American and French Brittanys as companion gun dogs. Hunting, training, trialing and more.

I am really surprised at the personal e-mail/ phone calls from friends regarding my recent articles on ‘age range expectations’.  I guess I thought it didn’t need to be said out loud.  I was wrong.  My friends tell me that it needs to be said over and over so that folks don’t get disappointed.  In this ‘me too’ and ‘I gotta have it now’ society, many are disappointed in a pup that progresses normally which to them, is slow.

The one common response among friends who talked to me about the 2 articles laughed and said ‘yes, that’s it exactly’ or something along those lines.  Its funny how we start out with our first dog and have an idea of how it will go only to find out later that it was exactly as others would say it would be.  The other thing I heard was that learning realistic age range expectations ™ with their first dog made training and hunting over their subsequent dogs easier and more enjoyable.

Of course there are always special exceptions.  There are dogs out there that are what I refer to as ‘Willie the wonder dog’ and with no training, care or concern, the dog just does it like it has been doing it that way its whole life.   But those dogs are not the average from any line.  Excellent lines will consistently produce good to great dogs but ‘Willie’, well, he’s not the average.  He’s probably an extraordinary expressor of the breed which few folks have the priviledge of owning, ever.

One thing a lot of upland dog purists use to do was keep an upland journal of their exploits afield.  They would add photos to their entries to preserve each hunting memory for life.  I like that idea and recommend it.  Mine are kept on this site.  Perhaps you can keep an online blog / journal or a private handwritten journal like yesteryear… I invite you to just think about it.

Thanks for the visit and give your dog a treat for me.

Dave

As a follow-up, I was asked by several folks just ‘exactly’ what they can expect of a phase I (started dog) etc.  My first article on this subject glossed over the fact that the bulk of your pups learning to hunt properly with you occurs in the first 3 or 4 years.

In this writing, I’ll talk about a few specifics.  Here are some age range expectations, loosely applied to all pointing breeds.  Keep in mind that a year and under is a puppy and 1 to 2 years is a juvenile with juvenile like behavior to be expected!  Any older dog not ever trained falls into the above category the first year and the 2nd year in training it is learning like a new pup / juvenile.

In the first year you can teach fundamental commands such as ‘come’, ‘whoa’, ‘heel’, ‘dead’, etc. through voice / whistle / and hand signals.  Also in that first year, your dog should be able to locate game and point.  Again, not perfectly and with mistakes.

Your puppy will not be perfect and will make many mistakes.  This is NOT necessarily a failure of your training but just the process in which dogs learn.  Compare it to a child who knows not to get in the cookie jar and with each subsequent lesson, the child gets better about not getting into the cookie jar! LOL

In your juvenile’s 2nd year, you will encounter the ‘terrible two’s’.  This again is part of the process.  Though your juvenile dog may have been quite good in year one, he undoubtedly will go through a spell of the terrible two’s in which he thinks he knows it all and doesn’t need your ‘advice’.  He may disregard commands that he was once quite good at and bust birds that he knows he shouldn’t.  Look at this dog as a rebellious teen.  Deal with it accordingly.  Lay down the law so to speak and let him know that this behavior is unacceptable.  You are teaching him that he must be a team player and only as a team player will you both enjoy bird hunting.

As we head into year 3, now a young adult, he begins to understand he is part of a team and that together you will find lots of birds.  This is when he begins to get good.  He is still not as good as he will be because now that he is a team player, he has to figure out his quarry, their tricks, scents, etc.  This is a lengthy process only hastened by frequent trips afield on wild birds.

Year 4 he is a mature adult.  He hunts as a team player and he has wisdom acquired from many days afield since a puppy.  It all comes together.  He will amaze you each and every year hereafter with how smart he is and how he can figure out hunting techniques on his on in order to better pin down birds for you to flush / shoot.

Gus on point in Montana

Hope that helps everyone!

Give your dog a treat for me and tell ‘em Dave says “Good dog!”

Dave

The way I see it, the only problem with the natural retrieve is that we forget to begin reinforcing our bird dog’s desire to ‘go get’ things early on.  Most puppies will chase and pick up things to carry around and eat or play with.  That in fact is the foundation of the natural retrieve…a genetic desire to stalk, pounce and consume.

stalk…

I’ve written an article on my web site at http://brittanys.com/ that discusses how to go about doing this.  

What I’d like to share are some of the common questions I get about the natural retrieve and hopefully it will answer a question or reinforce something about the natural retrieve in your own mind.

