I am looking to purchase a Brittany within the next six months and am looking for some info and advice. This is my first field dog and have a some questions regarding what to look for in a pup, and how well they respond to training. +/-? Any info will help. I' ve been doing some research on the web but find that first hand knowledge and real-world experience by others to be helpful. This will also be a family pet.

Any good breeders in the Mid_ Atlantic region (Maryland)? I know of someone who has breed them in the past, but I' m not sure of the history, and from what I' ve been told good dogs come from good bloodlines.

Thanks

As I have stated here many times b4, contact the North American Versitile Hunting Dog Assn. (www.navhda.org), they can supply you with a list of breeders in your area, testing results of any dog/breed of dogs, testing results of any specific litters or sire and dame, chapter contacts in your area ( would recommend joining a chapter ). In my lowly opinon NAVHDA hunt tests are about the most demanding around other than the German testing system.

I' m a brittany man from way way back. I currently have a 2 1/2 year old male and he is still learning They fully mature at about 3 years. #1 family pet: brittany' s are a very loving dog, they take to family life wonderfully. But they will not put up with the children being cruel, kicking hitting etc. they will defend themselves. My brit lives in his kennel daily, in the evening he is brought in the house to chew on a bone and to get his love time with the family. He sleeps in a veri-kennel cage in the house, he knows when 10PM is he gets up goes to the door and go' s out, does his duty for the last time. Comes in walks into his cage is given a milk bone and he goes to sleep. #2 Choosing a Pup: look for one that is very agressive, it is very easy to get a timid brit. if it appears to the bully of the litter that is the one you want. Or if it seperates from the pack and goes off exploring things alone or leading others that is a good sign. Make sure the parents are OFC certified for no hip problems. #3 Training, brits are what is called a soft dog to train, most trainers don' t want them until they are a year old. But you can train them to come, heel, whoa, retireve and even sight point a wing as a puppy if you take it slow and make a game of it. Make it a happy time and do it at least 5 days a week, it is not the quality or the quanity, it is the being together. A wise trainer once said, " you and the dog are a team the more you practice together the better team you become." With a brit this is so true.#4 Hunting, I had my Brit pointing planted birds on 20 ft lead a at 7 months and he held steady to flush. He just stood there and watched them fly away. He held his points as long as the bird held sometimes 3 minutes or more. A word of caution, Brits do not take to hitting in training, hit it and you could be done as a friend and trainer. Speak with a soft voice so when it goofs you can shout at it and it will respond to the change in voice. if you lose your temper and you will, I still do at times, do nothing. Just put the dog away and call it a day. Brits are very eager to please, they will even do things because they think you want them too. They will do far more out of love than out of fear. Well now that I have wrote a book, I hope this helps, if you need more e-mail me, I' ll be happy to try to help. oh one more thing , my dog always travels in a veri-kennel cage, it is much safer for you and the dog. I had mine cage trained by the end of the 1st week. Bob[8D]

#5 when the dog goofs and you yell at it and it still can' t get the drill right, regress to something it knows how to do, praise the dog then call it a day. NEVER END A TRAINING SESSION ON A BAD NOTE OR HEAD SPACE.

I agree that NAVHDA is a good place to look for a good Britt, but I wouldn' t overlook the NSTRA Britts, either. In fact, I have a reservation about NAVHDA as far as a Britt is concerned (and I' ve NA, UPT and UT tested Britts), which is the water work. If you don' t want or care about water work, you can be fooled by focusing only on NAVHDA dogs, or by considering a higher scoring/tested NAVHDA dog as superior to a lower one that perhaps did not do well in the water aspects of NAVHDA testing.

NSTRA is not necessarily superior, because there there is a feature of the effort and $ invested in running weekly trials as a measure of top performance that can also skew apparent quality, meaning the guys with the big bucks can achieve a higher level of success with a dog of " good" quality, and a guy with a " superior" quality dog won' t appear as outstanding because of limitation on the number of times the dog is trialed, for example. Still, if you are primarily interested in a quality hunting dog, you can' t go wrong with a Brittany. For my money, I' d call Nolan Huffman. His " Buddy" dog, Nolan' s Last Bullet, is the father of my JJ, and JJ is just an excellent dog. Nolan is in one of the Carolinas, as I recall, has a kennel name of Bee Line Kennels, as I recall. Probably can get his # from NSTRA or maybe a web search.

As far as training is concerned, NAVHDA is a good program for a beginning trainer, and you should explore joining a chapter. If there' s a Brittany breed club nearby, join it. And if there is no Brittany club nearby, look into any other pointing breed club. The training and techniques are pretty much the same for all pointing breeds.

I have not experienced substantial softness in any of my Britts, so I have never felt it was necessary to treat them with kid gloves or in any extraordinary way. In fact, I' ve used e-collars on Britts for 20+ years and never had one " go bad" . They seem to take physical discipline in their training as well as Setters, Pointers and Labs do, IMHO.

They can be hyper in the home, though, unless you intro them as pups to a home environment vs a kennel. If they grow up in a kennel, they' ll usually not behave well in the home. Start ' em out in the house and they' ll usually be a tad less hyper.

Get one at 6-7 weeks.


It' s " Brittany" , not " Brittany Spaniel" --name changed a # of years ago. Any breeder still calling his dogs Brittany Spaniels is either intractable old school or ignorant, and, of the ignorant, you should beware!!

Thanks for the info, it has proven to be very helpful. Now it' s off to find that pup. I' m sure I' ll be seeking more advise down the road

check gun dog magazine, or the pointing dog journal ads for breeders. i think gun dog' s web site is www.gundogmag.com. my male poined a quail wing at 8 weeks. i didn' t really get into his training for a couple years. but in the field, he looked like i had dumped a ton of cash into training him. got lucky i guess. everything stated in the earlier post is true. you DEFINATELY can' t lose your temper with them, it can definately ruin a good brit. mine wouldn' t retrieve too well, and i' m sure it was my fault. i think he got into some poison a couple weeks ago, i just hope the " girlfriend" i bought for him comes up preggers
i just bought the rick smith training video from lion country supply, i think it will work great, you might want to look into it. one of his seminars would probably be better, but that is pricy
let me know if i can help you out any more

I found Huffman' s info:

Nolan Huffman
Beeline Brittanys
Connelly Springs, North Carolina
1-828-874-3284
1-828-874-0405


By the way, " Buddy" is the all-time top male NSTRA Brittany, ever.

I second the Nolan Huffman idea. Buddy is the best brit around.