Any help with my new Brittany

Hi all, I've got a 16 week old Brittany female that I'd like to have as bird dog. I'd like to know if any of you know any books, websites, or other info that will aid me in training her.

I also have a 10 year old Gordon Setter that hunts like heck. He'll point solid, never bumps birds and stays as close as I want him to. He doesn't retreive and he doesn't honor another dogs point though.

I'd like to teach the Brittany to do both of those things and to point steady like the Gordon. I know I'm asking for alot, aren't I?

I've put a check cord on the pup a few times and she is learning whoa, and come, pretty well. She retrieves a wing on the OK command while on the check cord, but not otherwise. I have all the time in the world to work with her but I don't want to do the wrong things either.

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.

PS As you can tell, I'd like to do this myself, without sending the dog out somewhere and hiring it done. Thanks, in advance, Limmy

For pointing dogs, there are a lot of fans of Rick Smith:
http://www.teamhuntsmith.com

You need to join a local Brittany club in your area. http://clubs.akc.org/brit/ Find a club and your problems will be solved.

Mare than you will teach it.

Of course, get the books. But

Teach them basic commands.

Teach them whistle, and hand signals.

Teach them to point with fishing rod and pheasant wing.

Take both dogs out together. The Gordon will teach the little lady through osmosis.

And love the heck out of both of them over and over again.

bird's-bird's-birds
preserve bird's-pen raised----WILD BIRDS


Pass it on! Take a kid hunting.......

I myself don't do well with books. I tend to start reading them but never finish. Unless its in the deer blind. I found the Perfect Start and Perfect Finish DVD sets from Perfection Kennels. They come highly recommended on the gun dog boards. there are 5 dvds and about 7 hrs of information but very well put together for someone to be able to train thier own dog. They do recommend alot of brirds. I keep pigeons to train with. At 16 weeks be sure that you are keeping the training lessons short and let the dog be a puppy. My brittanys are almost a year old now and we are starting to do more training I hunted them this fall without a gun and spent alot of time getting them into birds and not worring about anything else.

There is a book out by an old trainer who is one of the best, Richard Wolthers, he has books for labs ... waterdog and for pointers, setters called Gun Dog
His books are all about timing and learning stages of dogs and are all very easy to follow. Read the book cover to cover, apply what you read and you will have an excellent dog.
I have an 11 year old Lab that I have referenced this book and have a **** good dog.

Had 2 Brittany's years ago. Mom and daughter. Mom was 5 when she had the pups. I started the pup the following year. Pup ended up being better all around than the mom but both had their stronger areas. My advise is don't hesitate to take her with other dogs. She will learn from them. The most important training issue, IMO, is make sure she knows her commands. Your commands. Some will "whoa" a dog, I trained mine to "steady". Never used the whistle as I could whistle on my own. Also, hand signals are important. I used "hup" and hand signals when I wanted the dogs to change directions when hunting open areas for Pheasant. This worked for me. You'll have to find out what works for you. Take your time and stick to a consistant set of training rules. Don't let someone else try to correct your dogs, and you, for that matter. Train them the way YOU want. What you want out of your dog may not be what is considered to be the perfect model of what a bird dog should be. Take your time, be paitent and most of all, enjoy the years of having a great hunting companion!