The Spaniel Annals
working and living with performance spaniels
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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
Category: conditioning
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This month we celebrated Rozzie’s 13th birthday. How lucky we are to have this special, sweet springer for so many years, and we hope for a lot more time. Rozzie is by far the healthiest dog I’ve ever gotten to this age, with all brain cells intact, although just after her birthday on October 5th,…
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Ruckus’ development from rally novice to obedience novice trialing has required a few major changes, the biggest one weaning him off my cheerleader voice. He got too dependent on my voice in rally, which was not really his fault when I was using my voice (overusing, I think) to build up his animation and intensity.…
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It’s been a rough summer for Rozzie: a surgical implant in June (not my decision, but her breeder’s), absorption of the puppies by July, a pyometra scare in early August and a course of antibiotics. I scheduled a spay as soon as she recovered, just in case we had any left-over problems. So Rozzie has…
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Not many people would consider a rainy, somewhat cold spring day a “lovely” morning, but for my springer/setter pack, it was perfect. Before an afternoon of grading, I took Reardon, Gael and Kani to some public grounds near North Bend. This particular field isn’t huge, but it’s large enough for one regulation track and one baby…
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Yesterday was a day off from training, so instead we went for a run around our neighborhood for some conditioning work. As I’ve read equestrian writers during the past few years, I’ve become more and more convinced of the importance of proper conditioning for the dog sports we do. While some agility trainers seem to understand its…
The Spaniel Annals 