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.
I’m an English college instructor by trade, a dog trainer by vocation. And lifelong baseball fan.

Category: English Springer Spaniel

  • Kerrie’s Blessing October 1, 2023

    Our church has a Blessing of the Animals on St. Francis Day every year, and this year we decided to just take Kerrie. She behaved herself pretty well for a 1 1/2 year old adolescent, despite a cattle dog in the next pew enticing her to play, and the organist doing distracting things nearby. It…

  • Kerrie’s tracking progress

    Kerrie’s tracking is coming along! That’s a good thing, since the local tracking tests are coming up. This track was 360 yards long, 3 turns, with spacing of reinforcements at about 20-25 steps. I’m in the process of reducing the reinforcements and increasing her understanding of turns, so next we’ll work on dog-eared turns.

  • Kerrie’s heeling journal – June 2023

    Kerrie is now 15 months and working on her heeling. Since I’m trying so many new things with her training, I’m keeping a video journal to review and have them for future reference. Sharing them here will help renew this blog! What kinds of new things am I doing? Starting with Brian, I committed to…

  • Say hello to Kerrie!

    A hectic school year dealing with re-entry into live teaching after the COVID shut-down has taken me away from this blog. Meanwhile Roz has continued to age, struggling far more than she used to. Brian is maturing, earning his first freestyle titles (through virtual shows) and preparing for live obedience trials this fall/winter. And we…

  • Rozzie at 14!

    It’s been an eventful October, and the best part was Rozzie turning 14 on October 5th. As far as I know, she is, sadly, the last living dog of her litter of 5 springers. She’s had a wonderful life, and continues to amaze me with her energy and brightness. Several times a week she does…

  • Happy birthday, Rozzie!

    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,…