First: As mentioned above, most well bred bird dog pups have the genetic desire.   They have the desire to prey upon, pounce and eat.  In its purest form, that  _is_ the natural retrieve.  The confusion on the dogs part is that we have domesticated it so they learn early on that we are the provider and so the desire to prey upon / pounce and eat is somewhat lost in translation of how they will live their life.  They are never required to prey / pounce / eat.  

Take raising pen raised quail.  If we walk among the quail on a daily basis and bring their feed to them they become conditioned to accept human presence and our offerings of feed however, if we raise them in isolation and place them in more ‘natural’ surroundings such as the surragator release method, they think and learn to fend for themselves.

Now I am not advocating that you starve your dog and make them find their own feed!  I’m merely pointing out the explanation to what the underlying issue is with regard to the development of the natural retrieve.

The Number 1 all time concern:  ”My dog picks up the bird but won’t bring it to me”.  My answer is that he is retrieving, just not to you!  This goes back to what I mentioned earlier about your dogs desire to prey / pounce / eat (retrieve to themselves!).  What we want to do is carefully modify that natural behavior.  So, away from any retrieving games, we work on the ‘come’ command.  We work daily on the command so that it is so natural for them that without thinking, they come right to you.  Now we go back to the retrieving games.  If you’ve done it properly, he will bring it right to you when you command ‘come’ or if teaching ‘heel’ when you command him to ‘heel’.

Number 2 all time concern:  ”My dog doesn’t like to pick up anything”  or “My dog will fetch tennis balls but not birds” or some variation thereof.  This goes back to when they are just weeks old.  I encourage the use of frozen quail.  It is funny to see a 5 week old pup trying to carry around the frozen feathered carcass of a bobwhite but trust me, they do.

A concern that always seemed funny to me is that your dog doesn’t retrieve anything but freshly shot birds.  Is that really a problem?  LOL … sorry, I digress.

Sometimes though, even with the proper breeding and proper introduction a bird dog doesn’t care for the retrieve which brings us to…

Number 3 all time concern:  ”My dog doesn’t retrieve anything, he just leaves and begins to hunt live birds again”.  Even if your dog is well bred and you have done all that you should have it just didn’t work out.  Why?  There’s an old saying that dogs strong on finding birds tend to be weaker on (natural) retrieving and vice versa.  No, it is not always true but there is a small element of truth in that saying. Many strong running dogs simply want to find wild birds as that is what they enjoy most.   The ‘cure’ for this sort of dog is often the trained retrieve program (force fetching, etc.).

I cringe when someone about to buy a pup asks “are your dogs natural retrievers?” because what they are really asking is “will the dog naturally retrieve no matter how I train?”  The answer is no.  If developed properly the answer is usually YES and that should be the answer for ALL reputable breeders.  I don’t care how strong the natural retrieve is in the parents, anyone can screw it up in a hurry with no chance of repair except for the trained retrieve.

What you want to do early is promote the genetic desire to ‘go get it’.  

Get it!

 Later, when he is mature enough, you will teach your dog to ‘come’.  In the end, hopefully it all comes together.  If not, then the trained retrieve is all that is left.

That's a big bird!

Give your dog a treat for me and tell ‘em “Dave says good dog!”

Dave

It’s funny what we aspire to achieve when we get our new pup.  We know there is a timeline that every pup must travel yet we sometimes forget we are asking too much too soon.

I suppose the most common thing I hear from hunters is “All I want my dog to do is point/back until I get there to flush the birds, then retrieve it to hand”. 

That is actually all 99 percent of us want.  It’s called a trained hunting dog with experience.

The truth of the matter is that if you expose your pup to the proper environment, take it hunting on wild birds frequently and are diligent to properly train and correct your dog, you can look forward to a nice bird dog at about age 3 to 4 years of age.  Yep, 3 to 4.  They are usually awesome and amazing every year thereafter up to age 10 when they are noticably slower due to age.

The above ‘age range abilities’ are what I call “bird dog age range expectations” ™.

There are specific ‘age range expectations’ that a well bred bird dog will usually display.  It is also dependent on the pointing dog breed.  Some are much faster than others.  For example, the English Pointer is usually a faster developing pointing breed compared to say, the Vizsla. Brittanys are generally fast developing and it is not uncommon for them to point / retrieve naturally and be huntable their first year… but not without many mistakes and certainly without the experience expected of an older dog.

Spring is around the corner and pups begin to go home.  Last years pups now have a season under their belt and are headed for more training & polishing for next season.  Seasoned dogs will rest and enjoy the good life and get refresher conditioning / training as next season nears.  No matter the age, there are age specific expecations.  Understanding what is ‘normal’ for your pointing breed is important knowledge for you to understand.  With understanding, you will be patient and do it right.  Without it, you will expect too much too soon.

