Dog Training

Your experience afield is incomplete without a pointing dog. And that time afield sometimes turns down right scary when your beloved bird dog cannot be located. Life was easier 25 years ago when I started hunting with a Swiss cowbell on my big ranging Brit. Until it got not so easy, with a big ranging 2 year old who was slightly out of control running more than a mile out at times in big country. But, even the biggest bell couldn't be heard at that range and if the dog was out sight and out of sound, what to do next other than holler, whistle and wait. Or maybe fire off a shot and see if he returned for the retrieved (which I did in a number of moments of desperation with seemingly great success). Looking back on it, I ordered some really great sounding bells, some of which were very pricey and difficult to find in catalogs. I lost or gave away many of them over the years, but the real challenge was getting the dog accustomed to it, and for that task I had to start with clip on fishing bells or cat bells, so that the dog wouldn't freeze up in my training sessions of leaving the bell on for hours around the house each day.  Further, I became convinced that a bell was a hindrance to finding grouse, as the grouse surely heard the bell coming.   Someone recently wrote a great article on this over at Project Upland.   I've purchased and experimented with all of these over the years, but I pretty much narrowed my preference to these three below... The big 8/0 Swiss made bell for mountains, the smaller Swiss

In 20 plus years of having field trial bred Brittanys, I currently Had a number of dogs and bitches. I currently have a Brittany bitch which came to us to us as a little shy or as Gary Ruppel says, she is sensitive. She was the daughter of a famously hard charging field trial dog. Her brood mom, not so much hard charging, more a family hunting dog. So part of it may be genetic. She was kept as the pick of the litter. She liked to bounce up and down in the kennel and was very friendly, enthusiastic and gentle. She was 6 months old when we got her. She had lived in a small field trial kennel her whole life, but one where the dogs are well treated and get out daily for roading or work with birds. They just don't get a whole lot of other contact with people or other dogs until they get a little older and start going to field trials and the local is rural so when they get out, they go a country mile to find birds for 30 minutes and then the next dog goes out. Bounce loved this life, as do I at many times. But, at this point, she was a little timid around people, particularly strangers as she hadn’t been to field trials yet, where they get this socializing with members outside their own pack. She didn't bark and wasn’t neurotic, but she was just a little timid looking at Petsmart, the dog park, or with even the mailman, and you could tell new situations made her uncomfortable. She would frequently roll over on her back, showing submission. She also did this if