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
Category: Gordon Setters
-
Today we said goodby to Gael, so the vile cancer could no longer rob her of her joy of life. We had all kinds of wonderful adventures together; they’re just not evidenced by lots of titles. Gael always liked to do things her way, and often they didn’t align with AKC regulations. I will always…
-
As Gael gets ready in earnest this summer to enter obedience competition, I’m fussing more than usual with her equipment: which collar to show her in, which toy to get her focused on me outside the ring, which dumbbell size (especially to reduce her mouthing of it). After spending way too much money on a…
-
Gael is currently on a no-food-during-training diet, and the results have been promising and fascinating. This training “diet” will go on for another week, and while I’m not seeing the brightness I get when I train with food, I’m certainly seeing commitment to the task and willingness to keep going. We had one terrible training…
-
I’m so pleased that Gael finished her Junior Hunter title today, with great scores and 3 finds. Her pointing keeps getting more stylish, and today she waited for me to start kicking up the bird before she broke. (Junior dogs have to establish point, but they don’t need to be steady to wing and shot.)…
-
A day at Marymoor Park, with Gael and Journey just being dogs.
-
Gael has fit back in admirably with the springers, who are a tight little family pack (and remember we’re all stuffed into two back rooms while my house is on the market). While some credit might go to the springers, I’d say most goes to Gael who, like my past Gordon, Vita, is showing remarkable…
-
I’m just very happy that my pretty gordon girl is back home. She seems pretty darn happy too, and the springers have welcomed her back in the pack without a hitch. Plus she seems to put on some coat, and she’s graduated to sleeping out of her crate! Tomorrow we’ll find out if she remembers…
-
I am once again guilty of posting dog updates on Facebook when they should be here! Bad, bad Facebook! I recently picked Gael back up from her trainer, and we spent a few hours watching her work before I took her home. I could tell Gael was glad to see me, but was also a…
-
This is not the world’s greatest video, but it is evidence that Gael can indeed: halt fairly straight and take some responsibility for doing so; stay when she’s told; do a slow-paced heel without scooting her butt along the ground (which Gael’s own take on the change of pace); retrieve a dumbbell with some finesse; hold a dumbbell…
-
Due to the miracles of modern science, we now have confirmation that Gael has hips and elbows! More importantly, functional hips and elbows! This is what the all-important x-rays conducted at 2 year of age confirm. These tests catch hip and elbow dysplasia, and any other skeletal abnormalities in these joints. Gael just has her hips…
The Spaniel Annals 