Happy hunting and give your bird dog a treat for me and tell ‘em “Dave says good dog!”

Most cordially,

Dave

Learning to read a dog and understanding the actions of wild birds is essential for the owner handler to understand what is unfolding in front of their eyes.

In this short article I will offer a tid bit of food for thought.

Scene I: The winds are variable on this day…(they are switching from one direction to another as they do when fronts collide and no front has yet to dominate the other)…The pup runs hard with newly learned skills and suddenly slams on point!  He stands with ears forward, tail erect and body rigid.  Suddenly he relaxes looks around and then moves.  Suddenly an explosion of wild birds flush from his movement and are gone.  Why did my dog move?

Scene II: Same day an experienced dog does the same thing save the latter part where he softens in posture but does not move.  You notice he slowly moves his head first this way then that way, the whole time he quickly inhales with nostrils flaring then lower jaw opening to allow the quick exit of air so he can repeat the sequence.  You walk forward thinking “Whatcha got boy?” then suddenly birds explode from around his body and you nail a nice double.

Scene III: Same day, inexperienced dog again…now the front has pushed through finally and the winds are steady out of the north at 5 to 10.  Your dog is hunting into the wind and hammers a point.  You walk forward and the dog is sure they are there.  You can’t produce a bird.  You release your dog to relocate and he works well forward into the wind.  He loses the scent, goes back to where he started but can’t locate the birds.  What happened?  A false point?

Scene IV: Same day, experienced dog with the front having pushed in as above.  You relocate the dog, he proceeds forward but can’t locate the birds.  Suddenly the experienced dog casts 100 yards wide, perpendicular to the wind then races _down_ wind another 100 yards then turns and runs perpendicular to the wind to your rear.  He hammers down on point again, behind you.  You walk towards him and the running birds are trapped between you and the dog.  No where to run, the big cock pheasant flushes wildly and cackles loudly.  One well placed shot and the dog retrieves your bird to hand.

I have seen all of this happen many, many times in my life.  If you don’t understand what I described, ask questions as this is a place to learn and share your own experiences.

Happy hunting!

BTW, give that dog of yours a treat for me and tell ‘em “Dave says good dog!”

Dave Jones

On a dare, I am writing this blog entry.  Honestly, its not for the dare but just because I never thought of writing it.  I do thank Frank Campbell for the dare.

Over the years my Brittanys have had various jobs.  Some not as glamorous as others.

Chief for example (not my kennels namesake, rather he was named after me when I was promoted to Chief Petty Officer in the Navy) was probably my most versatile of hunting dogs.

He appeared on the local news when Animal Planet visited some years ago.  His ‘cameo appearance’ showed him retrieving the remote control for the t.v. as well as a bag of chips and soda.

When Chief was but a young lad, he accompanied me on my two young boys first hunts.  Their first hunts were for gray squirrel in Maryland.  I believe in fast action for youngsters as a great way to get them started.  I really don’t need to say that squirrel are delicious when cooked right so yes, we never shot anything without eating it.

In the beginning of Chief’s first squirrel hunts he learned patience.  He too was like the young boys and had to be encouraged to sit still and be quiet.  Most hunts didn’t take much quiet time for the squirrel to become active so we all had a good time.  Chief’s job was to retrieve all shot squirrels which really came in handy if it fell into heavy brush or perhaps was crippled.  Chief soon became quite adept at hunting squirrel and would even watch the tree tops for our quarry!

One bow season in Maryland, I shot a deer and had to track it.  The blood trail was scant and I had a hard time tracking.  A quick dash to the house and back with Chief.  I let him smell / lick the blood that I found and enouraged him to find more.  He did so with just a minimal of encouragement.

My Brittany Missy was terrific on rabbits as she was a trial / hunting dog so was steady to wing and shot. She would point rabbits and hold steady to hop ( a must for safety ).  Tumble the rabbit, touch her on the head and get a prompt retrieve to hand!

Waterfowl?  No problem.  All of my Brittanys are waterlovers and whether it is a shot gamebird or duck, the retrieve is the same, fun for all.

I hear folks say “I’ll spank my dog or yell at my dog if it points anything but game birds!”.  Why?  Are you THAT vain?

My dogs have pointed deer, turkey that startled the dog at their size, rabbits, squirrel, skunks, coons, porcupines, armadillo’s, etc.  I’ve had unwanted retrieves of critters that include live racoons, ‘possums, armadillo, etc.

True, I do discourage some of that such as the squirrels, skunks, coons, porcupines, dillo’s, deer, etc.

