The Spaniel Annals
working and living with performance spaniels
recent posts
about
I’m a retired English instructor, now devoted full-time to training, showing and enjoying my spaniels in many sports.
- agility
- Behavior
- competition
- conditioning
- dockdiving
- dual champion
- English Cocker
- English Springer Spaniel
- Fetch!
- field work
- Freestyle
- Gordon Setters
- heeling
- heeling journal
- Irish Water Spaniel
- match
- mental preparation
- new freestyle behaviors
- puppy training
- rally obedience
- retrieve
- scent work
- TEAM
- tracking
- training
- Uncategorized
- Utility obedience
Month: July 2020
-
Brian joined in on our tracking session today, with his 3rd baby track. He had moments of distraction, but also had good moments of finding the yummies on the track.
-
Brian loves toys, and so we’ve been doing some tugging as part of his puppy training. I’m not into tugging like some trainers, who often seem to use the activity as a way to amp up the dog before running on an agility course. I’m not sure running an overly aroused dog on an agility…
-
We’ve had a busy week, with many new experiences. One of them was Brian finally annoying my much older pack enough into playing with him: Brian also ran a baby track for the first time this week (pics next week!), and last night met a friendly adult springer owned by a training friend of mine…
-
In a world of new normals, 12 1/2-year-old Roz makes her own peace with the craziness of a new puppy. She even played with him a bit this morning.
-
Brian’s weekend adventure was an introduction to water with a wading pool. After looking at all the dog pools on Amazon for $100 on up, we opted for the Fred Meyer $10 special. Brian’s first reaction to water was, shall we say, underwhelming: After this, Brian managed to find a hole in the fence,…
-
Yesterday Robbie trained at the hardware store and Brian came along. I took Brian into an outdoor area of the store where I’ve never seen many dogs, so I felt safe in doing some engagement work, playing with a toy and other basic exercises. I was really pleased with his attention on me despite the…
-
Today Brian got to play a box game, where he has to find the cookie in the box. I discovered he’s just a little small for these boxes, and so will need to cut off the tops, but he has a good nose and seemed to enjoy this activity. You can see he is really…
-
Yesterday we took off for a nearby elementary school to let Brian explore the world while Robbie worked away from the property. With COVID-19, I’ve been training far too much at home, and Robbie really needs that work in new(er) places. So of course Brian came along to play on the playground equipment, do some…
-
Another new adventure was coming along with the big dogs to the training building, and having Brian’s first little training session. While watching the other dogs train, the first day Brian put up quite a shriek of protest, and I had to just wait him out for a quiet moment in order to give him…
-
Next adventure was Brian’s first experience of our pasture. Of course I tried to get photos of him running through the wildflowers, but my timing and his constant movement didn’t always come together. So far, nothing gets him down! There was always the opportunity for a little baby recall practice: And Brian first got to…
The Spaniel Annals 