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Hunter's Heart Brittanys

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Our Puppies

Home: About Hunter's Heart Brittanys: Our Puppies
Page Updated March 26, 2004

Topics included in this section:
* Our Next Litter Is Expected...
* How We Raise Puppies
* How we choose which puppy to match with each family
* Skye Wins Basketball Video

Sorry, we have no puppies available at this time.  Check our Breeder listings to find a breeder near you.

We breed occasional litters of exceptional purebred Brittany Spaniel puppies. They are excellent family companions bred for temperament, trainability & hunting ability. Hunter's Heart Brittanys breeding stock are from Championship CKC lines. All are OFA (hip) & CERF (eye) certified. Our puppies are kitchen raised & very well socialized. We provide life long support & a written guarantee.  For further details, go to our Guarantee.

  The cost of our puppies in 2004 is $800 Cdn.  The price includes lots of socialization, initial health checks, deworming, tail docking & dew claw removal, microchip implant, the first 2 puppy vaccinations and taxes. 

  We'd ask for a $100 non-refundable deposit to reserve one of these pups. (The other $600 is due when you pick up your puppy.) We may choose to keep our pick of the litter. Show and competition puppies are chosen first. All puppies in this litter should make great family companions, but for the show puppies, markings, size, tail set, etc. must also be considered. Other than that, we try to match families with the puppy that best suits their personality and interests. And if necessary, to consider the order in which the reservations were taken.

  We prefer that families come to pick up their puppy. Then they can drive home together or fly with the puppy under their seat in the passenger cabin.

 As for shipping as cargo, air fare from Calgary to Toronto costs about $200. From Calgary to Vancouver costs about $100. From 7 to 9 weeks of age, puppies go through a "fear period". Any traumatic experience during that time is more likely to permanently damage the puppy. For this reason, we will not ship any puppy until it is 10 weeks of age.

   Click here for more information about other Brittany Breeders.

Spirit and Storm have produced 2 great litters so far: in 1999 and in 2001. The first litter had eight puppies: 6 males and 2 females. The more recent litter had 6 puppies: 1 male and 5 females. (The average litter size for Brittany Spaniels is 7 pups.) There was a range of sizes, all with distinct markings and unique personalities.

  We lovingly raised the puppies as part of our family. As newborns, they were nurtured by their mother, and cuddled by humans. When their ears opened, the first sounds they heard were sounds they will experience in new environments: human and animal voices. 

  Most animal behaviorists believe puppies begin learning in earnest how to fit into their environments at 3 weeks of age. To avoid becoming gun-shy & to encourage the pups to "come" at the sound of gun-fire, we fired a cap-gun at meals, starting as soon as we begin to feed solid food. We began paper training the puppies as soon as they came out of the whelping box. We handled, groomed and played with them. We exposed them to new situations, noises (e.g. thunder, clapping), obstacles (e.g. stairs, ladders, tubes) and surfaces (e.g. foil, metal, grass). They also learned acceptable behavior (such as being momentarily scruffed when biting too hard.) We made every effort to socialize them to accept attention & play with strangers, especially children.

  Fun "training" started at 6 weeks. The important lessons they learn at this stage are rarely forgotten. For example, a retrieval dummy with bird scent was thrown in front of the pup on a loose lead, who was encouraged to bring it in (with voice or gently tugging the lead as necessary.) We also encouraged the puppies to follow us around on a loose lead. We also expose the puppies to live birds to get them interested and excited. We introduce clicker training; leash and crate training; agility equipment; and puppy sits and comes, focusing on lots of encouragement and rewards.

   Rest assured that each of our puppies has had the best start that we could give. We believe that the single most important thing that we do is to provide individual attention to each of the pups. Of course, socialization must continue for each puppy to become a happy, balanced member of its new family. Further housebreaking will be required, and field and basic obedience training will be need to be taught until at least one year of age, and so on....

   All of our puppies have had their tails docked, dew claws removed, been dewormed and have a tattoo (or CKC approved microchip) for identification. We examine the newborns within hours of being born and then our veterinarian examines them within 1 to 3 days. Our veterinarian performs a complete health check again when they receive their first vaccinations at 6 weeks of age (when the immunity from mother's milk runs out). When a new owner picks up his/her new puppy we will provide the health record (confirming that all the puppies are healthy) and a package containing photos, pedigree, food the puppy has been eating and a piece of cloth that smells like his/her mother.

