Working Brittany Dogs Page 3.

signals pointing the direction we are going keeeping the dog in front of me at all times, stopping when he

does if need be. Eventually he will learn the command to change direction in time with patience and

correct instruction. All of this is done on a pilot line so you have control of him. If you have to check the dog

at any time, then do it at the same time you give the verbal command to change direction.

Quartering Patterns should be a 'forward' running figure 8 not a backwards figure 8. If the dog is turning

into you when turning to go back across the field to make his figure eight, that is wrong and inefficient as

he is covering ground he already hunted. We want the dog turning forward, out and away from the handler

when making his figure eight. Be sure to do enough quartering repetitions so that he becomes conditioned

to working this pattern.

Pointing

Pointing is so strongly bred into HPRs that you can see it in young pups when they are playing

with each other. I have puppies point pheasant wings and dizzied pigeons at 6 weeks of age but this

is only sight pointing they have’nt learnt about scent yet this can be devloped as the pup gets older

with taking him into an area with pleanty of game if you have a shortage of birds on your training

land you could use quail or pigeons placed out in cover for the dog to find whilst quartering. But

the best training aid in the world is a well trained dog for your puppy to copy off.

Working cover

Brittany dogs will work cover with pleanty of encouragement from the handler but as they are a

very intelegent dog they wont do it willingly if there is no scent.

The main thing that you should think about when training a Brittany is dont rush things and be firm

but fair with the young dog, some dogs are quicker to learn than others, and dont try and do to many

stages of training at the same time.