Still, Brittanys, like all pointing dogs, thrive on regular exercise, something that Powder has been lacking for the last couple months since the season ended. But before too long I'll have my dogs out for evening runs two or three nights a week, which will settle her down considerably.

Powder, however, knows the difference between hunting and exercise. Unlike my setters, who don't need an excuse to run, Powder does. When I attach the three of them to roading harnesses and logging chains, the two setters happily tear around, eager to put their shoulders to the wheel. Powder, on the other hand, plows into the brush to track pheasants, which she pursues at a dead walk. I guess she figures she's saving her energy for the real thing.

My first bird dog was a Brittany, lo these many years ago. But I learned to hunt the prairies over Fancy, my second Brit. Fancy was remarkable for the way she analyzed the game. She was small, quick–although not nearly as fast as some of the dogs being bred today–and I used to watch her as she'd stop, size up a hillside, and then charge up to where she thought the birds might be. I've seen similar behavior with almost every Brittany I've hunted over: a pause as if to take in the countryside or gauge their next objective before moving on.

I remember many hunts over that little dog. On my first trip to the upper Midwest, I swapped out Fancy with another friend's young Lab and the springer I owned, and she ended our eight-day run as the high-point grouse dog of the trip. As was true throughout her life, she adapted to new environments in a matter of days, and with the exception of woodcock–which she would point but refused to retrieve–was soon hunting grouse like a pro.

Today, with multiple years of grouse-hunting trips under their belts, both of my setters are probably better grouse dogs, but neither of them picked it up nearly as quickly. It's a credit to the breed that, among all the Brittanys I've hunted over, Fancy was far from the most gifted. That's something to remember the next time you watch a Brittany "stop" for a point.