  If you are interested in buying one of our puppies, you and your family are welcome to visit; and to see our dogs in action. (Just call for an appointment so that Gary and/or Carla can be at home.) We would ask you to fill out an application form to help us match you with the best puppy for your particular situation. Feel free to ask questions. Usually you would be able to meet both parents, and their offspring. (This is probably the most reliable indicator of what the pups will grow to be like as adults). And of course, you could meet any puppies we have at that time.

   NOTE: Because newborn puppies haven't been fully immunized while they are still with us, they are all at serious risk of catching a potentially fatal infection such as Parvovirus! PLEASE do not visit here if you have another puppy at home who hasn't received its 12 wk shots or if you have visited another kennel within 5 days of coming here.

   For more photos of our puppies, go to our Gallery.

Click here to go to an excerpt from the book we use as our guideline for puppy temperament testing.

  We are watching and teaching and evaluating all puppies in the litter from the time they’re born to the time they leave us. Because of our experience with dogs, we make a lot of subjective comparisons in the litter too. I volunteer at the Calgary Humane Society doing behavioral assessments, and this experience evaluating dogs of all breeds with all manner of temperaments and problems is also an asset I evaluating puppies. 

  We encourage families to visit us and meet the puppies and to give us a list of their top few favorites. We try to accommodate wherever possible the interests of the family e.g. if screening process indicated that the family is interested in hunting, the puppies’ responses to the bird wing and caged birds rank more importantly than the family who’s only interested in a pet. 

  Show puppies are chosen first. They are chosen primarily based on physical structure and movement and size. For example, the shape of the head, the structure of the shoulder, the angulation of the rear, the predicted adult size, the set of the tail, the gaiting, free stacking, etc. If we don’t find any puppy of high enough show quality to finish their championship, we will clearly let a family who wants a show quality puppy them know our opinion and discuss options e.g. waiting until the next litter for a better show prospect.

  We take stacked photos and ask for the assessment of more impartial friends that have experience showing dogs, at 6, 7 and 8 weeks of age. We try to email the results of temperament testing and stacked photos and video (if available) to all of the families. (Unfortunately, we don't yet own a D.V. Recorder, so we can't make videos for every litter.) We usually make suggestions on which puppy we think is the best match for them, and ask their opinion.

  Some families aren’t able to visit us at all. So in these cases, it’s very important that we know what qualities the family wants and doesn’t want to find in their puppy. For example, in our litter of Brittanys, I’m expecting all to be friendly, with middle of the road temperaments. I don’t expect any to be aggressive. I predict that none should be gun shy. But there will be a range of sizes and sexes and coloring. As far as personality, some puppies are relatively more quiet, shy and reserved. (Of course, they’re still Brittany puppies with a lot of energy, but these pups might like snuggling more than roughhousing.) These quieter puppies should go to a family that tends to be shy and reserved (a better match of personality and style compared to the family that’s very outgoing and busy).

  A more outgoing owner that wants to do show or obedience work or just to have a very active pet is a better match for the puppies that are always jumping up and demanding kisses; and wanting to be the center of attention by getting all the littermates to chase him or her.

  These two different types of personalities in the litter lend themselves better to different styles of training too. The shier puppy needs encouragement, lots of early socialization and positive training to try to build his or her confidence. The more dominant puppy needs to have firm rules and leadership and training early on so that they don’t think they’re ranked as high in the pack as the kids in the family. For example, while it might be acceptable to allow the shy puppy to sleep in the bed with you, the dominant puppy may be better off in the end if you ensure he or she sleeps on their own bed on the floor. The super-outgoing puppy may have issues if allowed on the furniture, where the shy puppy might not.

  Where a conflict exists, the last factor that we consider in matching puppies with families is the order of the reservations. So if two families are interested in males for show, the family who reserved a spot on our list first is more likely to get their top pick. Families who state that they prefer a female only, and are not willing to accept a male will be matched with a female if possible. But if only males are born, for example, we would offer such a family a choice between a refund of their $100 deposit; or the option to transfer their reservation to our list for our next litter. Similar options are offered to families who reserve a puppy when not enough are born in a litter to accommodate the entire list.

  So far, things have gone smoothly using this methods. We haven’t had any family return their puppy to us to date, and they seem happy with the puppy we helped match them with.

  We hope this article helps explain the basics of our matching process. If you have any further questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.
Carla Simon

Gary invented a game of canine basketball when “Skye”, Jayhawker Huntersheart Nflight, came to visit us at 8 months of age.  Skye was the undisputed winner.

Click here for a Windows Media video, "Skye Wins Basketball" (5.5 MB)

This is a 40 second movie clip, so it takes quite a while to download.  For a smaller Real Media version instead (1.2 MB). You'll need Real Video player installed on your computer to play this version. You can download the player for free at www.real.com.

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