I’ve run my Brittany in some trials and I’ve hunted her quite a bit. She spent a great summer with a professional trainer and really got to the point she needed to be for one years old. Whoa, steady point, hunting targets, honoring (well that still needs some work) , etc.
She’ll be going back for a second summer of training soon and I’ve some decisions to make on what I want the focus to be. I think she’s brilliant, but there’s only so much we can fit in her head.
Lots of folks want them to heel, be steady to the wing and shot, run big, etc. All those things are great if they fit the purpose for which you own the dog. If you trial, there are skills that are a necessity, if you don’t trial then my opinion is that it’s really up to you how to finish them.
For example, obedience trainers will want to teach a dog to sit. A hunting or trialing dog owner most likely won’t want to teach them to sit because the dog may slide out of a point and into a sitting position. Might not bother you, or might be that you want the dog to sit, but many will think its a bad choice. The point is, its your choice ultimately. My preference was that she NOT learn to sit. It just makes sense to me, how I hunt with her, and the fact that we enjoyed trialing for a while.
For me trialing was an interesting (and fun) experience, but I have three sons in competitive sports and the point of trialing was to give Ruby something to do when she wasn’t hunting with me, I don’t really have time for another child in competitive sports right now. Therefore, I’ll likely stop trialing because, for me, some of the skills she needs to be successful at it aren’t necessarily how I want her to hunt. Hunting is how she and I will spend most of our time.
We tend to hunt just the two of us a lot, in a lot of varied cover and conditions. So steady to the wing and shot, or running big doesn’t always work well and to trial well she needs to do both of those well (at least from my observations.) I’ve seen in the first year that she adapts well to the situation and my choice is going to be to focus on the hunting aspect and how she and I work together.
Now certainly I want her to honor other dogs points, its just good manners. Heeling is going to be useful not only in the field, but also when she’s at home and my wife walks her. The finer points I’m not going to worry about.
There’s an awful lot of opinions on how a dog should act, and all have their merit I’m sure, but remember its YOUR dog and how you want to work with it is really up to you. (That’s really not my original thought, it comes from talking to her trainer and listening to his philosophy.)
I’d say this though; if you have any interest in trialing to start off, you should definitely try it, just make sure you teach your dog the skills that will allow them to be successful at competing. Understand the rules of trialing and the expectations of a dogs behavior in a brace. If after time, you decide not to trial, these skills are still immensely useful, even in day to day life at home.
We had a pretty warm day to hunt and so the dogs got limited action, but all in all it was a nice hunt. Lots of finds and some great work by the dogs – that’s the entire point of going for me – some interesting displays of shooting skills, but that’s pretty much par for the course. I swear that the dogs look back at us and shake their heads sometimes.
