The Spaniel Annals

The more I’ve worked with different breeds, the easier it’s become to recognize some of the signs of a natural retriever.  Unfortunately not all hunting breeds have retained this ability, like the show-bred English Springer Spaniel and many setters.  In my recent introduction to the Irish Water Spaniel, I’ve found an intensity for retrieving in the breed  that is great fun to work with, and presents several hallmarks of natural retrieving.

Sunday I had a chance to work with Journey, who has shown me a natural retrieve from the beginning of our relationship.  While her retrieve has been somewhat shaped since then, I haven’t done any consistent structured retrieve training.  Here’s a clip of some simple bumper work we did.  You can see I’m not worrying about “stay” at this point, but I’m in fact restraining her to keep her drive intense:

So what are those hallmarks of a natural retrieve, that are evident in this clip and have been present in her work with me from the beginning?

• In the first bumper throw, Journey gets confused by several objects on the ground.  A trainer would say she’s “missed her mark.”  Yet she continues to work at it until she finds the bumper.  This shows intense drive to complete the retrieve.  Less natural retrievers might simply give up or wander off.
• Journey gallops out to each bumper, but more importantly, she gallops back in!  This shows how well Journey’s prey and pack drives are integrated.  She cares as much about bringing the bumper back to me as she does about picking it up.  Less natural retrievers will often shift to a trot coming back in, or even worse, a walk.  For them, coming back to the pack means taking the fun away.  For Journey, coming in is an essential part of the fun.
• Journey willingly gives up the bumper to me–more of that pack drive.
• I’m giving Journey some food treats, but it’s obvious that she cares much more about being praised by me and playing with me.  And she loves the bumper–it’s self rewarding.  I really don’t have to come up with secondary motivators for her to enjoy this activity and do it willingly.
• Journey doesn’t let down after several retrieves.  In fact, we could keep doing this for quite some time before she gets bored.  A less driven retriever will lose interest after 2-3 retrieves. 

Journey’s love of retrieving has all sorts of implications for the rest of her training.   Most importantly, her strong pack drive can be counted on in moments of stress, challenge and frustration.  More than anything, she wants to work with me and get praise from me.  In a stressful moment in training, her retrieve also gives me a quick “stress-buster” where I can just pull her bumper and get her prey drive going.  Her love of retrieving also gives us some alternate ways to teach some complicated exercises, like the “go-outs” in directed jumping, where the dog has to run to the other side of the ring and turn and sit on command.  Lastly, retrieving comes so easily to her, we can spend more of our time on other exercises!   Open is all about retrieving, so it’s a class that should come quickly to her.