American Brittany Rescue

Hmmmm....have been thinking about this thread and I'm coming up with "quirks" that Cassie no longer seems to exhibit She is 13 now and definitley "slowing" down along that line. She used to ALWAYS want to take a toy along on a car ride....I really loved the spectacle of her so proudly carrying her toy out to the car for the journey, even if it was just short ride. Although, admittedly, when we lived in Alaska most rides were of substantial duration....the market was 3 hours away one way! Our games of chase....she has a toy and I chase her trying to get it.....are shorter and much less enthusiastic. In fact I am sure she sometimes lets me catch her so I can take the toy and throw it Our walks/hikes are getting shorter, especially if she knows shortcuts. She is getting fussier about grooming and toe nail cutting....sort of an "Oh Gawd, just get this over with" sort of attitude. The getting up on the dining room table and kitchen center island seem to be on the wane. I can tell this because place mats on the table are not displaced, and chairs are not pushed up to the table or island. Guess it's not worth the effort any more to "rebel". The guest room bed, which used to almost always get semi-trashed is pristine all the time now. Am I finally getting my way that the guest bedroom is a "NO NO" ? Looks like it.

What hasn't changed is the "seriousness" of meal time and/or treats I still have to navigate around a furry monster when fixing food.....and sharing at the table during a meal is still de rigueur. Moaning and groaning and sighing the price you pay if not following through Early morning rise, yep, that "alarm clock" is still working, too well And one improvement, sleeping through the night without a "bark alarm" is going much better. Don't know if it because she is getting so deaf or if the nose is less attuned, but am thankful for the respite

I realize when reading all the posts that I have been very lucky with Cassie....she is really a pretty laid back Britt....though I sure didn't think that when she was a pup Trying to deal with the then "space cadet" is what brought me to the ABR message board initially, back around '99 or so. There, as now, I found that what I really had was a breed of dog with a fabulous personality, a "can do" dog, a dog that would make sure that life was lived fully and that meant keeping my brain in gear, just to keep up

LIfe without a Brittany, just can't imagine it, and don't want it to ever be that way

AuntieMom wrote:Trapper: Eats Kleenex and paper towels.

Humphrey loves to tear up any kind of paper!

Kallie: Sits politely at the door when it is time to go outside. I know, really. How quirky can one Brittany be?

Huh... that is just weird.... a brittany sitting politely???

I think Rusty is related to Humphrey... He does the shopping bag checks, zoomies, rubbing his face on the couch or bed, preferably when I have just washed them.... He slides his water dish around too when it is empty.

I have an older kinda old-fashioned boss who I absolutely adore, like a substitute dad, and at the office, I try to remember to keep his water cup filled, but frequently forget. The boss enjoys teasing me that I am a bad secretary when I do not notice that his cup is empty. I told him that he should bump his cup around when it is empty like Humphrey taps his dog bowl when it is empty, and maybe I would remember... so as a standing joke, I frequently hear his cup tapping in his office.

Actually I could comment on everyone's silly dogs, so funny!

Humphrey's Mom wrote:Huh... that is just weird.... a brittany sitting politely???

I know. I wish she would teach the rest of our Britts!

Quirks you want? Quirks you shall have, darlings....

Orion loved cauliflower and sweet potatoes, but nothing topped a banana. When Holistic Dad had his nightly bowl of popcorn, Orion would go running to the kitchen for his plate of sliced nanners. He slept on his back and snored. Had to have breakfast first thing in the morning and would not go outside without it. Every night for his last few years, he would make Holistic Dad move to the love seat from the comfy chair so he could take his pre-bed nap there. Holistic Dad made up a little plate of the dog-friendly parts of our meals, then Orion sat between us and waited patiently for tidbits.

Oakley? He likes to chew my toenails. When we play, he runs between my legs and stands there until I pat his behind and sing one of the silly songs that I made up for him. He loves to cuddle on my lap. All 57 lbs. and still growing of him....

Oh they are all so funny. Seems to me that some of the "quirks" are so universal that perhaps they should be included in the breed standard. I can just see it at the Westminster Dog Show the judge in all her finery pulling out a dirty sock to test if the Britt meets the standard.

