How Not to Choose an English Pointer Puppy

Molly is our intrepid hunting dog, a French English Pointer in France, if you see what I mean.

Now we are all told that getting a dog is a serious business so before we came to live in France I did quite a bit of research on the net to find out which breed of dog would suit our family best. The answer seemed to be and English pointer. Having said that, despite doing all the "responsible dog-owing thought and consideration" that a dog deserves, actually finding our pup came about totally by chance in the end.

And thereby hangs a tale ....

She's a French dog but speaks English too

Eight years ago our family moved from England to France where we bought a beautiful old farm with barns and out-buildings so that we could run painting and art holidays and offer Bed and Breakfast and self-catering holidays.

The farm is situated in the tiny hamlet of Videix in Limousin, south west France almost exactly halfway between Angouleme and Limoges. We are deep in the heart of rural France, surrounded by oak and sweet chestnut forests and wild flower meadows. Bliss. Part of the good life for me was to have animals, a vegetable garden, and a dog.

You can buy a poster of our Pointer and customise it - a very special gift for a dog-lover!

The unbelievable truth

This really is a true story. While still in England I browsed the internet to choose my ideal dog. We had a young son so the dog had to be child friendly. I didn't want a rabbit-sized dog, nor did I want one the size of a small carthorse, so I was looking for a medium sized dog. I also hate slobbery dogs, hairy dogs and silly dogs.

The pointer 'ticked all the boxes' as they say over and over again on TV. They are sensible, good-natured, short haired dogs with firm enough mouths. They are just over knee high and the females weigh about 22 kilos, so when I want to go in one direction, and the dog in the other, I have a fighting chance of winning. On top of that they are beautiful. They have noble heads, sleek, muscular yet slender bodies with long, graceful curves and lines. They are the Posh Spice of dogs.

So to continue with the story; imagine, there we were installed in our farmhouse in deepest France. We needed a telly. My then five year old son and I set off for Rochechouart, our nearest small town, to the electrical shop Pro & Cie to buy a second hand TV set.

While I was trying to explain what it was that I was looking for, (my French was terrible), my son had wandered across to a dog lying in her basket in a corner of the shop, and before I had finished trying to buy "une tele d'occasion", my son with his already fluent French, marched up to the sales lady and asked if he could buy the dog. Yes, you've guessed it. She was a beautiful, black and white, pedigree English Pointer.

The assistant was very sweet and explained that the dog was not for sale, but, that she would be having puppies soon and if he liked, she would give one to my son.

Of course I thanked her but, having ingested all those warnings about puppies being for life et al, said that I'd have to ask my husband and think it over. We were planning to get a dog, but I suppose I had thought in a year or two, when we were settled and this was all a bit sudden and rather overwhelming.

To cut a long story short though, I felt that fate must have had a hand in all this and fortunately my husband agreed so we accepted the kind offer.

The picture above is of our two little devils at Halloween.

Give a dog a bad name ......

Our son named all our animals after children in his nursery in England - I wonder what they'd think if they knew. So our kids, that is of the baby goat variety, were called Alice and Eva (see picture) , our cat Saffron and our new female puppy became Molly, a nice, sensible name for a dog I thought.

Molly has a second name as well. She's called Molly Udine because she's a pedigree dog and she was born in the year of the 'U'. All dogs born in 2003 in France were called names beginning with U. Not easy.

I had thought of Ursula, Una, not very many others and I didn't like any of them. Molly Uno had a certain ring to it, but unfortunately the French thought this was a name for a male and wouldn't accept it - can you credit it? They suggested Udine and I realised that I really didn't care which name they chose - she was going to be Molly to us anyway. Look on her pet passport, Molly Udine she is - officially.

She'll point the way to the hot spots

We love to have Molly around. She is a great joiner-inner. She likes gardening, cooking, rambling, collecting fruit, group hugs and generally doing almost everything that we do, but one thing we love her for most is that in the winter if it gets a bit chilly while we watch the TV, it is so nice to have a great, hot dog sitting on your lap, keeping you warm.

Our intrepid Hunting Dog

* She loves gardening and is always around to help with weeding and garden chores

* She is a great hunter and catches moles and mice

* She loves cooking and takes a keen interest in everything that happens in the kitchen

* She loves eating and so food never goes to waste inour house

* She plays with our son so this deals with two problems at the same time

* She is beautiful. I'm an artist and have an eye for line and form

* She had three delightful puppies

* She likes us!

* She diggs up our lawn and all our plants hunting for moles and mice

* She is athletic and escapes by digging under fences or jumping over them

* She worries us. We are worried that she'll get knocked down or cause an accident on the road

* She plays hard and is a painful pet.Those teeth and claws!

* She unpacks the bins in her search for food

Well - I can't think of anything else. I must be fooling myself. I'll add to this as I think of more things about Molly that drive me wild!

Help to ensure that your dog is safe and isn't injured on the road.

Well, I think so, but only if you can give them what they need. Lots of exercise, lots of company and lots of love and attention. Never buy a dog on impulse and always make sure that you can committ yourself to looking after them for the next 1 5 - 20 years. A dog is for life as the saying goes!

Molly is a tough Mum and this cute video has a twist to the tail (forgive the pun!)