Hunting Dog Confidential

In this episode, Craig Koshyk—renowned hunting dog historian and author—takes us on a deep dive into the fascinating world of breed names. From the earliest landraces to today’s officially recognized breeds, Craig unpacks how language, geography, and hunting traditions shaped the names we use for dogs today.

Through engaging stories and expert insight, Craig explores everything from the confusion around the word spaniel, to double-n...

The episode, hosted by Craig Koshyk, a renowned dog historian, explores how early German immigrants, particularly those who settled in Texas, may have introduced hunting dogs before the popularization of breeds like the  German Shorthaired Pointer (GSP). Koshyk, author of Pointing Dogs, Volume One: The Continentals and Pointing Dogs, Volume Two: The British and Irish Breeds, provides historically accurate insights, suggesting that ...

Craig Koshyk, author of Pointing Dogs, Volume Two: The British and Irish Breeds, explores the unlikely story of how the Pointer rose to fame over the English Setter in America. At the time, this was something no one in the field trial circuit ever imagined possible, and before long, the Pointer dominated trialing. This is a story of culture, changing times, and America's continued efforts to advance everything they put their h...

We’ve been talking about the role of “place” in the history and culture of hunting dog breeds, but not every breed fits neatly within geographical boundaries. There are several breeds in North America who have a foot in two worlds: the parent country (often Germany) as well as North America.

We explore breeds such as the Deutsch Drahthaar, Deut...

The end of World War II saw thousands of American servicemen and servicewomen returning home to the United States and Canada, many of whom brought home new dogs they’d met while in occupied Germany. These “new” dogs were unlike the setters and Pointers that dominated the bird dog scene in North America. Defying labels, these dogs could search, point, retrieve, and track.

Up until the late nineteenth century, the use and breeding of hunting dogs in North America was rather chaotic. Dogs were used in a variety of different ways, whether it was market hunters using Setters to retrieve waterfowl or big game hunters using Pointers to track and hold wounded elk at bay. There was no consistency in the breeding, either, as different types of dogs were often mixed and matched at will.

We continue the history of hunting dogs as a function of place and time, resuming our discussion about dogs in North America in the colonial era.

This season of Hunting Dog Confidential will explore the history of hunting dogs as a function of place and time. We begin in North America, starting with the earliest evidence of domesticated dogs from about 10,000 years ago. This episode brings us right up to the end of the pre-colonial era in the fifteenth century. We’ll continue our exploration of North American hunting dog history in the next episode.

We are back with a new episode providing a sneak peek of season three of the Hunting Dog Confidential Podcast. Craig and Jennifer catch up on what they’ve been up to since the last episode (hint: they’ve been hunting with their dogs) and what’s new in the Hunting Dog Confidential world.

Anthony Williams is the epitome of versatility when it comes to the bird dog world. Growing up in Queens wasn’t going to dissuade him from his goals of hunting, running bird dogs, and flying a hawk. His initial exposure to birds was raising pigeons in urban New York, followed by his first experiences with falconry in an overgrown junkyard. This eventually led him toward bird dogs, where Anthony developed a love for the versatile br...

This episode is the continuation of the discussion we started last time with German hunter and hunting instructor, Nadja Niesner. Before we get into the conversation, though, we address a listener question regarding the colors of hunting dogs. A simple question of “why do German hunting breeds tend to be darker and English breeds tend to have a white base” sent us down a long rabbit hole about the theories and origins of the variet...

We start this episode with a discussion about versatile dogs or, as they are known in Germany, “useful” or “practical” dogs. In North America they are primarily used for bird hunting, their roots stretch back to a variety of purposes related to hunting and tracking. We discuss a couple of fun examples of the usefulness of hunting dogs, including a Boykin Spaniel who finds and retrieves box turtles in the name of science, as well as...

We start this episode with a discussion about the practice of tail docking. Depending on where you are located, this may be a well-accepted practice or it may be controversial or even banned. We discuss the historical context of docking tails as well as the modern applications for working and hunting dogs. It’s our hope that this will better inform your discussions when this topic comes up in dog circles.

We’ve been talking about the development of hunting dogs and how they were shaped by the humans and cultures where they originated. We received an interesting listener question asking us to consider the inverse of this concept: would human development have been any different if we did not have dogs at our side? It’s a fascinating thought experiment to consider what might have been different, which of course leads us down a few trai...

Continuing our discussion of the various methods with which hunters use hunting dogs, we discuss the origins of the term “gun dog” and how bird dogs developed right alongside modern firearms. Both pointing dogs and breech-loading shotguns tended to reach their peak at the same time in the same locations: the mid-nineteenth century in England, but not until the early twentieth century in places like North America. Because of their s...

Kicking off our exploration of the methods of hunting with a dog, we start on the grouse moors of England and Scotland. We welcome our first guest to the show, David Hudson, who is an author, photographer, and pointing dog enthusiast with a rich history in the world of Pointers and Setters in the UK.

We are back with season two of the Hunting Dog Confidential podcast. In the first season, we answered the question of “what dogs are used as hunting dogs?” We looked at various breeds and types of dogs that are hunted all over the world, both in the modern day as well as throughout history.

We wrap up our survey of hunting dogs with a look at working terriers. Terriers developed to fill a need where humans needed to get to game in a situation where we were ill-equipped to do so. Just like sight hounds were developed to be faster than us to catch running game, retrievers were developed to swim better than us to get game out of the water, and scenting dogs were developed with better noses than us to find otherwise-camou...