Recovery of game after the shot is an important facet of Large Munsterlander breeding, training and performance in the field and on the water.
Another way to learn about LMs is to join the Large Munsterlander Club of North America and the North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association to learn about this breed, to see the dogs at work in training sessions or at tests and to meet the people who breed and train Munsterlanders and hunt with them. This advice comes from Pete Hagedorn, an upland game bird and waterfowl hunter from Anoka, Minnesota, who has owned LMs for 12 years.
“By joining the LM Club and NAVHDA, you might be invited to go on a pheasant or duck hunt with Large Munsterlanders and their owners,” Hagedorn says. “Seeing these dogs in action could be the best way to decide if owning, training and hunting one of these dogs is for you.
“Plan on training with NAVHDA methods and testing by NAVHDA standards to get the best results in developing any Large Munsterlander as a hunting dog,” Hagedorn adds. By using the NAVHDA training techniques to pass NAVHDA tests, Hagedorn feels he has learned a lot about this breed and how to shape them into better pheasant, grouse, quail and waterfowl dogs.
“Training for both the Natural Ability and Utility Tests in NAVHDA is directly related to actual hunting for any kind of game birds. Even if you don’t get a great score or don’t pass at all, you will learn exactly where you and your dog need more work. And with most Large Munsterlanders, almost all training problems are fixable once they are identified,” Hagedorn feels.
Large Munsterlander History
Though the forerunners of the Large Munsterlander go back to the Middle Ages, the breed as it appears today was not formally recognized until the early 1900s in the Munsterland region of northwestern Germany. Prior to that the LM was considered a color variant of the predominantly all-liver German longhaired pointer (Deutsch Langhaar).
The Large Munsterlander is a 53- to 76-pound black and white dog of medium hair length. Coat color is variable ranging from all white with dark spots and ticking to nearly all black with white spots and white ticking.
Reported to be a breed of calm and stable temperament, the LM can be a companion-type housedog good with its owner’s family.
In the field, the LM is described as above average in responsiveness to its handler, naturally ranging 50 to 150 yards in a methodical search for game.
LMs are also well known as eager and efficient retrievers on land and in water and have a solid history of tracking all types of game in a wide range of habitat.
The first LMs were imported to North America in the late 1960s. The first litter of LMs in this country was born in 1970 and a breed club was formed in 1977.
By recent estimates, there are around 1,000 LMs in the United States and Canada with about 250 members in the Large Munsterlander Club of North America, which is the only officially recognized registry for this breed in North America.
LMCNA uses the North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association testing system to qualify its dogs for its breeding program. LMs have a 75 percent passing rate in NAVHDA Natural Ability and 70 percent in Utility, which is equal to most other breeds.
To be eligible for breeding by the Large Munsterlander Club of North America, a LM must have passed the NAVHDA Natural Ability Test, be certified hip dysplasia-free, be of certified sound health and proven stable temperament and conform to the international breed standard. Likewise, any breeding must be approved in advance by the LMCNA breed warden to prevent inbreeding genetic faults and to maintain breed standards.
Active Large Munsterlander breeders are listed on the LMCNA’s Web site, which also has information on registering the breed according to Club policies.
“Several LM breeders in the Large Munsterlander Club of North America will buy a year’s membership in NAVHDA for any puppy purchasers as a way to encourage them to train and test their dogs according to NAVHDA practices and standards,” Hagedorn adds.
“If you’ve committed to having a Large Munster-lander, look for a line that fits your lifestyle and hunting purposes,” says Don Orke from Plymouth, Minnesota, owner of Zulu, a three-year-old female Large Munsterlander.
“As a guy in his 60s, I wanted a gun dog that would stay in sight and hunt up close for ruffed grouse and woodcock. I also needed a dog that would retrieve ducks out of cattail sloughs and in big lakes when necessary. But I also liked a dog with the temperament for calmly living in the house most of the time and quietly staying in the outside kennel for short periods.
“When I explained all this to several LM owners, they understood what I wanted and a couple of them referred me to a breeder with a line that produced my kind of dog,” Orke says.
Conclusion
“Some comments are occasionally made about the lack of uniformity in the appearance of the Large Munsterlander; long, tall, slim dogs next to shorter, stouter, heavier-boned males and females were cited as evidence of an inconsistent breed standard,” Curt Shreve says. This is the reason some people mistake the breed for strange-looking English setters or plain old farm dogs.
“As with most breeders, I’m now personally more concerned about maintaining and developing the Large Munsterlander’s genetics in pointing, tracking and retrieving. Though a breed standard is important in our breeding program, looks can come later,” Shreve says. “As with all the versatile breeds of gun dogs, the Large Munsterlander is a work in progress and the breeders on this continent and in Europe have made a lot of progress so far. Most LM breeders are certainly not ready to say we’re finished or that these gun dogs today are as good as they will ever get.
“Our breeding group in this country wants to maintain 100 years of old German standards yet develop a versatile gun dog that serves the needs of North American upland bird and waterfowl hunters. Evolving the Large Munsterlander toward this goal won’t be easy or accomplished without controversy. But in the next couple of years we will see the product of our efforts.”
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