The Spaniel Annals

I’m plotting a series of articles on the natural retrieve  for the Springer Spotlight, the parent club’s national publication,  so bits and pieces will be showing up here. 

Spaniel field trialers speak confidently of their spaniel’s “natural retrieve,” lauding it as a mark of superiority over spaniels that must be taught this seemingly simple task.   By “natural,” they mean the retrieve behavior seems to be in-bred, presenting itself in early puppyhood and requiring very little training.  A field-bred springer spaniel without a natural desire and ability to retrieve is certainly looked down up as being of “lesser stock.”  

While the retrieve is vital for fieldwork, it tells us far more than we realize about the dog’s trainability and character.   Here’s a quick clip of Kani in the obedience ring, performing a retrieve as a scored exercise.  Then we can break it down to its multiple parts to see how complex a behavior it really is.

The most elemental pieces of this exercise, which can seen in a “natural” state are:

1) desire and ability to “mark” (watch) a moving object.  Trainers working from a theoretical background will identify this as the dog possessing and utilizing “prey” drive.  In the world of dog training, “drive” really means “instinct,” which the dog is born with or genetically mapped with.  These drives can be observed in puppies as soon as all of their senses are functioning and they are mobile.

2)  desire and ability to run out to the object.  This is really the “chase” portion of the prey drive.  Many dogs, depending on breed, will have a strong chase drive.

3) desire and ability to pick up the object.  This is where the goal of the prey drive becomes apparent.  The object is picked up because it’s meant to be eaten.  Some dogs will now start chewing on the object (whether it’s a bird, bunny rabbit, dumbbell, or hunting dummy). After all, why would you have a prey drive unless it brought you food?  This is the beginning of any actual retrieve, but it’s not the full picture.

4) desire and ability to bring the object back to the human.  This is a huge step, and takes the whole exercise onto a new level.  Here trainers will say the prey drive has been interrupted by “pack” drive–a drive that has been bred into many spaniel breeds to work with their human, rather than follow a very natural instinct to eat their prey. Young dogs will display conflict over their prey and pack drive by playing keep-away games with their human partners, rather than bringing the object back.

5) desire and ability to release the object to the human.  Here is the ultimate in willingness to work with a human and forego the powerful prey drive.  The dog gives the object up willingly to the human.  In obedience trials, you’ll sometimes see dogs reluctant to do this, and hold onto the dumbbell while the handler tugs on it, trying to get the dog to give it up. It can become a rather embarrassing battle, not to mention significant loss of points in the ring.  In the field, this battle between prey and pack drive can cause the gamebird to be destroyed and unfit for human consumption. 

So you can see just how complex this exercise really is.  It brings together two conflicting and complex drives, and ultimately asks the dog to work willingly with his human partner, even over the natural and profound drive to find sustenance. 

The retrieve can be taught to almost any dog, using multiple motivators to make it a game, rather than an act of dominance.  However, many dogs are born with this entire exercise genetically mapped, including the willingness to bring the object back to the human.  This natural ability is amazing to watch, and can be seen in puppies as early as 5-6 weeks.  This is the “natural retrieve.”  Unfortunately for the show/pet bred English Springer Spaniel, this natural retrieve is being lost. 

Many pet owners might not care about their spaniel having a natural retrieve.  But when we consider steps 4 and 5 above of the retrieve process, it becomes clear that the retrieve, particularly in its natural state, tells us a significant amount about a dog’s desire to work in concert with his/her human partner.   In short order, it can signify a dog’s willingness, obedience, trainability and “biddability.”    If the natural retrieve is disappearing in the show/pet bred Springer Spaniel, what else is being lost?