The Spaniel Annals

In 2025 I’d like to add more content to this blog that goes beyond simply reporting about our training/competing life. Instead I hope to provide posts two or three times a week that might be helpful or interesting to readers who want to learn more about training various behaviors, especially if you have spaniels! Please let me know in the comments if there is something in particular you’d like to see.

One category I hope you’ll find interesting is training new, unusual behaviors for canine freestyle. We’re starting some early prep for Brian’s Grand Championship in the InSync division, which is heelwork to music. In this division, there are no weaves or distance moves, and the dog needs to stay in close proximity to the human. One position I’d like to progress to moving laterally is Brian’s “side” position, where he is perpendicular to me, rather than the standard parallel position in heeling. He has only a rudimentary idea of that position, which you can see in the short clip below from an earlier video competition:

For his Grand Championship, I’d like to utilize this position more in one sequence, asking him to move laterally (to his left or right rather than forward or backward). To teach this, I’m using various aids that he’s familiar with–a platform, gate, and open dish of food–to help teach the position. He’s used all these aids before in learning other behaviors, so he has a strong history with them. Here’s an abbreviated video of our second session, along with some doodling at the end where you can see we “accidentally” discover the end behavior. Sometimes training is fun that way!

Along with the training itself, you might be hearing in the background the music I will likely use for this routine: Einaudi’s “Divenire.” In sum, after a few sessions, I now have a successful process for training the side position itself, as well as combining the position with movement. I’ll provide an update on this training in the next few weeks.

Let me know what else you’d like to see in this blog this year!