Conference vmsnet::hunting$note:hunting

    I have a Britt, I have raised and sold them too. Never owned or
    even hunted with a Springer.
    
    I like'em. They do seem to be a bit more hyeractive than Springers.
    Mine runs circles around me in the field. But, she doesn't take off
    accross the field. She tends to stay 20-30 yards out. I seen her
    work the field for 7 guys going through corn and wheat fields.
    
    I have a 8 year old britt and a 7 year old son. They grew up great
    together. She has never bitten anyone, even when my son use to ride
    her like a horse.
    
    Very impressive to see them on point holding birds.
    
    mark
    

    I also own a Britt and I agree 100 percent with the previous reply.
    I 've had my Brittany for 5 years and its the best dog I ever owned.

              I have had my Britt for 6 months and she is now 8 months.
    She learns fast but I could do a little less with the hyperness in her.
    Its my first dog and maybe it just the pup in her but she will play
    as long as you can last. I also have a 1 year old daughter and the two
    of them seem to get along very well and its good that they are growing
    up together. I will be getting her fixed in December and maybe this
    will slow her down some.

My Brittany male "Sparky" will b 2 in a few days.  I think he is great.  He fits
in well with the family (3 boys now 8, 10 &12), and his ability to locate
woodcock still amazes me.  

He does pester to get out and run every day, but he is well behaved in the
house.  From the time that he was a small puppy, we trained him to stay in
the family room - now, he does not even consider entering other rooms.
We keep a kennel (varikennel type) in the family room for him.  If he
starts to pester guests for attention, or if we have a guest who is afraid
of dogs, he goes into the kennel.  If we have a lot of kids over, he will
often go in by himself just to be out from under foot.

Before I got Sparky, I brought home a 1 yr old male Brittany that the owner
couldn't keep.  I returned that dog the next day.  That dog was uncontrollable
and kept nipping to assert dominance.  If I were single, I would probably 
have kept him and tried to civilise him.  I'm not sure whether this dog's
problem was genetic, or whether his previous owner had caused it.  

If you want a hunting dog, be sure you get one from hunting stock.  I had
hunted with Bill Juch (an occasional member of this conference) over
one of Sparky's grandsires.  Bill hunts regularly with the owner of the
litter, so I trusted his reccomendation.  I was not dissapointed.

I trained Sparky almost entirely by myself.  I had previously trained 
retrievers, but had never worked with a pointer before.  I read a lot and 
studied a few videotapes before I started.  I put in a lot of time with
Sparky, and I am quite pleased with how well he works.  At 2, he does what
I think is a great job on woodcock.  I allow him to pick his own range,
and he does occasionally bump woodcock, but most of the time he holds them
until I show up and flush them (of course I often miss).  He does not 
work as well on grouse or pheasants.  He hasn't yet really learned that
he can't get as close to grouse as he can with woodcock, and he hasn't
yet learned how to head off a running pheasant.  Those are things that
only time and a lot of birds will help.  

 - Dave

    What a great response from everyone ! I'm taking it all in, and am
    very pleased that everyone gets so much enjoyment from their dogs.
    Lots of good info here, I'll consider everything, and still may end
    up with a Brittany. A question on "He gets too close to grouse and
    they flush": will the dog learn to keep his distance by himself, or
    is this something that the owner needs to teach ?
    
    			Steve

Hi Steve,

I agree with all the other topics regarding the demeanor, gets alng with family, 
somewhat hyper etc, etc.  I have a 2+ year Brittany male that was fully broken
and retrieving a the merry age of 9 months.  to your question:

>>He gets too close to grouse and flushes... is this something that the owner
>>needs to teach?

Depends.  If you find good hunting stock and check the references, know what you 
are buying -- the dog should pretty much train itself if you give it enough 
exposure to the birds, putting him/her in situations where they can succeed and 
build confidence, and do you homework.  The breeder made the comment before I 
purchased that the "Brittany will pretty much train itself if you give it enough
exposure to birds."  this, from a man who has trained/owned/bred several 
field AND show dog champions with a Brittany.

I learned early on that the "yardwork" I did saved me a lot of stress and 
frustration in the field.  By yardwork I mean the basic commands like heel, whoa,
come, fetch, and also very important - whoa the dog and not only be satisfied the
has stopped and held, but will continue to hold even if I nudge, place my hands
on him, move around - whatever.  There will be times when in order to get into a
cover you will have to move around, or over the dog.  If the behaviour is not
ingrained to stay still no matter what -- trying to teach the dog those lessons 
in addition to the complications of running or nervous grouse will be near 
impossible and certainly take more time.   

I hunt for Pheasants, grouse, chukkar, and quail (some I buy my self...), and 
also have the benefit of training/hunting with other Brittany owners.  One of the 
females does great on both grouse and woodcock, but terrible on pheasant.  Mine
is great on pheasant and woodcock, and has not seen enough grouse yet to be great.
Over time, and with more training and exposure -- I expect no problems for ANY
upland game I choose. 

 I wouldn't trade my Brittany for any other dog, especially  for the hunting 
I do.  yardwork +  exposure + good Brittany stock = success.

    Steve,
    
    If they could make Britts with shorter hair, and ticked I'd probably
    own one :-) 
    
    I hunt my shorthair(s) in a brace with a Britt, and train with this
    Britt  often.... from my experiences with this dog, I would definitely 
    buy one for a hunting / family companion. I participate in many AKC 
    licensed Hunting Tests and have seen many Britts do extremely well in 
    the field, as well as being quite well mannered while they wait their 
    turn.
    
