About Sporting Dogsby Bonnie Dalzell ©1998"Sporting" in reference to dogs is a category describing hunting dogs used in the hunting of game that is flushed and shot or netted rather than captured by the dog. Sporting dogs are a valuable aid to the hunter, extending his perceptions through their keen senses of hearing and smell and aiding in the retrieving of downed game from water or brush. The sporting breeds underwent a considerable expansion in the 19th centuary as reliable, affordable, mass produced firearms became available as a result of the industrial revolution, opening hobby hunting to a wide of the population.However the basic stock from which the sporting breeds are derived is quite ancient going back to 'spaniel type' dogs of the ancient Romans. The most generalized of the sporting breeds were initially used to flush small game from the underbrush where the hunter would attempt to take it with nets, falcons, windhounds or by other means depending upon the game. Stalking is one component of the primitive canid hunting sequence proceeding the rush, capture and kill. Sporting breeds are selected to retain the stalk but to pause alerting the human hunter to the presence of game. Although the retrieve is equivalent to the rush, the kill and dissection of the game are blocked. Sporting dogs that retrieve without mutilating the fallen game intact to the owner are said to have a soft mouth. Selection for dogs that paused during the stalk led to the differentiation of the setter and pointer ancestors from the ancestors of the flushing springers, perhaps around 1600. The retrievers are more modern derivitative of the pointers and setters. Most of the modern versions of the sporting dog breeds trace their origins to the mid 1800's with their mass produced firearms and the affluence created by the industrial revolution leading to a demand for these dogs.
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