Early development of their desire to range out is usually nothing more than taking them to wide open areas and letting them explore. I know in my early days of training my own dogs I felt they needed to be on top of me so I could get the shot. Little did it dawn on me that if they are well trained that they will hold until I arrive.

I think it is key that folks learn to trust that their dog will hold for them in order to enjoy a dog farther out. So what if they bust? The bird doesn’t get shot and they get corrected. Eventually they figure it out.

I think the frustration of having to walk a long distance to correct a dog is what puts most folks off of allowing the dog from ranging out. It involves a lot of time and work and in todays hurry-up society, most folks don’t want to deal with it.

By no means am I belittling the work that must go into a close working dog in tight cover. I am just as ardently supportive of the guy who must have his dog close all the time because of the nature of the game he pursues, such as wild pheasant. That dog too has critical skills that requires a lot of work and must hunt well so that the wily cock bird will not flush out of range from a felling shot.

It’s usually the novice that doesn’t get it (I traveled that path) but with good mentoring from folks here who understand the breed, I think more and more folks are beginning to realize just how adaptible the precocious little Brittany can be.

When I bought my first Brittany the topic of how much do the parents of the dog I was considering range out never even entered my mind.

I think every person develops a personnel/comfortable taste as to what distance they want their dogs to hunt at with time spent in the field with the type of cover available to them. I know when I was young everybody I knew wanted their dog almost under their feet at all times because of the type of cover that we had here. A dog hunting 500 yds away was considered useless.

As I have gotten older and bird numbers are less I have really grown to appreciate a dog that will range out.

To me it’s still a crap shoot as to how much a pup I am considering will range out. All you have is the parents to look at…. Sometimes the pup is the same and sometimes not. At this stage in my life, I like to expose my dog to as many types of hunting situations so they’ll adapt their range to the type of cover that is being hunted that day. One day my dog may be literally between my legs in very thick cover and the next be out of beeper hearing distance at times.

Bob

I had to LOL when I read about your dog being far off and potentially going on point! Yeah, there goes the boot leather.

I know you are probably like me in that a bird 300 yards to the left is better than none pointed in front! I thank the good lord for those finds when the hunting is slow because if I didn’t have that dog, I would have probably been totally skunked. On the other hand…lol

Dave

One of the things I did right was to cultivate his run, and establish control, simultaniously. Partly by design. A lot of it was semi-accidental. I would often run him out in an open field, to “get the wild out of him” and then bring him around, put him under control to “hunt close” into the area of planted Quail, often in much heavier cover. This just naturally slowed him, especially when younger. He soon began to “work” the thick cover, when ever he came to it. I would sometimes start him in heavier cover, work him into the open, so he could run out, then back to another patch of heavy cover to find birds. He found a few birds in the more open grass, that had wandered out, and some in our little field trials that had been planted in the open to fool us. This method worked well, so, I did similarly with others that followed. I’m not sure I fully understood why it worked so well.

Some dogs also seem to have a “learned desire” to stay close. Maybe from fear of being lost and abandoned, and some from being whistled, hacked, or shocked out of their natural range. Some are just big babies. I have one female that is a bit neurotic. A real “daddy’s girl”, she will run out with
the big dogs, then come nearly all the way back to check in. She never hangs back, and I think she will be an asset when hunted with 2-3 other dogs. The result is sort of a “Cloverleaf” pattern. If I can get her finished, without altering this pattern, she should be a good open grass, and CRP dog.

I’m not sure she would range back out, as much without the other dogs to draw her. This seems to me to be one of the times an experienced dog can help with a younger dog. Showing them it is OK to hunt out.

Another advantage of a big running dog, and one few hunters think through, is their ability to thoroughly cover close cover, like Milo fields. This was the original reason I chose Joe, the largest male of the litter. I got much more than I expected.
A dog that is capable of long runs is capable of a lot of sweeps when hunting close, and is likely to make longer side to side casts. He can “switch back” to check slight scent, or clumps of weeds, without losing time. My best dog at this is not the biggest runner, but can keep up.
One other thought. Sometimes, while watching 3-4 beautiful white and orange spots on a hillside off to the left, or right, I find myself praying they don’t find birds, until they swing back! I think I need a horse.