    There are a few things to consider though in the purchase of any dog.

    		1. YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR !!!! Buy from a reputable
    		   breeder with proven stock.

    		2. The dog must have a hunting instinct to begin
    		   with, it is NOT something you can train into a 
    		   dog. If Mom and Dad have got it, Junior will have it.
    		   Make sure Mom and Dad have got it. A good breeder will
                   be anxious to show you how well Mom and Dad perform.

    		3. NO dog trains himself !! A pointing dog is (hopefully)
    		   born with the trait of locating and pointing game for
    		   HIMSELF. Thats where it ends !! You bring out and refine 
    		   these and other qualities in a dog with your training.

    		4. You only get back what you're willing to put in.

    Don't expect too much too soon. I am convinced it takes at least
    three seasons (and alot of time in between) to produce a 'good',
    reliable hunting companion in any pointing breed.
    Start with the instincts the dog is born with. Once you see the dog
    has an interest in birds and will point, get away from the birds and
    start on the yardwork as explained in a previous reply. A dog who
    doesn't know COME and WHOA, and will respond to them in 'most'
    situations is not a great pleasure to hunt over. When the dog understands
    and obeys your commands you can introduce the distraction of birds once
    again, and see how well your yardwork has been learned. Don't ever be
    afraid to take a step backwards in your training to re-learn something
    the dog is shaky on.

    
>>He gets too close to grouse and flushes... is this something that the owner
>>needs to teach?    
    Not necessarily needs to teach... Understand that the dog's 
    reward for performing his job properly is a mouthful of bird.
    Eventually the dog will learn, through frustration, that if it 
    continues to get too close to birds, there is no shot, no reward.
    This however requires alot of contact to birds, and also places a
    pretty high level of frustration on you as the hunter/trainer. What
    you can do to 'curb' a dog's tendency to get too close is use a 
    remote bird launcher in training. 
    
    It don't come easy.... but by starting with good quality, and showing
    patience, persistance, and consistency in all your training (both in
    the house as another member of the family, and in the field) you should
    get what you're looking for.
    
        dave

    P.S. Pat Perry (Hedgerow Kennels) knows of a fellow who has been
         producing some nice Britts and selling them at a reasonable cost.
         Pat's number is 508-249-7115.
    
    p.p.s. are you originally from  Commonwealth Ave ???

    Thanks for the number, thatw as going to be my next question. Others
    with numbers for breeders of Brits please add them to this note, that
    will help anyone interested in finding a Brittany down the road. Also,
    I have extremely limited personal experience with Brits, I have only 
    seen a couple up close, and that was years ago, so I was thinking of
    maybe visiting a breeder or two to "meet" their dogs, and form an
    opinion on what I thought of their stock and the dogs in general. If
    anyone else isn't too far away from Westford/Bedford and has a dog
    they'd like to show me, I wouldn't mind checking a few out !
    
    		
    				Steve
    
    yes, I used to live on Comm. Ave, you bought some firewood from me !

    Steve,
    	The Britt which I train with lives in Westford. His owner is
    not a breeder, but is presently researching potential prospects
    for his next pup. His sister-in-law is handling a number of dogs 
    at the Westminster KC Dog Show, and she will be supplying him 
    with input (breeders/pedigrees) from Brittany people there. You may
    say, ahhh show dogs, but the Brittany is one of the few breeds which
    you'll see many dual prospects (show & field).
    	We train & hunt year 'round. I'll let you know some time when 
    we're gonna be working the dogs you can come and watch. Who knows,
    maybe I'll talk you into a shorthair ;-)
    
    dave
    
    Not firewood, I lived a couple streets closer to Maynard in my younger 
    days.

Harry and Carolyn Licewski have wonderful Britts.  They field trial a lot and 
have had wonderful success with their dogs over the years.  We had a female that
my husband used for upland game many years ago.  She was wonderful.  Very birdy,
biddable, loveable and a terrific house pet/great with toddlers.  I highly 
recommend them.  Tel no:  (207)998-4580.

Sue

    Well, I got a Brit. She's a six month old pup that needed a new home
    (I know, I know, I should have started with a brand new pup) ! She
    seems smart, loves to exercise, is a little hyper (but controllable),
    points the cat with some serious intensity, and loves attention.
    She's just about what I expected, and I look forward to sharing my
    experiences with others in this file.
    
    
    		Steve
    
    	At least she already sleeps through the night !

Six months is still young enough to be trainable.  Just bear in mind that
it is an age that is roughly equivalent in temperament to human teenagers
(expect frequent testing of authority).  You have plenty of time to work
on training before next season.

    Teenager, eh ? That explains a few things :-) She's settling in nicely,
    however she has started "testing" us. It's pretty much like I thought,
    if she gets her outdoor walks/runs/drags then she's 200% better inside.
    That's OK, who wants to sleep in the morning anyway !

	This is corrected information about the breeder mentioned
    	in 1084.10, they have moved.
    
    
Here's the new info:  Kaylish Kennels
		Harry and Carolyn Licewski
		P.O. Box 73, Libby Rd.
		Mechanic Falls, Me.  04256
			(207) 345-3258