Bastien advises you to ask two questions before choosing a hunting dog: what types of hunting will you do, and on which types of terrain?
Will you be hunting small game with a pointing dog, or walked-up hunting with a retriever?
As far as group 7 pointing dogs are concerned, there are some forty breeds of dog, the most popular of which are the Breton Spaniel, the German Pointer, the Setter, and the Pointer, etc.
As for the game retrievers in group 8, there are breeds such as the Labrador, the Springer, and many others.
Bastien talks about his own experiences and his selection criteria: “I started from what I liked most, hunting small game, especially partridges and woodcocks. Above all, I was looking for firm paces and halts. So I checked out Group 7, where I could find pointing dogs.
Then, I considered the terrains where I go shooting, which tend to be flat, with hundreds of hectares of crop lands. So I needed a long-range dog. But which breed? setter, brittany spaniel, pointer?
And it turned out that it was the Pointer that met my criteria perfectly”.