Customer Reviews

Gun Dog Breeds: A Guide to Spaniels, Retrievers, and Pointing Dogs

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A very honest look at various flushing, pointing, and retrieving breeds. Includes strengths and weaknesses of each breed, ease of training, suitability to certain types of game, etc. Is now somewhat dated and does not reflect emerging interest in a few of the rarer continental gun dogs, which are given only a brief mention in the back of the book. Was also written before the recent explosive growth in popularity of the field-bred English Cocker. Fergus' bias toward flushing dogs shows through a bit, as he neglects to mention the pointing breeds' invaluable use in covering wide open tracts of land (which saves the hunter the task of doing so). Still, these are minor criticisms, and most first-time gun dog would likely be better of with a retriever or spaniel anyway, for reasons Fergus states. This book should be required reading for all first-time buyers of gun dogs, too many of whom end up buying a dog completely unsuited for their hunting purposes and lifestyle---often because of some of "sales copy" they read on a breeder's website or in some other dog book. The more objective approach in this book will not only help hunters avoid such mistakes, it may also help reduce the number of unwanted gun dogs submitted to shelters annually by people who find out too late that such dogs are more than they can handle.

This is an excellent book. It is well-written and well-researched. Further, it addresses gun dog breeds for not just their efficiency in the field, but for their suitability as pets and housedogs as well as their foundational characters.

Mr. Fergus has done prospective gun dog owners and the dogs themselves a great service by enabling people to more appropriately choose the right dog.

The author seems to have very strong opinions about many things and I found that to be a turn-off. It was nice to see a little information about rarer sporting breeds towards the back of the book. I have many books that were more helpful than this one, but this book hit on the rarer breeds which was appreciated.