Author: Tom Davis with photography by Dale Spartas
Publisher: STACKPOLE BOOKS, Jul 2003
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN: 0-8117-0043-7
Synopsis
A handsome and authoritative tribute to the pointing breeds: the pointer, the setters, the German shorthair, the Brittany, and the versatile breeds, including the Viszla, Weimaraner, Drahthaar, and Wirehaired Pointing Griffon. 233 color photos; 8.5x11 inches, 160 pgs.
More Information
There may be no athletes in the world, two-legged or four-, who can match the pointing dog's high-performance combination of speed, stamina, and skill, a combination fueled by the white-hot desire to hunt and find birds. To watch a fine pointing dog in action, rimming the field edges with a graceful, ground-devouring stride, is to be mesmerized. And to see it strike point is to witness one of the most breathtaking--and definitive--acts in the universe of sport.
Renowned photographer Dale Spartas and gun dog expert Tom Davis have combined their considerable talents in this handsome and authoritative tribute to the pointing breeds: the pointer, the setters, the German shorthair, the Brittany, and the versatile breeds, including the Viszla, Weimaraner, Drahthaar, and Wirehaired Pointing Griffon.
In page after page of stunning full-color photographs and insightful, illuminating text, To the Point honors these aristocrats of the uplands in all their stylish, tenacious, stout-hearted glory. You'll accompany them as they roam the high plains of the West and quarter the tight cover of the New England grouse woods; you'll thrill as they tour the tradition-laden quail plantations of the Deep South and canvass the rustling cornfields of the Midwest. And whether pointing or retrieving, in action or repose, gray-muzzled veteran or bright-eyed pup, they're the stuff a bird hunter's dreams are made of. Each chapter touches on the history, personality, physical characteristics, and distinctive attributes of the individual breeds, while the book concludes with an overview of the training process and an appreciation of field trials.
No matter which breed you're partial to, where you live, or what birds you hunt, if you're a pointing dog person, To the Point is the book you've been waiting for.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Dale Spartas is an outdoor photographer whose work has frequently been published in Gray's Sporting Journal, Field & Stream, and Pointing Dog Journal. His other books are 101 Uses for a Lab, Just Labs and with Tom Davis The Little Book of Flyfishing and Just Goldens. He lives in Montana with an English Pointer named Ruby, a 14-year-old Brittany named Purdey, a Labrador named Addy, and cow dog named Peppi. He is blessed by his understanding and forgiving wife Sue, three beautiful daughters, Kaitlin, Elizabeth, Sarah, and his son Christo.
Tom Davis is a senior editor and gun dog columnist for Sporting Classics, editor-at-large for Pointing Dog Journal, and a contributing author to The Encyclopedia of North American Sporting Dogs. His books include Why Dogs Do That: A Collection of Curious Canine Behaviors, Just Goldens and The Tattered Autumn Sky, a collection of stories and essays to be published in the spring of 2004. He lives in Green Bay, Wisconsin, with his wife Joan, stepdaughter Sophia, and English setters Ernie and Butch.