French Spaniel: An Elegant, Intelligent French Pointing Breed

To my delight, my time spent on Duolingo, a popular language-learning application, came in handy while reading Craig Koshyk’s Pointing Dogs Volume I: The Continentals. Although I am an utter noob with hunting dogs specifically, I cherished a dog breed encyclopedia as a child. As a result, I was familiar enough with French dogs to know breeds like French Brittanies and Papillons exist. However, I had never heard of the gorgeous Épagneul Français (aye-pan-YUL fran-SAY) or French Spaniel.

“I don’t know what it is about the French Spaniel,” writes Koshyk, “but every time I try to capture that ‘special some-thing’ about the way they look and the way they move, I feel that I come up short.” It’s easy to see where Craig is coming from. His images depict gleaming, feathery-coated dogs with bright eyes, balanced features, and fluid movements. Although his photos are still, I can only imagine how visually pleasing this hard-working bird dog is when working in the field or bringing a bird to hand.