| Archive for The Brittany Forum For all friends of the versatile Brittany |
| JayPatrol |
Greetings from NorthamptonshireHiI have just recently joined the forum as we have just bought our first Brittany. We chose the Brittany after researching all of the dog breeds available and decided they were the clearly the best choice - but I'm preaching to the choir here I guess... She is 8 weeks old and her pet name is Amy - just had her first jab today and was very brave. We've spoken and met with a few BCGB members and been made to feel extremely welcome. We are somewhere between very and enormously grateful to them for their generosity. To be honest we're a bit loved up at the moment, but that might be partly due to lack of sleep as Amy is from a remote loch-side in Argyll which is about a 10 hour journey back to where we live. We are very keen to learn and understand how we can give and get the most out of the 'Brittany experience'. Our plan, as she becomes ready, is to try a range of activities that she or we may enjoy (from showing, to field trials, to agility - and flyball, we hope - which is why we called her Amy - after Amelia Earheart the aviator). Then, if there's a good fit, we'll do some more of that! Best wishes Jayson and Theresa (who will probably join the forum separately when she gets the chance) |
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| Lin Dyke |
Hello Jayson and Theresa,
Welcome to the forum. We're a friendly group from all parts of the world, united by our love of the Brittany. Your Amy looks a real poppet, looking forward to hearing about her progress. Regards, Lin. |
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| doganjo |
May I welcome you two to the forum too - it was lovely meeting you both, and great company for me when you stayed Sunday evening on your way to collect wee Amy. I look forward to meeting her sometime. | ||||
| guy |
Hi to you both - glad you made it.
Look forward to reading about Amy's growth and perhaps seeing you all in October. I will pm details. |
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| johnhod |
Hi and welcome. Hope you can appreciate the sometimes weird sense of humour of people on the forum. You need to be weird and have a sense of humour to let a Brittany own you anyway. 
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| Mugi |
Welcome from myself and my gang. | ||||
| Dave A |
Welcome to the forum, you should find all the info and guidance you need on here and within the BCGB.
Dave A |
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| eddieh |
Welcome from an adjacent county too. I’m sure Amy will “fly” whatever you end up doing with her.
I look forward to seeing you in the not too distant future. Not NE Northant’s by any chance? |
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| JayPatrol |
Hi Eddie
Well, East Northamptonshire - we're in Rushden. Not too far from Peterborough. I'm sure we will meet before too long. Jayson |
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| doganjo |
You sure will - and Gay and Brian and their four girls too. I hadn't realised you were so close to one of my other babies (Soufee) | ||||
| Pippa's Pack |
Welcome to you all. Do not know whether you have started doing any research on training classes. Oundle Dog Club is quite good. They do all the Kennel Club Good Citizen tests from Puppy Foundation to Gold. Unfortunately they do not have agility classes but Eddie knows of a couple.
My daughter-in-law's working cocker is a star on the local flyball team. She is called Millie (the dog that is) and she is a real flyer and absolutely loves it. Amy looks gorgeous. |
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| JayPatrol |
Many thanks for that.
We have enquired about training at a club in Wellingborough but we could make it over to Oundle easily if we don't get on at Wellingborough - it's probably a bit posher there too! |
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| eddieh |
Barking Mad train at Ringstead near Raunds and do obedience classes. Don't think they do Ringcraft. You've time to think about that though haven't you. 
You do realise that posting lots of pics of your puppy is a condition of forum membership don't you. 
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| doganjo |
Brittanys don't do 'posh' - they wreck 'posh' 
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| guy |
And I thought it was to bring cake on Friday |
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| eddieh |
Friday? This Friday? What's happening on Friday?  
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| guy |
It is a tradition I have at work - any new apprentice is told that he/she has to bring in cake on Friday - and that Mr Kipling is not good enough. Nearly always works :-) | ||||
| Pippa's Pack |
Posher? Eddie and I are members!! 'nuff said!! |
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| Pippa's Pack |
Totally unrelated but an example of how the young mind works. My daughter mentioned to my granddaughter that she had been watching a tv programme about Rudyard Kipling's son. My granddaughter replied: "what - the man who makes the cakes?" (and she is 22!!!) Oh, the sacrilege - never heard of Rudyard Kipling 
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| highclare |
Welcome from us, I have only one Brittany and I love her to bits. I am sure you will have lots of fun with your little girl. They are so quick to learn and they give you loads of laughs.
I show my one a bit and I really enjoy it, hope to see you at the shows soon. Gill and the Mabeleen |
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| eddieh |
And Shakespeare wrote a book or two
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| doganjo |
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| Lin Dyke |
What's that old saying about hiding one's light under a bushel?? | ||||
| doganjo |
No, what does it say? 
