Trying to decide if I want to start a new hunting dog. (Not my dog in photo, one of Dave’s other Brittanys.)

In 2001 I got a great little Brittany dog from breeder David Jones at Chief’s Brittanys in Cross Plains Texas. Mary and I picked our dog, who we named Happy, up when he was seven weeks old and I got off to kind of a rough start with him because I had some major surgery in September 2001 that took a few months for recovery and the little pup was nice to have around during recovery.

That spring I took Happy out to Dave’s for a little bit of remedial reform school and he got to work on birds and some of his blood line from his mom Peanuts began to show up. I also joined a bird hunter association and learned how to work Happy myself on quail. We did not hunt Happy on doves his first year since Dave told me that it would be confusing for a first year dog to retrieve doves.

Long story short, after a couple of years Happy and I placed 2nd in our on venture in field trials and I decided that was enough because I did not enjoy the confusion and standing around all day. I had the most fun hunting Happy with just the two of us or a couple of other folks and we hunted in Texas and Oklahoma for quail, pheasants and doves and had some great years.

I lost Happy about three years ago and now that I have the time I kind of think I might want to start another dog and enjoy some canine company. Wow, Happy was a born hunter and loved every aspect of the process of finding, pointing and retrieving birds. Maybe it is time to start another dog, probably my last since I turn 70 next year.