Lola is the quirkiest dog I've ever known. She's just soooo weird. I could write a book about her quirks but I'll keep it to one.
One of her things is that she loves to be massaged BUT she doesn't like to be too close. So she walks in front of DH or me and sits in the massage position with her back to us. Then she stares at us, not by turning her head but by lifting it over her back so her chin is facing the ceiling. She'll sit like that just out of reach until somebody either gets off the chair to rub her or says "closer". If we tell her to come closer she'll get up walk over brush right against our legs and then sit in the position again, just out of reach.

Lizzy: When she's really excited, she makes a really high pitched yowling noise. This is always accompanied by holding a toy in her mouth. If you take the toy out of her mouth, she will clench her teeth together and grimace (so you can see her front and bottom front teeth at the same time...so weird). Lizzy will also come to any name you call. If you are petting another dog, she will muscle them out of the way until she's in their spot.

Bree: She is terrified of garbage cans, bushes, signs...but only when she's on a walk. She'll start, get spooked, and try to walk as far away from them as possible.

Jack: He's a 60 lb Brittany (all muscle, no fat) who jumps like a Jack Russell Terrier. He'd rather be inside with his humans than outside playing with the girls. He loves to shred paper. He can't have a "big boy" dog bed in his kennel because he's gutted all the beds we've given him.

hmm.. Quirks. where to begin.
Tissue paper? yes, Tessie would eat a whole roll of TP if I let her. In the morning when we get up, and I'm checking my email she gets restless.. so I take a bill that i've paid, or an envelope and give it to her, which she proceeds to shred to pieces on the ground.
She likes to make growly noises when she wants attention. Something like a yawn with a growly howl towards the end. Its quite pathetic and enormously adorable!
and speaking of howls... every time a fire engine goes by she howls for a good 5 minutes. Also for ambulances.. but not police cars. And we live on a very main street.. so that happens daily. We have also moved up to motorcycles now (not Harleys, but the ones that screech by with a high pitch). She has become a very vocal dog in the past year... really opening up!
Any strange piece of garbage or furnature left out on the street on trash day gets and immediate leash-length avoidance with the tail straight up and ears perked.
Rolling on our bed after eating and baths is a must.
trying to bury bones in our pillows is a must
and most recently... she has "claimed" our pet turtle, cecil, who we let roam around the house for an hour a day. She's not interested in eating her, but just making sure that the cats don't come within a 2 ft radius of the turtle. What a good guard dog.

Greetings:

I was meaning to respond to this post some time ago and I had my IPad with me on vacation in Vermont last week but there is nothing like a full size keyboard for typing out posts!

OSCAR has a condition what I call "ITCHY SNOUT SYNDROME". After I feed him his non-RAW dinner of kiblles and moist dog food, he will run to whereever I am in the house-- living room or bedroom and proceed to rub his snout on the rug or bedspread or chair, and then he will roll onto his back and continue to rub his snout and lick his chops in a wild & crazy manner! I figure that is his way of telling me his chow is A-OK.

PC

Too funny, I could just imagine him running around the house rubbing his noise all over everything and everyone!

Rose

PCTech01 wrote:Greetings:

I was meaning to respond to this post some time ago and I had my IPad with me on vacation in Vermont last week but there is nothing like a full size keyboard for typing out posts!

OSCAR has a condition what I call "ITCHY SNOUT SYNDROME". After I feed him his non-RAW dinner of kiblles and moist dog food, he will run to whereever I am in the house-- living room or bedroom and proceed to rub his snout on the rug or bedspread or chair, and then he will roll onto his back and continue to rub his snout and lick his chops in a wild & crazy manner! I figure that is his way of telling me his chow is A-OK.

PC

And I thought maybe my CB was the only one with an itchy schnoz. She has been carrying on, rubbing her nose and jowls on the rug and snuffling (?) since she was a tiny, tiny pup. Not related to feeding though: we are pretty sure it is airborne skin allergies that make her itchy.

Aside from many/most of the quirks already mentioned in this thread, the other one worth mentioning is connected to peanut butter desserts she gets after each meal (often with embedded meds). She'll scarf up a dab of PB from a popsickle stick, then lick like crazy, front legs, just above the paws. Maybe someone knows why (but not me).



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Cheers,
P