The Brittany Forum

kandjt · Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 6:45 pm Post subject:

Sorry about the delay, but have been particularly busy the last couple of days.

Des - a bit of both really. I knew fairly early on that there was a problem, even before the start of formal training. The elder dog, at one year old, showed no interest at all if you threw anything near her and the puppy from the very beginning tried to catch the thrown object with her paws and would never carry anything in her mouth. I gave up completely with the older bitch, but started training the pup, she was a super little dog and quickly learned all the basics, except retrieving, she would effectively ignore anything I tried even cold and warm game. Following some advice I took her shooting and shot a bird over her which she partly retrieved. After that I used a freshly shot rabbit skin made into a ball to at least get a semblance of retreiving. Like your clumber she would only retrieve runners, but even then had the odd days when she wouldn't do that. I could have used force fetch on her, but for various reasons its not something I like to do. Fleur was my constant shooting companion for over ten years and I loved her to bits, but shooting is now much more enjoyable and rewarding with a Brittany who hunts, points and retrieves.

Keith