J&A's Brittanys - Revere's First Week

Revere sitting next to me on the porch step.

It's been a whirlwind of a week here for a multitude of reasons and one of those reasons goes by the name of Revere.  Also known as puppy puppy PUPP-EEEEEEEE!! He's a good pup and very smart. I do think that the honeymoon of perfection is about to morph into the reality of day to day life. That's not a bad thing. It shows that our relationship truly is bonding, solidifying while Revere's understanding and exposure of the world is expanding. Thanks to the ongoing correspondence between the majority of our puppy people from Holly and also Toph's litters I am persuaded that we're all on the same page. As long as Revere doesn't jump up and literally rip a page out of what I happen to be reading! He's quite the imp and I must confess his appearance of complete innocence regarding life in general almost fooled me.  Revere cracks me up and he makes me smile.  A good part of the time I simply stand  back and observe this 9 week old Brittany puppy as he explores and tries to figure everything out. He's just so cool!

Just for fun or, preview of coming attractions?! 

This past weekend was the Central Maine Brittany Club's fall field trial.  John judged on Saturday and then ran Holly on Sunday. Julie came to stay with us which is always enjoyable although we didn't get much time to visit there was so much going on. I'm proud to say that Holly Beth earned her 4th adult gundog placement which is awesome considering not too long ago she was a full time momma dog.  She won 4th place out of 18, not too shabby!  True, sire of Toph's pups earned a placement in Walking Hunting Dog handled by grandson Ayden.  Charlie, who we kept from the two dogs returned to us last fall and just love to pieces, had a try at Walking Hunting Dog too with Alana handling. Hemi and Revere also were at the trial just for the fun of being there. I shared some of the other photos on Facebook.

Sokka, Revere, Franklin were good good puppies at the trial!

Two of Revere's littermates and brothers came to the trial too.  I had my x-pen set up and all three of the pups enjoyed playing together in it all day. Reunited again for the day were Revere, Sokka, and Franklin. All three of these boys will probably be trained together as far as going to the bird field goes. I know that Franklin begins puppy classes this week. On a very informal basis I am working with Revere here at home.  He has gone from picking up a wing and sometimes bringing it to me, to proudly walking around the yard head held high with a gamebird in his mouth. To me, this is an important part of early introduction to birds.  Not every adult dog is happy to pick up a bird that has been shot, they may not like the feather in their mouth believe it or not.  Another reason an adult dog may back away from picking up the bird is if when they were very young a planted bird took flight or was launched very close to them. My thinking is that if we start right off with lots of excitement about fetching the bird when pup-pup is young a positive foundation is laid.  I don't grab the bird out of his mouth either at this mouth at this point either. Instead, I let Revere own that bird and in doing so, I learn more about my puppy. When I start right off with text book training or using methods that have worked for every other dog up until now then I quite possibly could be setting Revere up to fail!  We have all the time in the world to get this right. Take a look at this Mike Gaddis quote again

“The desire in an exceptional pup is like a rare young wine, kegged from a proven vineyard. 

Nurture it slowly to perfection and it will pleasure the years. 

Tap it prematurely, and you will squander it’s bouquet in infancy”.

The "proven vineyard" is found through  my knowledge of the inherent abilities in the genetics that Revere possesses. His great-grandmother Pippin surprised me the other day when she found and delivered to my hand a quail at the exact moment I was doing some yard work with Revere. (Later we found out something  had ripped wire off the quail pen in an attempt to have supper!) So I did seize this incident as a teaching moment.  I'd been throwing a rope toy to Revere and he was enthusiastically running back to me with it.  I tossed the quail in the same manner and sure enough, he was happy to run towards me with it which was just amazing to me.  Instead of reaching to take it away and risk a premature mistake I wondered if I could see what kind of prey drive he had when it came to the real thing. He did not disappoint! At one point grandmother Treasure had picked up the quail and walked over to Revere with it letting him take it from her. He did bring it right to my hand when that happened!  Later on after the bird had been properly taken care of Revere actively was tracking scent that lingered behind. A similar situation took place today with a chukar and Revere's desire was even stronger.  So we truly are off to an impressive start. 

John has more than a few projects going on that need to get completed before winter.  The sooner the better! He worked on one of them today inside the house.  This meant Revere was exposed to the loud noises and sounds that various power tools make.  I wondered how he'd react to it all as he had been sleeping in the x-pen nearby. Revere did wake up abruptly and was a bit startled of course. He did react by walking in the direction of the noise and watching to see where it came from.   Revere didn't freak out, withdraw, or act afraid. When pups leave here they are practically bombproof.  I calmly filled his dish with puppy food, added a bit of chicken to it then set it down in the x-pen for him. The noises continued and Revere just kept on enjoying his food like a good, good pup-pup. 

Tonight was a good night and a special night as far as Revere goes. Usually when he has finished playing hard he'll get very antsy and quite bitey too. It's almost like he just doesn't know what to do with himself.  At this point in the day I stuff a Kong toy with something good like cheese or peanut butter and put him in his crate.  Revere loves his crate and does not complain at all, it's where he goes to relax and fall asleep. Instead, tonight I kept him in my lap and massaged his neck and ears in between his attempts to mouth my hands.  It relaxed him to the point where he simply lay back in my arms and fell asleep.  This was a first and I just loved the fact that he did it. I do have a picture on my phone of him asleep in my arms.  It's very cute but at the moment Pippin is letting me know it is time to go to bed. Sorry Pippin, you're right!  It's after midnight.  Take care, God bless and thank you for your interest in All Things Brittany!