Waypoint Brittanys Who Are We

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Vic Williams & Joy Roberts

Living with dogs for our whole life...
Training dogs together since 1984
Field Trialing and owning Brittanys since 1997

Living with our dogs and horses in Calhoun, Georgia on our 50 acre farm and training grounds.

Joy with Jesse at a Maurice Lindley Seminar

Joy and I were married in 1982. Before we were even married we shared our first dog, Hans, a black lab mix. Passed down to us from Daniel, Joy's brother, Hans was the perfect dog - Very well behaved, never a problem, and a champion frisbee catcher. Hans went everywhere we went and was always the life of the party.

As Hans got older we thought that he could use a girl friend so we got Portia, a very nicely pedigreed black lab. Portia turned out to be the "hound from hell". That is when we took up obedience training, turning Portia into a celebrity in the obedience training circles. She was used as a demo dog at many events and was even cast in a movie.

Since Portia was a challenge Joy wanted another big challenge so we got CeCe, our Rottwieler. CeCe was abandoned at a kennel and we were asked if we would like to take on her training and care. She had some behaviorally problems so it would be some work. As it turned out CeCe was one of the most biddable dogs we have ever had. She was super sweet and would do ANYTHING for Joy.

We got into Brittany's and bird dogs backwards. Our business, Computer Aided Design, had gotten very stressful and to alleviate some of the stress we got into an equine workshop and decided to buy a couple of horses. Joel Paulk sold us a couple of Tennessee Walkers and we rode around his farm in Cumming, Georgia. Joel raised Brittanys and asked if we would like to go to a field trial and ride.

We were hooked. We didn't understand exactly what was going on but we loved it. When I asked Joel more about what was going on he sold me my first Brittany, saying, "You have to have a Brit to understand..." See our page OUR DOGS for the complete story.

Training with Tom Tracy, Jr. in South Dakota

Jesse & Joy taking a moment from training to relax

First we breed for ourselves.
We want to create a dog that we want.

We choose to breed for the complete dog. We want a Brit that is smart, healthy, with endurance, natural ability, desire, good confirmation, good temperament, and easy to train. That's a LOT to ask for. We are more closely tied to the field performance part of the sport but dabble in the show side. We look at the pedigree of dogs that we breed for the characteristics of the previous generations and not just the titles.

We only breed about one or two litters a year! Those litters get 100% of our attention. We stay with them through the time that they go to their new homes. We play with them, take them to new places, let them run free on open ground, let them discover their surroundings. We use high-tech to take care of them and low-tech to socialize and introduce them to the world. We care very deeply about our dogs and our puppies.

It is always an emotional thing for us to send our pups on to their new homes.

Nykko, you were a great mother and you made some beautiful pups. You will be missed

Why "Waypoint"?

Before GPS a "waypoint" was a "stopping place on a journey". Our lives with Brittanys have certainly been one of many waypoints along our journey, from our first Brit Romeo to our latest litter.

Today, as we use GPS tracking in our trials and training, waypoints are defined as geographical locations defined by their coordinates. We are fond of waypoints as they tell us where our dogs are in relationship to us and our surroundings. It is a very good thing to know where you and your dogs are!

Wikipedia says, "...waypoints are used to help define invisible routing paths for navigation." It seemed fitting that we mark this moment as a Waypoint along our path.