By MICHAEL BABCOCK Tribune Outdoor Editor 

     Six boisterous Brittany puppies roughhouse on Terry Courtright’s kitchen floor.  The puppies are orange-and-white, liver-and-white and liver-and-white-and-orange. 

    It is the tri-colored puppies that cause the excitement at Courtright’s Square Butte Brittanies kennel. Reviled by mainstream Brittany breeders, the tri-color is a favorite of Courtright, a salesman at AT&T media services. He has set his sights on a mountain of a challenge. 

    In a breed where orange-and-white or liver-and-white are the cherished standards, Courtright wants to establish the tri-color Brittany as a champion and accepted representative of the breed. 

     “They have been blasphemed by breeders,” Courtright says. “I think they are the most beautiful. I am trying to develop the first American tri-color from proven AKC-American Field Trial lines.” 

Poachers developed the breed 

     French poachers originated the intelligent, well-nosed pointing and retrieving spaniel. The French still love the tri-color. But in America, it is the orange-and-white dog that is beloved. 

     The American Brittany Club grudgingly accepts the tri-colored dog. “Orange and white or liver and white in either clear or roan patterns,” reads the ABC standard. “…Tri-colors are allowed but not preferred. A tri-color is a liver-and- white dog with classic orange markings on eyebrows, muzzle and cheeks, inside the ears and under the tail; freckles on the lower legs are orange. Anything exceeding the limits of these marking shall be severely penalized.” Allowed, but not preferred. Even Webster’s dictionary describes the breed as orange and white or liver and white with not even a mention of the tri-colored dog.

     Brittany breeder Paul Beard, owner of Spring Creek Kennels in Choteau, says Courtright has set himself a challenge. “It’s formidable. Huge,” Beard said. “He would have to come to such great heights … to ever effect what is happening in the Brittany world. That is a reality. He recognizes that and that’s why it is a challenge.” Beard says Courtright would have to be recognized at the national level in all areas of his dog work before he could accomplish his goal. “I don’t know if he can do that in a lifetime,” Beard said. “The biggest game in the country today is the All-Age Circuit and the Gun Dog Championships,” Beard said. “Terry would have to spend a significant amount of time and spend a significant amount of money. “There has not been any significant winner in tri-color in the Gun Dog stakes or the All-Age Championships in as many years as I have followed it.”  Beard compares what Courtright has accomplished with dogs so far to a college football player going to the pros.

     But Courtright says just in the last two years there has been an American Kennel Club Show Champion tri-color. And, one of the dogs in his kennel has qualified for the AKC Futurity, a show in which the dog had to be nominated before it was born. 

These dogs can hunt

Courtright’s dogs certainly have champion field trial and hunting heritage. The names of Brittany royalty roll off Courtright’s tongue like the names of pilgrims at a blue-blood tea party. “I know pedigrees about as well as anybody,” Courtright says. Several of his dogs routinely compete at the national field trial events such as the National Shoot to Retrieve Association field trials. And, Courtright’s dogs can hunt. 

     Longtime Brittany breeder and upland bird outfitter, Tony Fowler of Conrad, has competed against Courtright’s dogs at NSTRA field trials. He says Courtright dogs are good ones. “His dogs are bird dogs. There is no doubt about that,” Fowler said. “He spends a lot of time in the field and puts a lot of birds in front of those dogs.” But Fowler, who owns East Slope Kennels and Game Birds, agrees that the tri-color Brittany is despised by many breeders. “If you are a true bird dog aficionado, you don’t worry about the dog’s color as long as he is a bird dog,” Fowler said. “The gene pool originally was liver and white and orange and white. When you get a tri-color coming out it points to that as being a weakness in that line of dogs,” Fowler said. “It is a genetic deal more than anything else.” 