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| highclare |
Ok OK maybe I exaggerated a bit!!! Ha Ha.
Gill and the Mabeleen How do you put those emoticons on because I wanted to put the Twisted one on?? |
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| doganjo |
http://smileys.on-my-web.com | ||||
| johnhod |
You show her a bit of what???
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| highclare |
Thank you Anna for the website but I don't know how to click on the little icons on the left hand side and put them on to my messages???
Gill and the Mabeleen |
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| doganjo |
Click on the smiley you'd like to use then scroll down and you can copy the code from a little box underneath (Ctrl C) then go to the message on the forum and paste it in (Ctrl V) You need to have that website open as well as the forum one.
If you mean the icons on this forum just click on the smiley you want and it pastes itself in code into your message
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| highclare |
AHHHHHHHHHHHH I think I am going to kill myself. I click on the icons on the forum and I get words not smiles. Please put me out of my misery???
Gill and I bet the Mabeleen could do this if she could speak |
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| doganjo |
You get words in your message before you post it then when it posts it's converted to a picture - try it and see
: wink : =
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| highclare |
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| highclare |
Yes yes yes did it, thank god for that I was going mad. Many thanks Annie I can sleep at nights now 
Gill and the Mabeleen
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| eddieh |
Where is that Gay? |
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| Pippa's Pack |
Farcet. Do you fancy going? I did try with Pippa but she did not like the noise - we could give Tegen and Bella a go. |
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| doganjo |
and Amy??????? |
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| Pippa's Pack |
Of course, although I believe similar rules apply as do to agility and the dog should be at least 1 year old before they start. My daughter-in-law has a puppy and she takes her along to watch. This way she is getting used to the noise and the excitement and can even pick up some balls, although obviously not going over any jumps yet. |
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| doganjo |
For agility they aren't allowed to do any jumps until they are 18 months, but I thought flyball was Ok as they don't have to jump for the ball anymore - it just pops out of a slot.
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| eddieh |
 The reason I ask is that I had a conversation with a friend today who saw a programme or read something about flyball and it's beneficial affects on nervy dogs. Worth a try.
Sorry for hogging your thread Jaypatrol. |
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| JayPatrol |
Not at all Eddie, I'm interested in understanding more - would also be great to see the action at Farcet too.
Jayson |
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| eddieh |
Have you other dogs that you do agility with? | ||||
| doganjo |
Just got Freckles measured tonight and bought her warrant card. So we are on the road! Margaret our trainer's wife, said - "are you sure you want to do this, it costs £3.50 - not worth it if she can't get over the jumps for a large dog". Freckles is the one we had to stop jumping the farm gates. "You'll need to get some weight off her first" said Margaret. Freckles is 16 kg and 18.75 inches. | ||||
| Mugi |
Sorry to add to the hijack...
For agility most clubs will allow dogs to start jumping at 12 months (even Brice as a giant breed started jumping at 12 months) but KC rules mean they can't compete till 18 months and most non-affiliated shows follow the same rules. And to add a note of caution re flyball. I used to boxload for Prestbury Park who won at Crufts a year or so back. I would be very wary of flyball - it is a very noisy, very hyped and a very close quarters sport. Some dogs love it, some are very scared by it, especially if they get good enough to move from training to competition scenarios. I don't condemn it out of hand but be aware it means your dog will come into contact with some very possessive ball obsessed dogs who may be noisy and it may upset some Brittanys. |
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| johnhod |
Why would anyone want to train a dog to be noisy and object obsessive? I really cannot abide even being in the area where flyball is taking place. The handlers are just as noisy and objectionable, while taking part in their "sport" as the dogs. |
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| JayPatrol |
I understand where you're coming from with the "noisy and object obsessive" and I don't know how realistic my intentions are.
I was hoping to join a team (whether it's in 6 months or 12) where the dogs and handlers didn't get overexcited - that seems possible with agility (although some dogs do complete the course barking all the way). Do you dislike agility too? - it seems better disciplined. Same goes for the ball. I wouldn't want to get involved if it negatively changed the dog's behaviour with handling objects. |
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| eddieh |
Tegen on occasions It has been said that Tegen is naturally hyped up to the state that many handlers spend some time trying to achieve with their collies , She is calming down though.
Tegen is very nervy, but her enthusiasm for what she does like seems to override her fear. Not in that she does her agility sessions in spite of being scared, rather she is full of confidence, alert and free from worry. With regard to Fly ball, I'll only let Tegen do it if is something she wants to do, poses no risk to her from other dogs and does not encourage poor behaviour in her. Let's face it, walking past the benches at a champ' show is not exactly with out risk. In his short sowing career, Remi has had many dogs lunge aggressively at him from benches. Fortunately, he is too stupid to be scared but other dogs might not be so fortunate in temperament.
