Hertha Pointer

COUNTRY: Denmark

WEIGHT: 45-60 pounds

HEIGHT: 23-25'/2 inches

COAT: Short and fine

COLOR: Yellow-orange; with small white markings on feet, tail tip, chest and muzzle

Group:Gun Dog

When the war between Germany and Denmark ended, the defeated Danish soldiers made their way home. Accompanying one group of veterans in 1864 was an orange-red pointer-type bitch. No one knew her origin or how she came to join the men, but they named her "Hertha" and she proved to be a fine gun dog. A sportsman bought her and presented her as a gift to his friend, a well-known hunter and supervisor in one of the great state forests of Jutland.

The island of Als has long been a political football for Denmark because of its position in the south of Jutland near the border of Germany. During the monarchy, the Dukes of Au-gustenborg made their home on this island. At the time of the Danish-German War, the Duke of Augustenborg was Frederik Christian, pretender to the Danish throne. He was a famous and daring breeder of quality hunting dogs and fine horses, and his kennel of (English) Pointers was renowned. Because of selective inbreeding, his dogs all had a solid orange-red color with distinctive small white markings. Although Hertha was of general gun dog type, she did not particularly possess the English Pointer look. But because of her color, many who saw her thought that she probably came from the Duke's kennels.

Hertha was bred to "Sport," who was a Pointer from the Duke's breeding, and the results of this pairing were the wellspring of the Hertha Pointer breed. For many years, hunters fostered the "Hertha dog" or "Hertha hound." Soon a breed club was formed, predating the Danish Kennel Club by 54 years (they changed the name to Hertha Pointer, which may have been an unforeseen mistake), and these dogs became common throughout Denmark. A standard has been in effect since 1897, and photos and description were included in the 1902 edition of Henri de Bylandt's book Les Races de Chien.

From this long history of breeding true to type, with pedigrees going back 123 years, the breed is as yet having a difficult time being accepted and recognized by the central canine authorities. The Pointer Club of Denmark and the Danish Kennel Club's official position is that the Hertha Pointer is merely a color variant of the English Pointer. In 1982 the Hertha Club was bitterly disappointed that, despite providing proof of what they felt were the criteria for what constitutes a breed, their petition for recognition was again denied.

There are perhaps some political stumbling blocks to the official acceptance of the breed. The tag of "Pointer" may have set in many people's minds that the dog was a Pointer. Over the years, most kennels that have Pointers have crossed their dogs to Herthas to gain the fine field abilities (Herthas, on the other hand, now are never bred to Pointers!). Therefore, while virtually all Pointers in Denmark today can find a trace of Hertha and Sport in their pedigrees, a multitude of purebred Herthas exist without Pointer blood! If the breed were declared a separate entity, this source of crossing would be closed to the Pointer fanciers, and some feel this is a motive for them to block the separation. The fact that the Duke of Augustenborg turned out to be an enemy of Denmark and lost his dukedom to the Germans could also be a psychological factor against the breed. These and other problems, not of their own making, led to the creation of a group called the Committee for National and Forgotten Breeds, which fosters native breeds and works for their preservation and recognition. Cynologists everywhere would applaud this idea, which could be copied profitably elsewhere!

At any rate, the number of Herthas continues to climb slowly and their proponents are not daunted in the desire to have their breed recognized. These dogs have bred true for over one hundred years, with their sinewy aloofness and their distinctive color pattern. They are moderately sized, extremely athletic gun dogs with fine natural field abilities. The limited white markings remind one somewhat of those seen on the Perdigueiro Portuguese and, occasionally, the Small French Braque. The Hertha people find the presence of a small white spot on the forehead desirable. Although the standard warns against the purely self-colored individual (with no white), the presence of too much white is equally undesirable and untypical. The authors hope that the descendants of "Old Hertha" will soon find their place among the recognized breeds of the world.