The Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

One man built this dog in 23 years, and he did not live to see 50. Holland, 1873. Eduard Korthals, a banker's son from Amsterdam, wanted one dog for the hunter on foot.

A dog for the polders, the low wet ground behind the dikes, where you walk every step and the bird can fall in the water. In 1874 he bought a bitch named Mouche. He bred her to a dog named Janus, and their daughter, Trouvee, carried a better coat than any dog before her.

In 1877 a German prince, Albrecht of Solms-Braunfels, gave him a kennel on the Rhine. The same prince from the Shorthair's story, the one who said: judge the dog by the work. Korthals died in 1896.

He was 44. The dog outlived him. You know a Griff on sight.

A harsh, wiry coat over a thick, soft undercoat that keeps out the cold and the water. Eyebrows, a mustache, and a beard, all grown from that undercoat. Fifty to seventy pounds on a big male.

He works close. He hunts for you, inside gun range, at a walking pace. He points in the field.

He retrieves from the water. One dog, every job, before and after the shot. At home, he is all people.

Easy to train and gentle with kids. The AKC calls him the Supreme Gundog.

From THE BREED REEL, KENAI's Sunday series on Instagram. Every fact in it is traced to the breed's standard, its parent club, or a named history; nothing came from memory.