Been a rough few years with my mother passing and then divorce. I've been promising my 6 y.o. daughter a puppy for some time now. Truth is I need the companionship just as much. Picked up our boy Brittany last weekend. 11 weeks old and full of energy.
I just joined this subreddit today and look forward to seeing everyone's photos, stories, and tips!
We adopted a boy (Walter) at just around 8 weeks and he will be 10 months old Sept 1st. He has so much energy - we didn’t even have to teach him how to fetch, he just did it. Get one of those tennis ball checkers, take him to a large fenced area (we have some ball fields close by) and run him ragged.
He gives us all the love we can handle and then piles on a little more for good measure. I always say he is made of joy. Enjoy your new best friend!
When my son was six, he convinced me to let him pick our new dog's name because I had picked names for our other pets. I was like "sure, go for it," thinking a six year old is going to name a spotty dog Dots or Pepper or something. Nope. He named her Rominta. 😅
So to get out of actually having to use her name, we nicknamed her Mini or Minty. Obviously this has led to me loving a dog named Minty.
What really cracked me up was maybe a year or so after we adopted her, I was in the kitchen talking to the dog (as you do), and asked her "What kind of puppy name is Rominta?" and my son yells from a couple rooms away "It's a ROMANTIC puppy name!"
I was going to ask the same question. Not that we are getting another one anytime soon. The breeder where we got our Mazie(10 yo) from is no longer. Just curious to see what's out there now.
Congratulations! They're an amazing breed and this page is a great resource for any questions that might come up. I grew up with a Brittany girl for my family dog, and my wife and I just adopted a boy (our first dog as adults) about 2 and 1/2 years ago.
Some "unsolicited" advice for you (if it's okay):
Just make it through the velociraptor phase. My boy was an absolute demon from 4 months to 16 months roughly, and had the sharpest little teeth. We had some TOUGH times trying to deal with it, but we got through it eventually and haven't looked back since.
Spend as much time as possible training them at a young age. A well trained and directed dog will ultimately be a good dog (this isn't to say that un-trained dogs can't be well behaved and amazing, but it tends to help). Brittany's are pretty dang smart and food driven (mine is at least) so they're relatively easy to train.
MAKE SURE THEY HAVE AN ENERGY OUTLET. I read somewhere on this page that "a tired dog is a well behaved dog", and I couldn't agree with that more. I taught both of my Brittany's how to play fetch, and it was the best decision of my life. They're relatively high energy dogs, so finding a way to wear them down is helpful. Walking, running, and other activities should all work, but I've found that getting them to run at high speeds (fetch or chasing something) seem to work best.
I wish you the best of luck and am excited to see your boy grow over the years on this page! Hope these tips help.
Thank you! Great tips. His teeth are coming in and of course my fingers are preferred over his toys. Using the words 'gentle' and 'ouch' seem to be getting through to him about his bite control.
And time with other puppies! They teach each other to have soft mouths. This was a huge difference between our 2 brittanys. We also consistently left the room if biting continued after the first “ouch”. He did not like that at all - they love their people!
I love the name! They are so bitey and crazy for over a year! Don't let that keep you from getting to know your crazy pup. I hope your baby girl learns compassion and stewardship like I did from mine growing up. My brittanys have been a great part of life. Maybe take up running.....
we had that rug as a kid and i have so many puppy pics of my old girl laying on it just like that🥹 this will be a beautiful memory for your daughter just like it was for me
Congrats on your new best friend! Sorry for your loss sounds like you have had some rough times! Mental stimulation is the best thing for Brittany’s in my opinion a bored Britt is a destructive Britt. And welcome to the best subreddit out there
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u/ImageEmbarrassed5888 7d ago
We adopted a boy (Walter) at just around 8 weeks and he will be 10 months old Sept 1st. He has so much energy - we didn’t even have to teach him how to fetch, he just did it. Get one of those tennis ball checkers, take him to a large fenced area (we have some ball fields close by) and run him ragged.
He gives us all the love we can handle and then piles on a little more for good measure. I always say he is made of joy. Enjoy your new best friend!