hunting dog arena and is trained to retrieve, hunt, and track the following: woodcock, rail, grouse, dove, partridge, chukar, quail, pheasant, duck, goose, rabbit, deer and fox. The Small Münsterländer is not a far-ranging dog, usually hunting close in heavier cover and ranging 100-150 yards in light cover, all in an effort to maintain the hunting partnership with its owner. The Small Münsterländer is one of the four oldest versatile breeds and the longhaired versatile hunting dogs evolved from the Small Münsterländer and Flat-Coated Retriever. The Small Münsterländer is thought to be well over 500 years old, originating from the Munster region of Germany but not related to the Large Münsterländer, and documentation of ancestors around the 13th and 14th centuries. By the 1800s the breed had fallen into obscurity. Small Munsterlanders were little known, kept by a few families on farms around Munster. For a half century the few dogs that were bred were primarily companions, and used when hunting to feed the family rather than for sport. It developed a local reputation as the dog to have when a hunter's success or failure determined whether his family would have enough to eat. At the end of the 19th century, a concerted effort was made to re-establish the breed from the remaining lines in the Munster region. The fortunate outcome of the companion phase in the Small Münsterländer history was its excellent in-home personality. Cultural and wildlife use changes slowly put an end to the "bread hunting" and was replaced by recreational hunting. With the advance in firearms, falconry too became outmoded. At the turn of the century, Edmund Lons, brother of the famous hunting and nature poet Hermann Lons, discovered Small Münsterländers in two towns in Lower Saxony. Lons obtained dogs from two lines. One line consisted of fine boned, agile, lively and intelligent dogs, well known for their "track sound" on the trail. Dogs of the other line were slow in search, of strong build, and excellent in their use of nose. The background and breeding of these dogs could be traced for several generations. International popularity The Small Münsterländer is a rare breed in the United States, numbering around 2000, and demand from hunters outstrips the number of available dogs, so breeders typically give preference to hunters. They are especially hard to come by for non-hunters there and regardless are required to have their dog tested