We have a new addition to the family, picked up in Iowa this weekend:
He’s a brittany from Maple River Brittanys in Iowa. He made the 18-hour car trip back to Knoxville without much issue at all. He’s a handful, but a loveable one at that.
His name is Filson. I figure you might as well have the best. 
A loyal friend for life! Congrats, he’s beautiful!
Mike
You can call me Mike & you can call me Mikey…Just remember that this site’s about sharing!
He is absolutely beautiful!! You should be proud. With that look, how do you keep from hugging him all day?!
Warren
Pretty easy, actually. Being a puppy, anything left too close to him for too long will require immediate “explorative biting”. He’s starting to hear the “No Bite!” command and hopefully will be figuring it out sooner rather than later.
He’s a character for sure. I’ve actually taken the rest of the week off hoping to do some fishing, but will likely spend almost all of the time messing with my dog. Notice in the south, “dog” is pronounced with a prominent “AAAW” sound.
A draining instructor I know would recommend to make all 'negative; commands start with the dogs name. Such as, “Filson! NO BITING!”. OR “Filson! DOWN!” I had a state champion lab and this worked well with him. Then, of course, obedience training classes are a must for the sake of the dog. They are much happier when the can please.
Richard Wolter wrote a great book “Gun Dog”. As J.C. says, obedience is crucial with any dog, especially a chipper, happy go lucky Brittany. My three sons and I trained our Brittany, helped another pal with his and two German Shorthairs we had over the years. Even if your not going to hunt Filson, this is a fantastic, easy to understand book that is loaded with useful information. I remember our Brittany, when I would say “Wheres the bird?” She went nuts and started looking for a bird. At 7 months she pointed up a first day of the season double on Pheasant for me. She needed a little help in the retreiving end but it hooked her for life. She lived to be 13 and hunted up to the end. Enjoy your pup!
Now you have a new fishing partner. Great bird dog too, if you hunt. Congratulations!
Eric “nighthawk”
American veteran and proud of it!
That he’ll be a bird dog (or at least a shootin’ dog, as my wife and I are avid clay shooters) goes without saying.
I’d love to take him fishing with me, but have yet to figure out how to go about doing that. The two places I fish most often are the Smoky Mountains and the Clinch River. The Smokies seem to be pretty strict about no dogs on trails. The Clinch might work, but there are tons of people around there and I’d be afraid of someone messing with him while I’m halfway across the river.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
What a coincidence. My manservants name is Filson.
Mark
PS: Nice dog
That is one beautiful Brittany. I’d gladly let him cut into my fishing time.
But it’s worth it!!!
Before
After
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beautiful pooch - about 10-12wks ?
don’t worry about taking him fishing - yet. Other than that, it’ll end up an outing - with rod in hand. But if that doesn’t mind you any - go for it.
I trained my golden to Wolters’ Water Dog book - not 100% to the book, I’m not taking him to field trials, just a field. Anyhow - following the book, and his advice - it worked great. All the hours put in on the dog … I’d do it again.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sra … 520912.jpg
oh yeah, on the fishing side, you might have a problem with him ‘retrieving’ your flies … :roll: that’s what he does - gets what you throw out there
either way - enjoy
actually the first picture was last august and the 2nd picture was taken in april when she was 9 months old…now 13months old or so…she is doing great, but hasn’t been fishing with me yet…
Have a friend in Vermont that has a Brit and if he’s anything like his momma he’ll be a great dog. Never seen this deal before; but, my friend had his first one trained to a fare-thee-well including a bacon flippin’ trick! Now that your curiousity is present;, believe it or don’t, he used to have the dog sit, put a piece of bacon on it’s nose, tell her to wait, wait, wait and then when he said it was okay she would flip that piece of bacon up in the air and catch it for her treat. She was also an amazing bird dog.
My dog Miller does that trick also…she is in the picture above…
What a beautiful dog. I’m in the same boat as you. The puppy seriously cuts down on fishing time, as a matter of fact, I don’t even want to think about it. We just brought one home last weekend, what a handful. And as far as book suggestions, I’ll throw mine out. “The Art of Raising a Puppy” by the Monks of New Skete. These guys raise German Shepards in upstate New York. The book is incredible, going over each major developmental period, and also laying some seriously good groundwork training. They don’t go into training for hunting much, but the groundwork needs to be there before that. I’ve only had dewey for 11 days (hes comming up on 10wks) and we have already nailed come and fetch, and are very close to getting sit. He’s about 50% on the sit command but I think he’ll have it down soon. Best of luck with yours and keep us updated.