I know what you mean about the noise though. I thought some sort of major dog incident had occurred when I heard some fly-ball teams going into the main arena at Crufts this year. |
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| Mugi |
I don't dislike agility at all and with a dog other than Chase would consider going back to it (I competed with my welshie) but Chase would always look to hunt as a preference so we do other activities. | ||||
| JayPatrol |
My question was more directed at John because I was trying to understand the range of opinion on physical activities and John had expressed quite strong views on flyball. I think another poster captured it in a nutshell for me (although that post has since disappeared so maybe they felt it was less apposite): "Proceed with caution then" I will certainly do that. |
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| eddieh |
That was me trying to make up my mind what to say.
"I used to be indecisive........." |
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| eddieh |
I think that the introduction to most activities is fairly laid back, and that we have a chance to determine whether they are right for our dog(s) without causing any lasting damage. | ||||
| johnhod |
Not at all (but maybe that's because i can see a point to agility, whereas the point of flyball just eludes me totally). Rarely have I seen agility competitors acting in the inane manner of fly ball handlers, screaming like banshees and encouraging a similar response from their dogs. Yes, some dogs do get excited naturally by undertaking activities, I've seen otherwise well behaved gundogs loose it completely when given a water retrieve or a strong runner to follow. While it may be argued that the dog picks up a level of excitement from the handler, most in the working gundog world will actively discourage rather than encourage this behaviour.
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| JayPatrol |
If you set aside the experiences (or reality) of flyball and agility isn't the point of both quite similar? I could see something losing it's appeal if it's done badly but not necessarily losing its point.
To draw a comparison with human events flyball being the 4 x 100m relay and agility being an obstacle course? |
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| johnhod |
IMHO there is no similarity between the two events. I can appreciate agility as it requires a bond of trust to be developed between dog and handler. This may involve the use of treats in the early stages to encourage the dog into strange experiences. Flyball, on the other hand, is, again IMHO, based solely on the provision of reward.
While I could envisage a working gundog taking part in agility I would be concerned about trying one out in the flyball arena for fear of encouraging running in and/or unsteadiness. Just my opinion, which you are of course free to ignore. |
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| JayPatrol |
Well, I won't be ignoring them - this is exactly the sort of insight I was hoping to discover. I'm pleased I pursued the discussion and am grateful to you for sharing your thoughts. |
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| Patricia |
I have never found the Brittany to be that ball minded!!! Chasing and balls sticks is for Springers! | ||||
| doganjo |
I agree, none of mine are the slightest bit interested in balls, in fact I've always been told to use the ball as a distraction item. (bolting rabbit type thing) |
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| highclare |
Well if it means anything the Mabeleen hates chasing after a ball but my welsh springers love it to a point.
The only time she will chase a stick is when I throw it into the river then she only brings it to the waters edge and then spits it out. ps has anyone got any idea when the callender is out, last year they were being sold at Birmingham champ show? Gill and the Mabeleen |
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| guy |
it is out already | ||||
| Mugi |
It is out now Gill - will be on sale at the weekend or drop Paul a line ... I have had a sneaky peek of Barbara's copy and a certain lady looks very MUCKY .
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| highclare |
That lady is like that all the time, she loves to wollow in mud mostly on her back with her legs in the air. The mud is full of oil and she looks like the multie coloured swop shop dog.
It takes me for ever to get it out for the weekends shows, sometimes I think I will never get rid of the mud, but she loves it. When I let her out of the van with the others she runs about a quarter of a mile on her own to get in her little mud hole. By the time the rest of us are there she is on her way back covered with mud. She then goes in it again with the others. We then go to the river to try to wash it off, not always possible. She is horrible and the photo I sent was her on her way back and I was telling her "look what you look like you bad Brit". Gill and as usual a smelly dirty Mabeleen |
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| highclare |
Annie can you keep me a Calender at the Brit weekend as I am only coming for the Sunday.
Gill and the Mabeleen |
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| doganjo |
I don't have them, Gill. Paul organises the Calendar now. However, he usually gives me any spare ones on the Saturday to sell along with the shop stuff so I'll keep one for you if he does. Otherwise you could email him to keep one for you. | ||||
| eddieh |
Or should we just re-read some old threads .
I wouldn't have thought about your point regarding running in and unsteadiness. I was going to say that, contrary to what a few of you have said, Tegen and Remi love fetching a ball thrown for them, but that is not really the case. In the garden they will play with a ball, but outside they couldn't give a monkey's. I'll always remember the embarrassment of trying that game with Tegen at a busy Hinchingbrook Country Park. I threw a ball for her and she disappeared across the field in a completely different direction. She isn't really that interested in food when out either. |
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