Meet Sherwood
 

Our new Brittany Spaniel puppy. Picked him up Saturday. Here he is with my son, Harry

The Parker is a GH 12 gauge on a 1 frame with cyl/full chokes which should be a good gun for the upland hunting I see coming.

Awesome!!! x2

Double WOW. Beautiful pup Mills. Many happy and memorable years for you and the boys. Good luck

Mills,
That is a beautiful puppy and with all that orange reminds me a lot of my little girl. She will be a joy to your entire family but especially to the boys.

That is awesome, congrats Mills !!!!

Your son's expression says it all. Have fun!

Thanks for all the kind comments!

Harry and Sherwood went to the grandparents to spend a day. I just got off the phone with my mom and the day has turned into two days! Dognapped!

Mills,

What a pup! Looks like Harry is already a dedicated Brush Worn...

Congratulations, Mills an family! I believe the days with my first Brit were some of my most fun times.

Congrat's great looking pup

Mills,
Nothing's better than boys growing up with dogs! I was about Harry's age when I got my first puppy (a setter), about 64 years ago. For the past 44 years we've had Brittanys and like a Parker, life is better with more than one. Sherwood's a real good looking pup, I know your family will have fun with him.
Hal

He had a brother and everyone (except my wife) is saying we should have bought both.

I had two male setters several years ago that were littermates. I won't do that again. We lost both of them within a couple months. That was too tough to go through. It put a real funk on my bird hunting for a couple years. I have my setters staggered about three years apart now.

Btw if plan to hunt him only as bird dog and not in blind then Sherwood is a fun name since most don't train em to those commands for that type hunting. If you work in sit and stay command for family dog and retriever work in a blind then a name beginning with S is not ideal since dogs typically only hear first part of a word. Teach a lab or most dogs to sit and stay proper and all you have to use is first to letters and most will do the command. ST and SH are to close and can be confusing.

It maybe to late but just be cognizant of it. If you teach sit and stay and then call his name he may get confused, especially if you use his name to send him. Maybe you can morph his name into Woodie. That is good South Georgia duck dog name.

BTW have seen the mistake made with Brittany we had named Suzie. Great bird dog and very smart but then we thought we could teach her to retrieve only and she showed signs of it and want to do it but we messed it up. It was frustrating until our friend and Vet that was a duck hunter and had labs told us our mistake. After that when we took her quail and grouse hunting we almost could not use her name because she would stop and just stare at us looking confused. I swear if dogs could talk she would have this crooked look and head twist with an almost angry brow scorn look saying "What do you want me to do" .

Thanks for the advice. It may be too late as the women like the name

There is that. Maybe you can tactfully explain that Sherwood is his proper name but you need to shorten it for simplicity to Woodie. Worth a try. But if you start having trouble then you will at least know why.. There are work arounds like instead of using name to send use Go. High on or hunt on are great release commands. I have a Springer that is very obedient family dog only but say the high on command and he will bust a gut to go about his business. Which is another problem. If walking him at heel and even see someone and say Hi, that is his understood que and will dash off toe nails clicking.

Mills,
TroutSetter"s correct, two the same age or from the same litter can be a problem. 'Bin there, done that.' (They'll bond to each other & get into trouble together. My 2 got out & went on a joy run together. Only one came back.) Get the first pup BONDED to your family (esp. your wife), then in 2 to 4 years bring in another, (a pup, not a wife). An older huntin' dog can really help with training a second pup.
The book "Gun Dog" by Richard Wolters, is a great book to go through with your sons & family. It will help your sons understand & be a part of the training of a pointing dog. Now's the time to start with the wing on the string.
Hal

If we get another, it will be a lab and that is no time soon. I will order gun dog. Thanks for the suggestion. Any good DVD training video suggestions are appreciated too

Gun Dog is loaded w/pictures that the boys will understand. I think a CD was made of it, after Wolter's death. Ebay is a good place to look for both. Also, Google 'Richards A. Wolters, quite a man with many interests. Working with hunting dogs, he was a good friend of Gene Hill.
I'm 73, and re-read Gun Dog every time I start with a new pup.
By the way, crate training is important with all hunting dogs & should be done! However, sleeping with the boys will do no harm to the boys or the pup. Being a Brit. it will help with both the house & hunting conditioning.
Following with a Lab. someday is also a fine idea. At that time I'd suggest, Water Dog, also by Wolters.
Best of luck to you. Hope we can meet at a PGCA function someday.
Hal

Mills,

George Hickox has really good training videos on DVD, if you aren't already familiar with them. You can get a copy from Gun Dog Supply.

https://www.gundogsupply.com/gehitrpododv.html

Thanks guys! I just order the George Hickox video as well as Gun Dog!

