The development of the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon breed officially began in the Netherlands in 1873 by Eduard Karel Korthals (1851-1896), a Dutch sportsman and avid hunter. Korthals set out to create what he considered the ultimate walking hunter’s gun dog. The Wirehaired Pointing Griffon is therefore also known as “Korthals’ Griffon” in many other parts of the world today.

The Griff, as we call it, was bred to be a hardy, all-terrain, close-working hunting dog, working in the marshy low-lying ground of the Netherlands. According to Dr. E.B. Ilyus, the first secretary of the G.C.A. in 1917,

"The chief characteristics in which the griffon excels, and is superior over setters and pointers, are his ready adaptability to all species of game, all climates, and all varieties of terrain, his exquisite nose, wonderful vitality and endurance, and the pronounced instinct which makes him the easiest of all dogs to train on game...and being very intelligent and affectionate, he makes an ideal man’s companion." ...