French Brittany pup help needed

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Brystons90
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French Brittany pup help needed

Post by Brystons90 » Sun May 03, 2020 2:53 pm

Aloha! I have a 9 week old Brittany that I’m having some trouble with. I’m not sure how to tire her out. I was told not to play tug of war with her. I tried to throw ball with her but after a few times she stops chasing the ball and I don’t want her to lose interest in fetching. Whenever I go for walks with her she wants to take off but I have no way of controlling her off leash. Also what type of training should I be focusing on at this age? Any advice is appreciated!

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Dakotazeb
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Re: French Brittany pup help needed

Post by Dakotazeb » Sun May 03, 2020 5:39 pm

I think you are expecting a whole lot more than you should out of a 9 week old pup. At this age the only training you should be doing is teaching the dog her name and basic commands like Come, Heel, etc. You should not even be thinking about "off leash" work. She's a very young pup. Play with her and have some fun. Serious training will come much later.
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birddogger2
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Re: French Brittany pup help needed

Post by birddogger2 » Sun May 03, 2020 7:35 pm

First things first...Congratulations on the new pup. Brittanys are fun dogs.

If you want the puppy to run around unfettered, you need to find a safe place to let it run. Your pup is VERY young and quite probably has not had its final shots, so anywhere you take the dog outside of your own yard, it should not be where other dogs or cats are... or have been.

Understand that a Brittany is a pointing breed dog. ALL pointing breed dogs have a certain degree of independence in their makeup because it is their function in life to seek game. They are driven by genetics to seek and to search. Instead of trying to limit that seek and search desire, you should be working WITH it, molding it, bending that desire to your needs and making sure that the dog knows that you are where the fun is at.

If you take your youngster someplace where the grass is 8-10" high, the puppy will tire out fairly quickly...for now. Of course, as the dog grows, that kind of cover will become less and less of an obstacle, first because the dog will have longer legs and second because the more a dog runs, the stronger it gets and the more and the longer it is able to run.

It ain't how far the dog runs FROM you that matters. What truly matters is whether or not the dog comes back for you. If the puppy runs out away from you, turn and walk slowly and quietly in another direction. I bet your pup will come back in, PDQ. When it does,, stop, give the pup lots of love and send it on its way.

Make friends with your youngster and make sure it knows that, when it is near you, good things will happen. If a dogs WANTS to be with you...it will.

One last thing...a puppy at that age has the attention span of a gnat. Their little brains are soaking up so much stuff that it is unbelievable. Remember that everything,to them is a sensory experience, and the sight of a moth or the scent of a bug can be a completely new experience. They can get distracted by darn near anything, just about anytime.

Don't overthink this stuff...just enjoy your puppy being a puppy. It goes away far too soon.

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NEhomer
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Re: French Brittany pup help needed

Post by NEhomer » Mon May 04, 2020 5:31 am

The very first thing I'd do is get a check cord. I found some 1/4" nylon rope that had 1/8" steel cable in the middle of it. It made a fantastic check cord for real cheap...the pup could do figure 8s around chair legs and it won't tangle. About a 10 footer would be ideal for a 9 week old.

It will help you catch and control the little imp!

Good luck!

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Re: French Brittany pup help needed

Post by averageguy » Mon May 04, 2020 6:55 am

Good advice already given. A pup that age tires quickly.

I run my pups in places where they can go considerable distances in numerous directions without being in unreasonable danger. (can't remove all risk anywhere). WMAs where there are not nesting birds, hay meadows, pastures with no livestock present are 3 such areas I use.

For my current pup I used a 1/4 inch with a small snap 20 foot long check cord I purchased from the company in the link below. The material and quality is very nice. Light, resistant to tangles, slides through the cover easily. I buy them with no loop on the end. I let the pup drag it everywhere when outside. For awhile I can catch up and get my foot on it when I need to. After that, I train a good recall, and have the pup wearing a mini Garmin GPS/Ecollar so I know where it is when not in sight.

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fishvik
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Re: French Brittany pup help needed

Post by fishvik » Mon May 04, 2020 10:54 am

When you take your pup out to an open area to run, hook up a 25' check cord to them and let the drag it. It will help to tire them out and also give you a better chance of grabbing them.

Brystons90
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Re: French Brittany pup help needed

Post by Brystons90 » Mon May 04, 2020 12:57 pm

So much awesome advice thank you guys very much!

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Re: French Brittany pup help needed

Post by Brystons90 » Mon May 04, 2020 8:11 pm

Do you guys have a favorite book or DVD that you’d recommend? I bought Goerge Hickok “training pointing dogs” dvd and I got some good tii hi mags out of it but it seems, I don’t know, a little “incomplete”? It’s a pretty old DVD so the quality might not be as good as some newer dvds today. Any recommendations?

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Re: French Brittany pup help needed

Post by setterpoint » Fri May 08, 2020 12:51 pm

puppy loss interest fast, throw the ball once and quit leave the pup wanting more dont over do it
when you let your pup off leash you say it takes off on you,thats good to a point, change the direction you were going and call your pup by name
a 9 week old pup pup will turn and go with you , your teaching your pup to go with you thats what you want a dog to do
all training should be fun the pups not mature enough for formal training its still building trust so let the pup explore some this will build confidence

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Sharon
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Re: French Brittany pup help needed

Post by Sharon » Fri May 08, 2020 1:56 pm

Brystons90 wrote:
Mon May 04, 2020 8:11 pm
Do you guys have a favorite book or DVD that you’d recommend? I bought Goerge Hickok “training pointing dogs” dvd and I got some good tii hi mags out of it but it seems, I don’t know, a little “incomplete”? It’s a pretty old DVD so the quality might not be as good as some newer dvds today. Any recommendations?
Have a look at "Perfect Start.Perfect Finish"

https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Perf ... e&ie=UTF-8

also see this post:

Re: WTB Perfect Start, Perfect Finish DVDs by Craw

post by averageguy » Fri May 08, 2020 6:50 am

Craw:
You can buy them all here.
There are new ones coming out in the very near term which break a lot of what is in the Perfect Start DVD into distinct segments and adds more details e.g. Perfect Here, Perfect Bird Introduction, Perfect Gun Acclimation, Perfect Whoa. Jon says all that is contained in the Perfect Start DVD still applies, but he is adding more details in these newer editions.

https://www.perfectionkennel.com/order-dvds.html
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oldbeek
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Re: French Brittany pup help needed

Post by oldbeek » Thu May 21, 2020 11:05 pm

Perfection kennels is on facebook every day during this virus. 12:00 central time zone. Some of the back videos are still up on their site. look them up. FREE ! check cord,,, Permatack.com little expensive but worth it. Perfection kennels uses them. flexible and glides through the grass. Perfect start / perfect finish is good but they have later stuff on Vinemo for sale. I bought my perfect start/ finish on this site buy and sell $80.00. 8 to 12 weeks, Bonding only. No forcing at all.

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