I don’t discourage however, the pointing of game such as turkey, rabbits.  First off, it doesn’t happen much since hunting upland birds is a bit noisy.  Secondly, as long as they are steady, they’ve done their job.  Don’t forget that the Brittany breed was bred to hunt feather, fur and fowl.  

If you want to discourage it, go for it.  Simply ignoring the perceived ‘problem’ usually makes it go away since they want to hunt what you choose, usually ( LOL ).

My old saying is that “if this world goes to hell in a hand basket, you’ll be glad for a point on anything” so you can eat!  I also say that “the folks that think meat is only obtained from a store wrapped in cellophane will be darn glad to be your friend!”

If however, you are a snooty “game bird only purist” I wonder why you continued reading past “steady to hop?”  LOL.

Give that versatile Brittany of yours a treat for me and tell ‘em “Dave says good dog!”

Cordially,

Dave

By no means am I an expert on the best places in such a huge land area but I can give you some generalities.

First off all, all the quail are either south or west.  The eastern halves of Texas and Oklahoma are not very good at all.

There was a recent article in a Texas magazine that emphasized how the ‘quail line’ has moved west.  If you drew a hypothetical line north to south through Texas and Oklahoma then superimposed the shift of quail populations you can plainly see that the line has moved significantly west in the last 30 years.

Some areas of Texas have bobs and blues while others have primarily one or the other.  Oklahoma is pretty much the same.

Oklahoma has a good amount of public lands to hunt while Texas has very little.  This is why Texans pay to hunt each year because we simply don’t have the public lands. 

There are yearly leases in Texas and then there are day leases.  It is difficult to find decent day leases later in the season.  If the day lease is good, it will be hunted a lot unless the ranch manager has a lot of land at his disposal and rotates hunting spots to reduce pressure.  The best bet, if you plan to hunt Texas a few times per year, is to find an annual quail lease.

Texas quail hunting leases are higher than Oklahoma.

Ranch owners like out of state folks.  They realize you won’t be there very long at a time and you probably won’t be there very often thus their wildlife resources are impacted less.  I would say it is easier to sign on to a lease being out of state then it is for someone who lives near the lease.

Out of state folks one concern is finding a lease.  I’d like to say there is a magic bullet to find good leases but there isn’t.  There are on line lease finders services but folks there are usually charging more than it is worth and are looking for unknowing newbies and out of state folks.

The best bet is to painstakingly call every single chamber of commerce in every little town on the map.  Ask if they know someone or someone who knows someone.  Word of mouth is the best way to find a decent lease and not get ripped off.

That’s it for now.  Hope that gets you started!

Now give your dog a treat for me and tell ‘em “Dave says good dog!”

Cordially,

Dave

That’s what I’ll tell anyone who is going to hunt wild chukar in Nevada with dogs in the hills & mountains.  Why is it tough?  Because you need to be in top physical condition.  I learned that a few years ago the hard way.

I thought I was in great condition only to find out that flat land or even gentle hill walk in hunting is not proof of great conditioning.  I found the method of hunting with my pointing dog in early January near Winnemucca was very challenging.

Not only did we climb thousand feet plus hills once but we did it repeatedly all day every day for 3 straight days.  Up the north face followed my moments of wild flushes and pointing followed by the downhill walk to find those birds that flew to the bottom, as they almost always did.  Then back up another north face.  

The north face approach was needed on our hunt as it was very cold with recent heavy snow.  The Chukar were on the high south slopes eating cheat grass and sunning in newly formed bare spots melting away by the southern winter sun.  Our northern ascent to hunt them ‘top downward’ was pure He**.  Deep drifts with high knee action while slowly working my way up the north slopes made my thighs and calves burn and cramp.

My recommendation when hunting chukar with this method is to work out on a stair-stepper machine at your local health club a minimum of 2 to 3 times per week for at least a month assuming you are in good physical condition before you start your work out program.  Longer if not, consult a doctor…seriously.

Was it worth it?  Yeah.  The saying they have up there is that your first chukar partridge hunt is for fun, your second is for revenge…I’ll second that!  I must say the the chukar partridge is probably the best table fare among ALL the North American (native or imported) game birds.

The dog work was excellent and the hunting lands were public which makes for a good reason to try it out.  We also found huns and pheasant down low.  There were tons of california quail down low.

BLM is land paid for & maintained with your tax dollars, try it out and I think you’ll have a good time.  A good time will only be had IF you get you and your dog into good, no, great physical condition prior to going!

Give your dog a treat for me and tell ‘em “Dave says good dog!”

