Thread: Why mixing headers and pointers?

Hallo everyone! I’m new to the forum and writing from Sweden so excuse my grammar and spelling. Hope you understand me anyway.

If I have understood it correctly there are a lot of people in NZ hunting with crossings between heading/herding dogs and different pointing(?) dogs (gsp, vizla etc.)!?

Why is that? What are the benefits with these crossings?

Because heading dogs are easy trained and got brain. Still light on there feet.

Any other trait they bring to the game?

Originally Posted by Efalk

Any other trait they bring to the game?

Earlier to mature and calm down.

Wich ones do you prefer? Is it the NZ heading dog thats most popular?

Heading dogs and huntaways have a big work drive and will work until they drop (“run themselves into the ground” is the frequent term), which is good but you have to make sure they don’t overdo it.

I’m usually a big fan if pure breed dogs but in this case I’m considering a mix. The tricky part is that you really never know what you get when you mix. Do the mixes you have encountered still have both breeds quality and traits? Or what traits usually do show in the mixed breeds?

I was very lucky, my heading/staffy cross bitch used to do all the above and then some. As well as pigs (which she was very good at).
Having said that, she came to me as an adult, hard hunting dog(pigs). I just took her along deer hunting and she clicked over to indicator very easily.
As well as home life. Very affible and intelligent.

normally a mix is a lot cheaper as there's no "pedigree" snobbery and associated premium with a piece of paper that proves that it is an acceptable amount of inbred.

Originally Posted by Russian 22.

normally a mix is a lot cheaper as there's no "pedigree" snobbery and associated premium with a piece of paper that proves that it is an acceptable amount of inbred.

This is true but i would argue that you are more likely to get a good dog from a breeder specialising in working dogs (pure bred or otherwise) than if you got an "spca special" or a dog from when the neighbors dog got over the other neighbors bitch.

Now i am meaning for a hunting dog not a pet here.

Personally i must be a snob in that when someone asks what breed my pooch is i can tell them with certainty "my dog is a pointer!"

Originally Posted by mikee

This is true but i would argue that you are more likely to get a good dog from a breeder specialising in working dogs (pure bred or otherwise) than if you got an "spca special" or a dog from when the neighbors dog got over the other neighbors bitch.

Now i am meaning for a hunting dog not a pet here.

Personally i must be a snob in that when someone asks what breed my pooch is i can tell them with certainty "my dog is a pointer!"

yes it is more likely to be good naturally.

I have never owned a dog so can't talk about how hard it is to train a mutt to be a good deer dog. However the vet bills a pedigree sometimes have sure does make a facebook/trade me/spca special look appealing to me.

different discussion to be had regarding a mutt trained well or a pedigree trained averagely

The law of genetics /progeny is as follows

25% will be 25/75% mother
50% will be 50/50% mother/father
25% will be 25/75% father

6th Form biology along time ago.

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Originally Posted by erniec

The law of genetics /progeny is as follows

25% will be 25/75% mother
50% will be 50/50% mother/father
25% will be 25/75% father

6th Form biology along time ago.

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100 percent will have 50 percent of each parent.
What changes is the particular combination of genes/alleles that each offspring has. This means while some pups may look a lot like Dad or Mum, they will still have exactly half of their genetics from the other parent.

Originally Posted by Chur Bay

100 percent will have 50 percent of each parent.
What changes is the particular combination of genes/alleles that each offspring has. This means while some pups may look a lot like Dad or Mum, they will still have exactly half of their genetics from the other parent.

Each pup will have 50% of its genetics from the directly expressed genes of the parents. So each parent contributes only 25%. The remaining 50% is made up from the genetics of the back ancestry in a fractional amount per back generation. So a pup or anything else for that matter, can display / express genes which are different to the parents and different to full siblings. Genes that were carried by the parents but not expressed. This is what explains the variation between offspring of the same parents

The sixth form ( or earlier ) lessons (erniec) focus on plants and hybrid crosses from experiments with red and white sweet peas ( Gregor Mendel ) which come out with the ratios as above

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

Each pup will have 50% of its genetics from the directly expressed genes of the parents. So each parent contributes only 25%. The remaining 50% is made up from the genetics of the back ancestry in a fractional amount per back generation. So a pup or anything else for that matter, can display / express genes which are different to the parents and different to full siblings. Genes that were carried by the parents but not expressed. This is what explains the variation between offspring of the same parents

The sixth form ( or earlier ) lessons (erniec) focus on plants and hybrid crosses from experiments with red and white sweet peas ( Gregor Mendel ) which come out with the ratios as above

You are right I thought I did well to remember what I did , it was 1975.
Most parents appear to have some understanding when the misbehaving kid is apparently just like you.

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