),
Braun/Weiss (brown and white without ticking), Hellschimmel (light
roan), Braunschimmel (brown roan), and Dunkleschimmel (dark
roan). Of these, braun is the most common and braun/weiss is
the rarest. Occasionally, longhairs will be registered as
Forellenschimmel. This means that the dog has roan ticking all
over its body with no liver patches. Of our three longhairs at
Coraschatten, one is braun, one is dunkleschimmel, and one is
braunschimmel. We tend to prefer the darker-colored longhairs.
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The first German Longhairs were imported into Canada
and the United States in the 1950s. By this time, German
hunters had seen what Americans had done with Deutsch Drahthaars
(German Wirehairs) and Deutsch Kurzhaars (German Shorthairs) and
they did not like it. They became very strict as to who could
import a longhair. |
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Because of their hesitancy to send over dogs, the
breed has remained somewhat rare in the U.S. to this day. The
other main reason for the breed's rarity is the strict testing and
breeding standards. Longhairs cannot be bred unless they have
passed at least two specific hunting tests and had a judge evaluate their coat, type,
conformation, and temperament, and had their hips x-rayed.
Many longhair owners are simply not willing to complete all of these
breeding requirements so a lot of great dogs never get bred.
While this is sad, it is good that dogs that have not proven
themselves (in conformation, temperament, and hunting ability) are
not allowed to be bred. At our kennel, we believe that it is better for the
breed to remain rare but talented, than for the breed to become
popular only to lose their hunting ability. |
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