These are the qualities we strive for in our Brittany breeding plan.

1- Temperment. Brittanies are famous for their calm demeanor and soft nature. As a father of 6 small children this has always been an important quality for me in any hunting dog I have owned. The Brittany dog should love people and be well mannered around children and other animals. Many hunting dogs I have been around seem to be aloof or careless around people while the Brittany seems to thrive on human contact. Our Annie and Buster exemplify this trait and are always gentle and friendly with my kids.

2- A Good Nose. The first quality that stood out with our first Brittany “Annie” was her great sense of smell. Even as a small puppy she was constantly finding stinky smelly things and bringing them back to me. If she ever ventured far as a pup she would be following her nose to a bird or critter, dead or alive. As a bird dog this good nose translated into an excellent hunting dog for chukar, pheasant, grouse and quail. We breed for this trait and expect our pups to have a good nose like their parentage.

3- Natural Retrieve. The retrieving instinct is quite natural in most versatile hunting dogs. Our Brittany dogs have a soft mouth and consistent natural retrieve and we strive to breed for this trait. While force-fetch training may be necessary or wanted for a field trial or competition dog. A natural retrieve is best with a hunting dog and family companion. This natural retrieve can be nurtured by lots of praise and letting them hold the bird for a minute before giving the release command. Annie was always bringing objects to us as a pup and loved carrying things in her mouth.

4- Solid Point. Nothing is more magnificent than a bird dog on point, quivering with the anticipation of the flush. A staunch point is important for hunting and for competition. We strive to break our dogs to be steady to wing and shot. Holding that solid point is critical when hunting the covey birds when you never know if there is another single around the next bush. We train our dogs on both wild and penned birds to encourage a solid point. Annie pointed naturally at an early age and it was clear that the pointing instincts were strong.

5- Bird Drive. Bird drive is very important in a versatile hunting dog. You just can’t have a good bird dog without lots of exposure to gamebirds. We breed for this strong bird/prey drive and cultivate it from their first weeks of life. We use a combination of pigeons, quail, chukar partridge and pheasants in our training program to encourage their natural bird drive. Annie and Lizzy are both bird-crazy dogs and love nothing more than bird hunting.

6- Color or Visibility. Some might call this conformation but what we are really looking for is a dog that stands out. The country around here is big and open and hunting wild chukar can stretch a dog nearly out of sight. We breed for a mostly white coat to help with visibility. White and liver and white and orange color combinations can be expected from our breeding stock. Darker dogs tend to blend in with the shadows and almost disappear in the prime hunting hours. This is not a big deal for most people but we like the mostly white coat best.

7- Range and Stamina. With lots of ground to cover we lean towards the high side of the brittany standard when it comes to height. Longs legs help a bird dog to cover more ground in a shorter period of time. We expect our dogs to be out all day long in the desert southwest where we hunt and train gun dogs. Range and stamina are important for enjoying a big day in the field or a weekend in competitions. A gun dog that is in proper physical condition should be able to hunt all day.

8- Trainability. The Brittany by nature is eager to please his master and is highly trainable. This makes for a gun dog that is quite easily trained and often in a short period of time. Training sessions should be shorter with young dogs and always end on a positive note. As the dog reaches the age of one year old he is often ready to handle heavier training and become broke to wing and shot. Annie was a joy to train and often made us feel like we were expert bird dog trainers. She seemed to know what we wanted and often did it without being asked/trained.