Dave

You know, that’s how I feel when I go to a hunting web site.  I certainly don’t want to visit a web site that just brags about this title and that title.  Tell me some stuff applicable to me and my dog!

That’s a terrific summation of how I often feel.  Even though I recently titled a dog for a friend, I don’t feel like I need a parade of titles to convince me that someone has good dogs.  Can they hunt?

In defense of the titles I will say that many great hunting dogs have a thoughtful breeder behind them.  Someone who studies the breed and tries to match strengths and weaknesses in order to produce a better dog for Joe the hunter.  Titles are just a public way of putting out info about a dog.  A titled dog was measured in some way and publicly proves his worthiness. 

A dog doesn’t have to trial to prove its worthiness however.  I proved Nubbin’ on guided wild bird hunts.  He had to produce and if he wouldn’t have, we wouldn’t be talking about him.  The only thing about it is that only those that hunted over him knew his value as a bird dog.  That was good enough for me.

When I breed Nubbin’ I always study the pedigree.  I make sure that the common lineage of Nubbin is complimented by the gyp he is going to be bred to.  I do not like to breed complete outcrosses.  An outcross is two dogs being bred that have zero common ancestry.

Common ancestry is important if the common ancestor is far enough back that it isn’t inbreeding but close enough to perpetuate the great traits of that common ancestor.  Make sense?

Though I don’t want to hear about how great your trial dog is and would rather hear about a terrific wild bird hunt somewhere that I may go to someday, I do understand the necessity of proving a dog in a public way whether it is trialing or guiding or some other way. 

I do love a great bird hunting story that involves Brittanys!  Feel free to share one here on any post!

I guess range is one of the least discussed bird dog training fundamentals because many hunters feel that close working is what is needed all the time for their hunting location.

Most hunters, including myself, find themselves preoccupied with whether the dog will properly hold point and not bust any birds.  Ground patterning and the range of your bird dog is something that often gets set to the back burner because afterall, if the dog won’t find and hold birds, what good is any other training?

In the Brittany world there are two basic types of bird dog.  Those that have the natural desire to run big, far to the front.  Measured in hundreds of yards to the front would be big in my book (in wide open terrain).  400 to 500 plus yards to the front is a big running Brittany.  The second type is the Brittany that genetically desires to stay close to you.  Maybe this dog ranges 25 to 200 yards out.

Notice I stated ‘natural desire’ and ‘genetically’.  This is something you should try to find out before establishing a ‘trained’ ground pattern.  If you like a close working dog all the time, then it does not matter.  If however, you want your dog to range out in open terrain then nurturing what comes naturally to your Brittany is very important.

Speaking from experience, which encompasses hunting woodcock in briar thickets, ruffed grouse on the east coast, wild bobs in the deep south (back when we had wild bobs), bobs / blues / pheasant in Texas, prairie chickens, sharptails, huns, chukar partridge, etc, I think I speak with authority when I tell you that it is no fun hunting over a 50 yard dog in the wide open plains unless asking the dog to stay close for a specific reason such as birds that run hard and flush well out front like wild pheasant.

Your Brittany is smart enough to know the difference between wide open style hunting and close thicket hunting.  Practicing in varied terrain is what makes them good at it.

I like to let my young dogs run as big as they desire on wide open training grounds.  A hay pasture makes a good location for pups to learn to open up.  After the pup has established in his mind that he is allowed to run way out to find birds, I cement in his mind the sequence which entails him finding birds way out, pointing / holding, and waiting for me to arrive and shoot the bird followed by lots of praise. 

Once the young dog has this in mind, I then take him to tight quarters with closely scattered brush, edges, etc.  This ‘tight’ place is where I establish the command to hunt close.  In this tight area, I allow him to find birds close by so that the command to hunt close tells him that there are birds nearby.  I cement that relationship as well by killing properly pointed closeby birds over him followed by much praise.

A smart Brittany will figure all of this out in a season or two and become quite adept at hunting the cover appropriately.

There is nothing as disheartening as a big running dog blowing through wild pheasant well ahead of the hunting party (nobody gets a shot) or a close working dog at 50 yards on an open prairie for other species that hold well (its as tough as watching paint dry plus you end up walking a whole lot more than if you had a dog that was wide / far ranging).

The American Brittany is bred to do both.  When you do get a Brittany, get one from top lines that are genetically capable of doing both.  There are many breeders who have Brittanys out of genetically close working parents.  That’s what the pups will be no doubt.  If you want the option to have your Brittany hunt open cover farther out and tight cover close, then the breeding is where you begin.

Take care and please feel free to share your thoughts on the subject,

Dave Jones