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Thread: Five year old Brittany .. worth it trying to train?

  1. #1
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    Dec 2014
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    Five year old Brittany .. worth it trying to train?

    Have friends who recently took on a Brittany rescue and they know I hunt waterfowl and mused that they would be okay if I took it out for ducks or upland (I'm not an upland hunter but am interested). It seems pretty well adjusted and has basic training. He does ball retrieves in the water. He is very high energy - they say he NEEDS an hour of exercise a day. He instinctively points. The other part of the equation is that I have no experience in training dogs. I've only dog-sat for friends with dogs. Is it even worthwhile thinking about?

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  3. #2
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    Re: Five year old Brittany .. worth it trying to train?

    I’m no expert on the topic, nor do I claim to be, but I’d say if the dog isn’t gun shy, bring it out with you and see how they perform!

    I’ll caveat that having a high energy dog in the blind can be frustrating for your hunting partners, or even oneself, but if you’re patient, the rewards could be high.
    If it cant be done with one shot, it shouldn't be done.

    "grab large claw hammer - put against butt cheek , pry head out of ass with claws...then go back to school..."

  4. #3
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    Re: Five year old Brittany .. worth it trying to train?

    Yes thanks for the gun conditioning comment. Yes for sure need to put that to the test. I can take it to my range under controlled conditions and see if there is any flinching.

  5. #4
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    Re: Five year old Brittany .. worth it trying to train?

    Quote Originally Posted by silveragent View Post
    Yes thanks for the gun conditioning comment. Yes for sure need to put that to the test. I can take it to my range under controlled conditions and see if there is any flinching.
    Gun conditioning is something that you have to very careful doing. Because if it's done wrong you might not be able ever to correct it. I'm also not an expert on the subject but have seen dogs that haven't been correctly conditioned to a gun and you can't help but feel sorry for the dog. I'm on my 4th lab now, and all of my dogs were trained by the same guy. He doesn't start with a gun, he starts them with a toy cap gun, I'v even read where some trainers start dogs with just a loud clap of the hands. What they do is have the dog healed beside them and then throw a bumper and while the bumper is in mid air they clap and if the dog doesn't have any reaction to the clap and are just focused on the bumper then they send the dog for the retrieve but if the dog reacts adversely to the clap they move back away from the dog, say 5 ft. and then try it again, they keep moving back away from the dog until it doesn't react to the noise. You "slowly" work up to a 12ga. shot gun. Once the dog is conditioned to a shot gun going off beside them they associate the sound of the safety going off as "now the fun is going to start". There lots of info out there for how to start a dog to condition them to gun fire. Good Luck.

  6. #5
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    Re: Five year old Brittany .. worth it trying to train?

    Right. I did read about working the dog up to the gun noise. In the end, it isn't my dog so I don't want to cause him or his owners any harm. From what I've seen and what my friends have said, the dog isn't easily startled.

  7. #6
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    Re: Five year old Brittany .. worth it trying to train?

    I used to upland hunt over a Brittany. It didn't take much training and I didn't really know what I was doing, but she was right on the birds. She really taught me how to do it.

  8. #7
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    Re: Five year old Brittany .. worth it trying to train?

    Sounds like the dog is one from field dog stock. If the owners are able to try and have them investigate the dogs lineage, as doing that will confirm this. With that being said a high energy brittany can rival a pointer in how far it ranges and casts out to find birds. This can be a good thing with a well trained bird dog for upland gamebirds, but a disaster if the dog has not been trained. Also brittany's can be soft dogs, and can shut down if too heavy a hand is applied during training. At this point, I would take it slow with the dog, and do everything in a controlled environment. For instance, if you take it to an off leash park, make sure it is fenced so you have some distance control over the dog. Does the dog respond back to you when called, then that shows the dog has good recall. This is a good thing. Also dogs like this usually enjoy taking part in agility classes/activities.

  9. #8
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    Re: Five year old Brittany .. worth it trying to train?

    The saying "old dogs can't learn new tricks" is true only for people.
    Not for dogs.
    1. Human over population
    2. Government burden and overreach

  10. #9
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    Thumbs down Re: Five year old Brittany .. worth it trying to train?

    OOPS!

    Apologies!

    Mis-read that...

    Cheers
    Last edited by IronNoggin; 03-16-2023 at 02:08 PM.
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    Guess he got to Know me

  11. #10
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    Re: Five year old Brittany .. worth it trying to train?

    Quote Originally Posted by IronNoggin View Post
    Bull$hit.

    I've owned / trained a great many, and the vast majority of them kept on learning right into their old age.

    Some people... Not so much.
    Reread adriaticum’s comment.
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