Well, It wouldn't fly in my house either if my wife wasn't so darn competitive. We sent our pup off last summer because we knew she might make a decent bird dog, and we wanted her in as many wild birds as she could get. My wife made the mistake of joking that she didn't want a bird dog, she wanted a National Champion. When we got her back from camp, we took her to a trial and the trainer handled her to her first 2 points towards her Field Champion and her first Derby win. When my wife got to see our pup run, and win, she was hooked. It didn't hurt for her to see how much fun our pup was having. 6 months later and our pup had won the Southern Open Brittany Championship derby trial, the American Brittany Club Eastern All Age Futurity, and had qualified twice for nationals with two seconds in Open Gun Dog trials. One of those was against 37 other dogs and gave her another 2 points towards her FC. Then the trainer made the mistake of telling my wife that our pup was progressing better then the National Champion Open Gun Dog that he trained a couple years prior. So now my wife doesn't have much choice..... I told her to be careful what she askes for.

Anyways, having our pup gone for 3-4 months sucks, but its been a ton of fun for us watching her run. Its so hot down here in GA during the summer that I can't do much with her, so letting her run in S. Dakota is good for her....... BTW.. My brothers pups are doing a mini summer camp with a trainer in Shelton. They are gone for 2 months, but they go down every weekend and watch them.