teresaserrano

My Tess does that. Or would if I let her.

That must be so incredibly boring... just the other day I asked my butcher to mince together a pound of liver, two pork hearts and a pound of beef, to make dog treats. I can ask for an organic chicken or a duck and have him cut off legs, wings and breasts for me and the carcass is for the dogs. There are so many more options at a butcher.

Replying to the OP, i just go to the butcher's where I buy my own meat. My dogs eat kibble but often have a raw meal. I give them half a chicken, chicken and duck frames, turquey necks and wings, cow ribs (I ask for a whole rib, have half the meat trimmed and minced for me to make burgers, and the rest of the meat on the bone is a meal for a dog), etc. But I get the feeling there aren't butchers in the USA, as so many americans seem to have trouble buying raw for their dogs. Do you people buy all your meat in the supermarket, prepacked?

Beautifull dogs. Wren is the brown one, right? she still looks like she could have some bc in there.

My dogs favorite toy is the one I have in my hand. Every. Single. Time.

Mals are the ultimate canine athlets. I do frisbee with Tess and have seen many mals playing frisbee. The diference in styles is abissal. She always waits till the disc is at a reasonable distance from the ground to catch it. All the mals I've seen think the way to do it is jump 8 feet in the air to catch the dam thing high up there.

I'm a cross over trainer (of my own dogs, not a professional). I spent 8 years training at a very tradicional, kind of military place. I learned a lot there, as I learned a lot on the many seminars and workshops I took and the 40+ books about dog behaviour and training I bought, and of course, forums like this one. I learned enough to realize that, although I never hurted or abused my dogs, there where better ways to train. I changed trainers as I realized fully that having/training a dog isn't all about what I need from him, it's equally about what he needs from me. It's a partnership, not a leader/follower thing. The dog needs to learn how to navigate this human world and meet my expectations, and I need to learn him, to understand what he's telling me in every circumstance, to protect and encourage him and to give him a happy fulfilled life. A happy fulfilled dog's life. My current trainer told me once: you know, Tess is a happy dog who loves to work, but you will really see the diference in your next dog, that's trained positively from the start. And now that I have Josh I do see it, she likes to work with me but he absolutely loooves it, not having known from me nothing but laughter and happiness (and yes, he's silly bordering on an asshole sometimes and he is corrected, but not in a negative way, if that makes sense. As in, he quicly learned he had to sit before being unleashed, and wait for the release cue to go run and explore. After a few weeks of course he decided he didn't want to sit. So I unleashed Tess, told her to go play and waited. And waited. And waited some more. After at least 4 miinutes he sat. Huge praise, I unleashed him and told him to go play. Problem solved..

Not a bc, but I thought it would be nice to update on Josh the Britanny, who joined us 5 monts ago today. From a fearfull pancake glued to the ground and afraid of everything he has blossomed into a happy, lively, energetic wonderfull dog. He's still slightly uneasy about strangers but has gone from running as far from them as the leash would allow and cowering to taking a small step back and snifing the air after people pass us. When off leash he ignores people and dogs, but shows no fear as he can keep the distance he wants from them. He's remarkably athletic and physically fearless. I'm constantly introducing new surfaces, objects, etc. to him. It now takes him from a few seconds to a minute to climb/jump on something new, and he shows no fear, just is a bit uncertain at first. He loves to train and is very smart and a fast learner. He's an absolute joy. Tess and him love each other and she's a fantastic big sister, he learns a lot from her. I feel very lucky to have him in my life. Last week we went on a walk for the dogs in the municipal shelter he came from. In this pic, right at the begining, you can see he was a bit stressed with so many people and dogs. This is ten minutes later, he has relaxed a lot and was begining to enjoy himself. Half way through the walk, he was all about playing and having fun. This is the life

Does she video herself working him? it might be something about her body position or her timing reward that she's not aware of. Just a thought.

At 10 mo she may be aproaching her first season, which does bring on many hormonal changes. My Tess is not that good with some other dogs, but during season she was much much more reactive, and then it took her a couple of months to go back to normal (one of the reasons I spayed her). Even if she isn't coming into season, she's growing up. With Tess, as a pup she liked most other dogs but as she grew she became more and more selective and gets "offended" very easily. I would limit her interaction with other dogs for now and see if it's her season coming. As she grows, it might be that she grows less tolerant of other dogs, and there's nothing much wrong with that. I know my Tess will never ever be dog park material, but she does have many friends with whom she plays well. I'm just carefull with whom she interacts.

I missed the banjo video the first time around. It rocks

That's so sad. I loved his posts, would have loved to have met him.

My mind isn't at it's quickest at the moment, so I find I have something else to add . My Tess is people selective and will show teeth if some random stranger wants to pet her out of the blue. I'm always carefull with her and strangers, specially children. But she's also the perfect dog for kids who are afraid of dogs, as they won't crowd her and want to hug her the moment they meet her. She's very interactive with people so she'll go get a toy and sit in front of them, clearly asking for them to grab it and throw it. Even a fearfull kid can't resist that look for long. The same way she likes people to respect her space, she's also very respectfull of their space. No jumping on them, no trying to snatch the toy from their hands, no nipping at their clothes. Fearfull kids are soon playing with her and soon after petting her, which she accepts beautifully because they're by now play friends. Just to say that I wouldn't worry much about a bc and your future kids, as long as you teach both dog and kids proper ways to interact, it should not be a problem. What I find about bc's is that as long as you teach them, they learn easily what is expected. But you do need to teach them. They're usually very not like those easy going happy go lucky dogs that are always great with everything that comes their way. They excell at learning though. More that that, they NEED it to be happy. They have an absolute need to be always learning. If you don't provide that, they will learn things you probably won't like.

Just to add I second the rescue an adult dog idea. My brittany is around a year old and has been with me for about 6 weeks. I can't describe how absolutely wonderfull he is. I am completely and utterly in love with him. They don't need to be young pups for the bond to develop or for the training to be successfull. I've always had pups but was thinking for some time that I would like to try having an adult rescue. He wasn't planned but it's working very very well and I don't think I'll ever have a pup again.

I live in an apartement with 2 dogs (1 bc, 1 britanny) and it works just fine. Tess is always ready to go do some fun stuff but at home she is calm and relaxed. I live in Portugal which has a warm climate and she copes well with the heat. But like Flora said, a bc isn't just a dog, it's an hobby, which means they do take a lot of our time. A good amount of exercise is needed, yes, and lots of mental stimulation, but most of all they need to be a huge part of their person's life, they want to be involved with everything. Tess loves to put the landry in the washer, go get my slippers or put her toys away in the toy box almost as much as she loves playing frisbee, fetch, tug, swimming, playing hide and seek or doing a bit of for fun mantrailing. I have done dockdiving with her, teach her many tricks and of course have worked on obedience training all her life. Bc's are absolutely the best, but they're not for everyone. They have quirks, can get obssessed easily with this and that, can be super sensitive to sound and movement, often don't much like other dogs and can be wary of strangers, including children. That said, they can also be trained to do almost anything/behave in almost any way, so as long as you know you can put in the work needed, they turn into absolutely marvelous dogs. Some people think that because they are smart they are easy, but it's the other way around. Because they are so smart, they can be hard work. They're worth it though.