Defining a Gun Dog

Hunting dogs are as old as the hills and guns have been around since the 1300s, but the idea of hunting with dogs and guns together didn’t really catch on until nearly two centuries after firearms first appeared on the battlefield. And even though the words dog and gun both trace back to the 14th century1, they weren’t combined to form the term "gundog" until the mid-1700s and didn't become part of the common vocabulary until the mid-1800s.