Intro to how I got involved with the GSP
A little intro into how I got involved with and became hooked on the German Shorthaired Pointer breed. For many years I loved bird hunting and hunted almost everyday of the season but I never owned a birddog I was basically walking around for years hoping to get lucky and step close enough to a bird and kick one up. Once in a blue moon I would get lucky and come home with a bird after many many miles of walking, I really enjoyed the walks in the field so if I ever got lucky and hit a bird that was just a special bonus. After watching other hunters in the small fields of N.J. work their dogs and walk right behind me through the same fields finding birds left and right as I found none it became apparent, it was time for this avid bird hunter to buy a dog. So the next question was what kind of dog did I want, after watching numerous hunters with all kinds of hunting dogs and talking with them in the field for a season I decided the GSP was the dog I wanted. None of the GSP owners I talked to let me know there were different types of GSPs though. So Not knowing anything really about the breed other than I liked the way I had seen a few of them work in the field. Having a little experience with other breeds of dogs such as English Bulldogs I knew how important it was to find a dog with a good background and not buy a dog from a puppy mill type operation, so in my new to birddog thoughts I got on the internet and I found what I thought would be a good prospect and with my thinking a GSP is a GSP at the time, not knowing different breeders breed for different qualities in their hunting dogs and also not knowing many GSP's are bred to work under very different types of conditions depending on the venue their breeders are into and the areas in which they live, I bought my first GSP, "Blade" and had him shipped in from out of state in 2003. Blade quickly turned into a hunting machine, he never would stop, he would go where no other dogs would go in the field through thick briars coming out all bloody and just kept on going he was a hunting machine, but I noticed he had some traits I didn't care for in the home and also in the field for my particular hunting style so I contacted some people who owned dogs with similar bloodlines and found many of them owned dogs with the same good and what I considered bad traits for my particular hunting style. Sadly Blade passed away at a young age in 2006 in a freak accident. But he did convince me this was the breed for me, and I knew there had to be breeders out there breeding the type of GSP that hunted with the hunting style I was really wanting. So after over a years worth of researching through books and the internet of the different types of hunt tests and different bloodlines and different breeders and another season of kicking bushes without a dog. I bought my next GSP Caliber and to make sure I would never be kicking bushes without a GSP again Belle was close to follow and this is how High Caliber GSP and High Caliber Kennels got started. In the beginning HighCaliberGSP.com and High Caliber Kennels was created to provide a little information and help others new or novice to the breed to easily find helpful links to a few of the informational sites I found while researching the breed and of course to highlight my pups activities and this is what we continue to strive for today on our website and I hope you will be able to find some helpful information or helpful links on our website and enjoy seeing some of our dogs activities as well.
Dennis Bailey