Archive for: October 2010

California Brittany Club Field Trails in Santa Ynez, CA in October 2010

Oct. 19 Dog fun no comments

We’ve adopted two brittanys that for different reasons, haven’t become gun dogs. We were delighted, though, when we were invited to the American Brittany Club’s Fall Field Trials held in early October 2010 at the ”El Rancho Espanol de Cuyama”, AKA Spanish Ranch in gorgeous Santa Ynez, California. We were eager to go partly because Mitch’s mother, Emme, was a dual champion (meaning both field and show) and because we wanted to know more about how and why the breed was developed.

This 150-year-old ranch has to be one of the best places for a field trail event (not that we’re any kind of experts) in the United States. The endless rolling hills are separated by a network of small tree-filled valleys that provide great cover for game birds. It was rarely more than ten or fifteen minutes before one of the Brittanys tracked a bird to a clump of vegetation before standing still and patiently ‘pointing’ for their owner. The owner, once on the scene, would flush the bird and prove that the dog had performed their task and could be awarded points.

The trials

Because of the large expanses for hunting in North America, the American Brittany has evolved to be a larger and stronger dog than its French cousins. We can see this in the differences between our own two dogs as Mitch is around 18.6 kg (41 lbs) as an American Brittany, and Gwenn is a smaller 15.5 kg (34 lbs) as a French Brittany. The need for the larger dog was evident at the Field Trial, as the owners used horses to keep up with their dogs as they raced to cover the most ground in order to be the first to pick up a scent. The dogs were outfitted with GPS units on their collars, in fact, just to be sure that in their excitement, they don’t run so far that they can’t be found.

One of the more curious things we saw was an owner dunking his dog in a watering trough before the start of an event. It seemed a little cruel on a not-too-warm day, until we saw the ground covered by the dogs during the heat. Our concerns were alleviated when an event ended and we watched a brittany take a time out to dunk himself in a watering trough, proving that it wasn’t all that uncomfortable and was instead an important part of staying cool despite all the exercise.

Doggie reunion

One of the best things we were able to see was how Mitch reacted to seeing his mother, Emme. She is owned by Margaret Horstmayer and Tom White, and we’ve kept up with them since we adopted him through American Brittany Rescue as an ‘owner-assisted adoption’. Mitch recognized Margaret immediately and was obviously very happy to see her. Unfortunately, he didn’t recognize his own mother with quite the same speed or interest an the two dogs checked each other out in the normal dog way like any others.

End of the day

The day ended with a fantastic cookout (thank you, Mark Nunez) at the ranch house and the award ceremonies. Since Halloween was soon on us, there was a doggie costume content, which surprised us since these dogs and their owners are so serious by day. There were dogs as pumpkins, devils, princesses and even a owner/dog Cat in the Hat combination that should have won the award just for effort. It was great to see people not take themselves too seriously in the midst of all that competition. It was the perfect, light-hearted way to end yet another great adventure. If invited back, we’ll certainly try to attend another one of these great events and see this amazing breed do what it does best.

For more excellent photos, see Deborah Frane’s gallery.

For more information, see the California Brittany Club’s monthly magazine “On Point” from January 2010, covering previous field trials.

Mt San Antonio (Mt Baldy) with the Brittanys in October 2010

Oct. 09 Dog fun, Mt Baldy, San Gabriels, Southern California 2 comments

It was odd that we hadn’t hiked up Mt Baldy in all our years in Pasadena.  “Baldy” is the highest peak surrounding the Los Angeles Basin at 3069m. (10,068 ft.).  Officially Mt San Antonio, it is a pyramid-shaped mountain that has no trees and few features near the top, thus the name. Baldy has a snowy cap first every year and has the last visible snow in the Spring. There are several ways to reach the summit, including from its base, from the backside where it nears the Los Angeles Crest Highway, and the way we chose, from the Mt Baldy Ski Lift, which tops out at 2377 m. (7800 ft.).  Jeanne and I each took a dog in our lift chair, and held them tight by their collars and chests just in case they were spooked and decided to leap.  To our surprise, they were perfectly calm on the ride up. They looked around and seemed genuinely comfortable having this rare dog adventure.

Heading up

From the top of main lift, the trail follows a ski run that is steeper than most hiking trails and takes your breath away quickly. Once above the run, however, the path becomes a single track trail that climbs a thin ridge known as the Devil’s Backbone. To the right is a spectacular view down to the High Desert east of Los Angeles, and to the west is a clear view to the Pacific Ocean. Once past the ski runs, the trail seems relatively tame, and we were surprised that it was easier as we walked higher on the mountain. With a name like Devil’s Backbone, we also expected it to be difficult and maybe a bit unsettling for those with height fears, but it was neither and provided an easy approach to the final part of the hike.

Approaching the summit

Beyond the Backbone, the trail became less distinct as the approach was well above the treeline and the mountain’s top was classically conical and several approaches were possible.  We had never had the dogs at that altitude and were concerned that they would become out of breath or overly tired. Neither of these were evident, as the dogs enthusiastically covered the ground right to the summit. Once on the top, we cooked up a hot lunch of hotdogs and ramen soup and endured the envious stares of the other groups munching trail mix and Cliff bars. We took in the great 360 degree view for a while before heading back down the trail. The total time was around three hours and the total distance was only 10.3 km (6.4 miles).

For more information about Mt Baldy, see Dan’s Hiking Pages description.  To read our other dog adventures, click here.

For another variation, starting at Manker Flats and ending at the ski lift, see Pasadena Hiker.