Brittany

Brittany is a very athletic dog with excellent game scenting ability and it is generally used for bird hunting. This breed of dogs was originally known as "the Brittany Spaniel,” but the American Kennel Club got it changed to "the American Brittany." They are known to have come into existence around the 1800s in the Brittany province of France.

The Brittany is a very solidly built dog. Since it is compact and light, it is more agile. In fact, this is one of its main advantages- its smaller size enables it to go where others fear to tread. It can be trained easily to hunt in sync with a Hawk too. Because a well trained Brittany can guide a Hawk to the prey and also point and stay still for further commands.

The Brittanies come in various colours like orange and white, liver and white, orange and roan, as well as liver and roan coats. There are some rare cases of tri-colour coats of liver, orange and white too. They were originally bred as hunting dogs were very easy to train hence they were excellent working dogs in the field.

They are also sensitive and sweet-natured and tend to be excellent family pets at the same time. They also retain a puppy - like quality in their personality and are gentle, clownish in nature. Hence quite often, they do make as good family pets. As a whole breed of dogs, they are very active and need lots of exercise on a daily basis. Lots of running around and open fields is what they love. City dwellers will have to walk or run the dog daily for long distances to try to satisfy the needs of most Brittanies. They sometimes do act crazy or uncontrollable, but this is mainly because of the lack of exercise and training. Although it’s not common in dogs that are well taken care of, Brittanies have a tendency to become destructive and misbehave. They make a good house pet as long as the exercise and socialization with other dogs is part of a daily routine.

Brittanies are mainly categorised as "American" Brittanies and "French" style Brittanies around the world. There has been a difference of opinion between the differentiating of the dogs based on the American and French counterparts. Although the same breed, the French counterparts of the Brittanies have been genetically programmed to hunt and work while adapting to the terrain of the field and woods, and remain calm when gunshots are fired at the birds. They serve as basic point and retrieve dogs.

Brittanies stay very healthy compared to the other breeds. Their long floppy ears trap in quite a bit of moisture content and need the ears to be cleaned regularly. The life span of a Brittany is of 14-15 years in general. The owners of Britannies that are affected with any sort of epilepsy or hip dysplasia are encouraged to submit the DNA’s to UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Lab. This will only help their ongoing research on the health of Brittanies and other canines.