Gun Dog Forum

This one has lots of very soft fine fur, so unlike my shorthair, she picks up Burrs very well. The barrel shaped ones are very common around here. What is the best solution ? Should I get her a vest or something to cover up ? Trim real short ? She doesn't seem to care but I figure eventually when they are matted all up and filthy some bad health issue will happen.

Another issue is this dog isn't at all open to the idea of going into the water. My shorthair is the opposite, couldn't keep her out of it...This is Oregon so there is a LOT of streams and such where I hunt, she will have to cross eventually or be left behind...I just can't see carrying a dog across water. Plus when she is dirty I'd like to just give her a bath by throwing toy in the lake, that is the only bath my shorthair has had in years...

Training her to come is working very well, when we go hiking I " hide " from her and then blow the whistle. She is finding me faster every day, and she knows she has done a " good behavior " when she discovers me hiding.

if you have no idea of showing her i would just trim the fine coat back...

cockleburrs when you go out try spraying a light coat of some show sheen on her that can help to get the burrs out easier

my britts have the denser coarser field type coats it helps not gather as much debris over the fine showy coats

For the water thing. Go sit on the other side of hte stream with some treats or something. Say nothing jsut sit there and take a nap if need be. She will be by your side sooner or later. If you have a friend with another dog that does not mind water bring them along also.

There are still a few Brits around with the heavy curly type coat that grabs every burr in the county but most are being bred with a lot less coat, shorter, smoother, and less feathering than they had when they were brought from France. When you look at the Brittany standard you will see those points have been addressed for years and most have worked hard at getting a shorter coat. If the dogs are going to be strictly hunted you could clip most of the underside of the dog and the feathering. You could even shorten the rest of the coat but I have never found that necessary. I do keep the area behind the ears and the tail short though. I many times took our dogs from the field into the showring and had a lot of success doing that but I didn't clip them down when we were doing that. Just kept them shorten up and neat. I would suggest this over trying to put sometype of shield to protect them. And the Show Sheen or several simular type products help also.

Ezzy

You know I was actually pretty surpirse when watching the old footage of the brittanys back in the 30's and 40's on you tube

they look a like the field brittanys of today lack of excessive coats

it just seems that there was a span of time and there are judges that keep putting up the long coated britts with hackney gaits..i watched it over in Cal at the big cluster last year there are still a good handful that if you allow those judges to get putting up those that are not a true rep of the field we will have miniature looking Show setters with short tails

but the trend is headed back to the coarser field coat more so in the mid west area ...i notice the pro DC people have certain trials they prefer to show at then others or they also wait for the judge list to come out before thy decide what dog to show where

Sorry for the slight side track

but back on track

places i would shave down the most though is the under arm area that is the hardest area to get burs out of cause the coat is from all different directions for the cockle burrs to hang up on

Burrs in coat has been covered, clip it or spray some slick coating on prior to hunt. Yeah, they are a pain but it is just part of the breed. I clip my Brit and comb out whatever burrs she has after each hunt.

Water aversion - I took mine for walks that included crossing shallow streams early in her life with me. I then progressed to wading in a lake while walking her. That led to swimming and calling to her.

Basically, I made certain she wanted to be with me, then made certain that she sometimes had to go into the water to be with me.

Now she won't hesitate to go into the water and even seems to enjoy it. The last day I hunted her it was 75 degrees. I took her down by a pond 3 or 4 times during the hunt. Each time she went in, swam a small circle, came out, shook off and continued to hunt.

BTW, I take none of the credit for knowing the above. I followed Spencer's book "Point!" and spent a lot of time with my dog. I probably got really lucky too!

Good luck!

my Britt has short hair, I've seen other Britts around the neighborhood and they've all got long coats and long feathering off the legs.

I've been wondering why that was, also notice mine is really leggy compaired to others..friends were calling her "legs"



I need to get an up to date picture on here, see what you all think