The secret is line breeding 

Tribune photo by Mark Sterkel

      In-breeding, on the other hand, increases the risk of getting undesirable characteristics. “When you breed close relatives, you expand the chances of greatness and folly,” Courtright said. “All of the good stuff and all of the bad stuff comes out when you breed sister to brother and father to daughter. Courtright says line breeding enhances the good qualities without allowing the bad qualities to come forward. “The purpose of line breeding is to establish a particular type you want based on an original gene pool,” Courtright said. “The flaw a lot of breeders make is they don’t add new blood. All gene pools deteriorate.” Courtright says he buys females out of the best Brittany lines in the country to add new blood to his line. “I will breed them out to an entirely new line. I put new blood in and look and see what I think is great. A lot of times the line breeder’s greatness comes from the new dog you introduce. It either ‘nicks’ or it doesn’t. You see new greatness on the ground. A nick is any new great breeding.”     Beard says it is within Courtright‘s ambition to accomplish his goal. “He has the drive to do it but whether he believes it is a realistic goal is up to him. It is formidable. Huge. “I have a lot of respect for what he has done. He has accomplished great things. I could never see myself doing it.” Courtright, who has been breeding the Brittany since 1991, says it still boils down to finding the best dog, regardless of color. “My long term objective is to breed great Brittanies regardless of color. I am looking for the best dogs,” Courtright said. “But, I am certainly fascinated by the tri-colors. I just want to prove to people that tri-colors belong to any Brittany in the world and they shouldn’t be demeaned.”

     The Brittany is a relatively rugged, medium-sized sporting dog that is agile, covers a lot of ground and is easily trained. The dog will hunt any upland game bird, can be both a good show dog and field dog and makes a good pet.

     “The Brittany is an intelligent, easily handled, short-ranging birdfinder,” says Great Falls dog breeder Terry Courtright. “They have great noses and natural pointing instincts. They point and retrieve.” 

     “They are a very biddable dog and anybody can make a bird dog out of them,” says breeder and outfitter Tony Fowler of Conrad. “They don’t require a lot of formal training. All you have to do is take them hunting.” Fowler says a good Brittany can teach a human to become a good hunter. 

     The Brittany spaniel dates back to the 1500s in France, where poachers favored the dog for its quiet intelligence and good nose. In Canada, the dog still is called a Brittany spaniel, but in this country the breed is simply the Brittany.

     What do they cost? Puppies fetch from $350 to $500 and expect to pay dearly for a “started” or partially trained Brittany bird dog. “There are lot of things that go into what a dog I sell is priced at,” said Fowler. “My started dogs begin at $1,250 and go from there to the top. I keep about 20 Brittanies on hand at all times. My dogs make my living. I have turned down some pretty big money and just flat won’t sell them.” 

     Here are some tips for those considering buying a Brittany. 

* Buy locally: “You can see the parents,” says Fowler. “Look at dogs in the kennel. See if they have any old dogs. If they have only 5- and 6-year-old dogs, that tells me that longevity isn’t there. “You don’t want to put two years of training into a dog and then have that dog die at seven or eight when they should go to 12 years old. A Brittany should be able to hunt at 12 years and do a respectable job for anybody.” When you see the parents, you see what your pup is going to be. “You want a bold dog, square with straight legs, a nice straight back that slopes from front to rear. You want good depth, good springer ribs — a clear-eyed square muzzle, a solid well put together dog,” says Fowler. 

* Research the dog: “Talk to people who have bought pups from prior litters,” says Fowler. “Talk to people who have hunted with those dogs. Does the guy have to hack on them or can he put them down on the ground and have them hunt without have to say anything? Do they cast and work the wind right? Are they water retrievers? A lot of it is training and a lot of it is inherited traits. Some Brittanies are horseback dogs they are going to head for the horizon. 

* Dogs and kids: “Parents have to be responsible to allow the child and puppy to bond so they can grow together,” says Courtright. “You can teach responsibility with a puppy real easily, or you can allow some terrible things to happen. Puppies are living, breathing things, they are not toys.”

Brittany Breeders
* Terry Courtright of Great Falls, 727-5271
* Tony Fowler of Conrad, (406) 278-5814.
* Don Pyrah of Lewistown, (406) 428-2238.
* Paul Beard of Choteau, (406) 466-5440