When you don’t need your Brittany

This weekend I went to ‘guide’ a hunt with my Brittanys and was awakened to the fact that quail hunting can be totally different than anything you’ve ever seen depending on where you are hunting.

Picture record rainfall in hot South Texas, home of the Muy Grande deer contest. Home of vegetation that sticks or tortures you and rattlesnakes that never hibernate. ……Picture waist high grasses and brush so thick that you are actually walking on a thatched mattress or thick ‘blanket’ of grass under foot as the tall grasses brush against you as you walk.

Now picture a quail that is winged. Picture that your Brittany needs to scoot its nose along the sand near the roots under the SOLID thick blanket of weeds / brush / cactus / other stickers so that its nose is plowing way down underneath in 80 degree plus heat with only it’s butt showing.

Got that? Now picture that he must do this plowing for multiple tens of yards for each cripple as the dog desperately tries to locate running cripples deep below the heavy cover. Imagine your dog having to do that each and every time you get there with your dog. Now imagine doing this 30 to 40 times a day (yes, 30 to 40 coveys).

Ok, now picture the ‘hunt’. Riding on cut trails (called ’senderos’ in Spanish which means path or trail) that are the width of a car. You and your dogs ride in a tall converted Army truck that now has a quail rig on top that seats its hunters about 7 feet above the ground. Now here’s how the ‘hunt’ works:

You spot a covey of quail eating previously scattered corn or just dusting in the thick sandy road or sendero. The driver stops the rig and the hunters bail out, grab guns from storage underneath then walk forward without the dog because if the dog tries to hunt and point, the birds on the road will flush out of gun range off the sendero in heavy cover. So the hunters just walk ‘em up. Yep, just like you are jump shooting dove out of corn row. No pointing dog necessary. Next, you begin to search for your shot quail with the dog you’ve been holding back. That’s the ‘hunt’. Retrieving is the single important dog function. (that’s a key factor)

In this scenario, you not only don’t need a Brittany or pointer of any type, you prefer a heavy lab that will bail out off the rig after the shots then rush out to scoot its nose and body along the ground by plowing underneath the incredibly heavy thatched mattress of weeds (undergrowth) amongst 3 to 4 foot tall standing weeds with high temps to find your cripple. Killed birds of course rarely need a dog because if they are dead, they are simply on top of the thatched mattress of heavy grasses. Seemingly half of ours were cripples.

Is this quail hunting? Admittedly all parties there were in agreement, it’s more of a shoot than a hunt. Any dog that attempts to range out from ‘the rig’ becomes lost in the heavy grasses which offers another concern or two such as snake bite and heat distress/shock.

As my rural born and raised mother would say, “I felt about as worthless as tits on a boar hog”. I was concerned for my dogs. After just 1/2 day I told my clients that we should go back to the camp to get an experienced lab and put up my Brittanys. We lost far too many birds because we had the wrong dog for the job. The next day they took retrievers while I spoke up on behalf of my Brittanys and opted out.

We did try to run my dogs into the wind and they simply either ran too big which gave me concerns about the aforementioned heat/snakes etc. and it also concerned me that they would become road hunters as all the quail were on the road. This totally goes against my training program as I try to teach the dogs to STAY away from roads for safety’s sake and to develop a strong independent run. That independent run is necessary in every quail hunt I’ve ever been on prior to this one so that the dog has a better chance of finding birds. A dog that grows up finding birds on the road will eventually be a road hunter! Months of hard training down the tube if they all started hunting just off the road.

So can my dogs find dead birds? Absolutely. Never had problems before! What was the problem? READ ABOVE. It was awfully hot and thick. I have never experienced a quail hunt where you could actually shoot more quail without a dog by riding a vehicle on roads. The only reason a dog was needed was for retrieving duties.

I told the folks who asked me out ‘hey, there are breeds that are absolutely bred just for the retrieve and LOVE to look for cripples in the heaviest of cover for HOURS”. This is no way reflects upon the Brittany.

While the Brittany is versatile, Brittany owners MUST be honest with themselves. The Brittany is a jack of all trades when it comes to upland hunting and waterfowl but they are NOT the best dog for the toughest of hunting conditions. That is why there are different breeds! Don’t be foolish to think the Brittany will out perform labs on retrieves and pointers on endurance, nose and hot afternoons! Yes, occasionally there is the rare Brittany that is pointer caliber but if I wanted Pointer abilities, I’d get a pointer!

Examples of the right dog for the right job: Brittanys hunt ducks just fine. Like a lab, they will water retrieve beautifully but if the water is iced or near freezing, they simply can NOT out perform a Lab or Chessie in frigid conditions. The lab and Chessie have hollow fiber hairs that dry quickly. Their skin is different for frigid temperatures and the retrieve is what God put them on earth for!

If top speed, athleticism, stamina, heat endurance & nose is all you care about, then the English pointer ranks supreme!

If however, you want a dedicated little dog that thrives on your approval, loves to cuddle, will work hard for you in the field at many tasks, is versatile in the field including basic retrieving / pointing, and you want a smaller dog that is great with family / kids, then the Brittany is for you.!