Hope to see you at PGCA function too, Sheepherder. As a matter of fact, I hope to see all of you at the PGCA annual meeting in September!

Mills, awesome looking pup. Reminds me of my Brittainy Hank who just turned one. IMHO Britts have enough get up and go but no so much to get up and be gone. Good luck with training.

Mills,

Woltors wrote three of them and they have some of the same components along animal psychology, but training a gun dog is different than a retriever, water dog. In addition to Gun Dog he wrote Water Dog and Family Dog. Great reads and more like manuals to refer back to. I think in Water Dog he even mentions staying away from S named dogs. Learned that one the hard way though.

Good luck and have fun.

There may well be something better than a birddog pup, but it would be a damned short list. The boy and the pup will learn a lot about many things together.

Congrats Mills, Just imagine all the fun and memories about to fill that young mans life. Pups are the best. :)

Not to be argumentative Todd but I've trained my last 4 retrievers (Labs) to be gun dogs. My male might not have the grace of a setter on point but he can, and often does, go from retrieving ducks in the morning then working upland birds in the afternoon and doing it with a purpose that produces birds in the bag. He's got great style and he is my meat dog.

Mills, Great looking pup. Do yourself a favor and train him to respond to a whistle. All those books mentioned are great resources but concentrate on obedience first then if he has good genetics put him on birds, plenty of birds. He'll figure it out in no time.

Already have a friend who owns a bunch of bird dogs offer to help training. Things are coming along

More photos

Great pics! Oh man, those two are going to be as thick as thieves! :)

What Daryl said........! I had Britts years ago. Good luck, Mills!!

Its a valid point you make and don't believe you are being argumentative at all. Some breeds like lab and Brittanies are great crossover dogs. Believe you and I talked about this and pointing labs once before and how utilitarian they can be. Are labs the best on upland compared to setter or brittany, no; but because they like to please and have drive and maybe a nose they can be decent and some will even hold a point for a bit. Is setter good as water dog, no not when its cold water, but have knocked down a few ducks on some ponds and had a setter that was a dang good swimmer that would go get em with some coaxing. Are Brittanies good retrievers, can be and they can take cold water better than setter but not as good as a lab.

Labs are also good in colder upland game climates. Living in SE it is tough to have a lab to hunt quail or even for put out pheasants. That fat layer around them can really work on em in the heat and it puts too much strain on them in our climate. I will say this though what I like about Brittanies and labs is that they will tend to hunt close to you than some setters and most pointers.

Actually in Mills case if all he could have is one dog to potentially do it all in the SE, Brittany is definitely the best all round choice. If he takes to retrieving just get him a camo vest for flotation and little extra warmth and you'll be in goof shape. Duck hunt in the morning and quail hunt in the afternoon.

Mills, I think any parent wanting a young child to grow up embracing the Sporting Life would do well to pay very close attention to how you and Julia are raising those boys. Might make a good recurring column in Parker Pages.

True about what Mike said. One of my favorite reads is short stories from Ruarks Old Man and the Boy. Your kids on that path.

Thank you Mike for the kind words

Sunday morning pictures

OfSweet I never owned a Brit but have friends with them. They are great pets and hunting dogs. Enjoy him to the fullest.

Keeping me company today.

Puppy breath, nothing like it.

Sherwood is growing like a weed. I am amazed at how their size expands so fast. God's hand at work for sure.

Brittanies make a great lap dogs:rotf:

Actually that is just mild sarcasm. My first lab that I trained from our litter started as a lap dog. He loved it so much even when full grown and 80+ lbs he still considered himself a lap dog that would not be denied. If I fell asleep on the couch, that was his cue to get lap time. My mom would get so mad at us she made us both sleep on the floor. It was worth it.

I am bad. Currently have only a 50 lb Springer that is lap dog, it is a bit easier to handle. Not certain were origins of the word dog come from but it is more than a coincidence that is essentially God spelled in reverse.

He decided to start barking in the middle of the night last night. My wife got so worried, she made me go check on him.