The Spaniel Annals

working and living with performance spaniels

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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.

  • “When violence begins, training ends”
    Anonymous

    The Sunday Morning Ritual

    For the last several months, it’s been our Sunday morning ritual to attend handling classes.  Handling classes provide a training environment for us to practice the game of the conformation ring, where the dog is judged on his structure (conformation) and movement.   Here’s the ritual:

    7:30 am: Reardon gets a feathering bath.  He needs one once-a-week anyway for those long feathers, and bathing right before class gets him used to a typical show day.  Here he is looking rather hangdog as we wait for some whitening shampoo to do its thing.

    8:15 am: Reardon gets up on the grooming table to get blown-dry.  Today we won’t have time to get him totally dry, but at least he gets some minutes with the dryer on.  It’s all good experience for a show day, where the blow-drying can take up to 45 minutes.

    9:30 am: class.  Now Reardon can start having some fun.  He likes the show ring.  After all, it’s fairly simple and involves lots of treats!   Today is a packed class as many people are getting ready for the Puyallup and Portland cluster of shows starting next weekend.  We’re practicing our freestacking while we wait for class to start.

    You can see he’s still a bit wet from his bath, which would be a huge no-no in the real ring.  Next weekend, he’ll be looking much more fluffy and white. 

    In the next few months I’m going to have to develop some priorities for this year.  Showing his mother in the obedience ring and Reardon in conformation is almost impossible to do at the same time.  At the end of a show day involving both, I wind up exhausted instead of enjoying it.  My feeling is, if it’s not fun, why do it?  Re-prioritizing might mean giving Reardon to a professional handler.  A professional handler will finish his championship sooner than I could, but it would be very expensive.    My last springer Champion, Hank , cost about $1000 all told, but that was 10 years ago and he finished quickly. 

    Why do I want this conformation championship with Reardon?  Good question, and this is part of my re-prioritizing.  The historic purpose of dogs shows was to evaluate breeding stock.  However, Reardon will never be bred, because he carries a genetic marker for an eye disorder (PRA) and he has allergy problems.   So why show him?  Two possible reasons: if I handle Reardon to his championship, it will be valuable experience for me to show a dog in a very competitive ring.  If a pro handler finishes him, he has the championship piece of a prestigious ESSFTA (the springer parent club) versatility award.  This difficult award requires two performance titles at the most advanced level, and two other performance titles at the novice level.  Reardon shows potential to earn this award, so why not go for it? 

    These various priorities bounce around in my head while driving to and from dog classes.:-)  The bottom line, though, is that we’re having fun!

  • “When violence begins, training ends”
    Anonymous

    New Year’s Day Training

    New Years’s Day was a perfect day to spend with a training buddy of mine, Terri Pope.  We rented an obedience building in Olympia for a few hours and helped each other with our dogs.  Today I wanted to see how Reardon’s heeling was coming along, so we made a video.  Videos help immensely with seeing the progress of a dog’s training, and often reveal important mistakes I’m making with my handling.  Not only did I spot various details to work on, but it was a good record of how long Reardon could handle fairly demanding training–about 6 minutes.

     I’m fascinated by the question of how to increase duration of certain behaviors, especially ones that require intense concentration.  Spaniels were not bred to concentrate on a single behavior for very long; instead as hunters they were required to respond quickly and alertly to any changes in environment: changing scent, the flash of a rooster pheasant’s wings in the brush, the sudden flush of the bird out of cover.  So long-term concentration does not come naturally to a spaniel.  Anyway, here’s the video:

    When I got home I watched the video and made some notes in my training journal.  A training journal is another tool I’ve picked up in the past few years, and its current format is inspired Lanny Basham, the Olympic gold medalist in rifle shooting, who has created the best mental preparation performance program I’ve found.  His website is http://mentalmanagement.ipower.com.  More on Lanny some other time. 

    My notes for Reardon are:

    • our take-off is messy; I’m moving as I say “trot.”  I need to stay still, say “trot” and then move forward with him.  The messy startoff causes his head to drop and his body to get out of position;
    • work on his anticipation of the about turn; work with barriers where I don’t always do an about; stop and feed in the middle of the about turn; make sure my body cues are clear;
    • work on maintaining attention, especially as his interest lags.  In this video at about 5 1/2 minutes, I simply brought back out the food as a lure.  Instead, I need to play more, break things up, try a toy in the arm;
    • overall great work in a new building with attention and attitude; transitions into the slow looked better than I thought they would;
    • work on forging, especially in the beginning.  Go back to a dowel;
    • Geez, I need to go on a diet.  Sitting around for 6 weeks has not done me any good!

  • “When violence begins, training ends”
    Anonymous

    A MERRY CHRISTMAS FROLIC

    Particularly when I ask my dogs to join me so much in my endeavors, and they do so with such willingness, I do what I can to acknowledge and fulfill their essential nature.  It is the essential nature of the Springer Spaniel to run, hunt and find game.  So on this Christmas morning, at dawn, we find ourselves at the Cherry Valley Wilderness Recreation site just north of Duvall, WA, about 15 miles from home.  I don’t shoot, but since it’s a release site, I can at least hope for a pheasant or two to get flushed up.  When we arrive, the fog is still heavy but the sun is trying to break through:

    The young springers haven’t had much hunting experience, but mom has.  Yet they all instinctively know to cast out, the two girls one way…

    and Reardon sweeping in from another direction.

    Then the resident guppy, Rozzie, finds a canal to get into…

    Later she dives into one and can’t get out.  I have to lean down in the heavy grass and haul her out.  We’ll avoid the canals after that!   I am also pleased to see the young dogs instinctively seek out cover in the hedgerows, the favorite hiding spots of pheasants…

    We work on whistle commands.  They quickly respond to the whistle command to turn in the direction I’m headed (tweeet-it!), but the recall command (twee-twee-twee-twee)  is a little less reliable.  Finally I get a good response…

    and they get lots of praise and cookies. 

    Afterward I send them back out again.  When we’re out running, I make sure that the recall is not always associated with “leash back on, fun’s over.”  At least 75% of our recalls mean come in, get praise and cookies, and then release for more fun.  This approach seems to ensure happy, willing recalls.

    Finally it’s time to go home.  What a wonderful way to spend dawn on Christmas morning!

    MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU AND YOUR LOVED ONES, AND HAVE A WONDERFUL 2010!

  • “When violence begins, training ends”
    Anonymous

    I’m ready!

    The rest of my life (“real” life? “unreal” life?) has stalled our training and my blogging: fighting to get my energy back after surgery, then catching a cold, then the pressure of getting final writing portfolios graded.

    Meanwhile, Reardon and Rozzie are clearly saying, “I’m ready!”  Through many physical behaviors (their primary language after all), they’re telling me they’re ready for more training that lasts longer, presents distractions,  and puts together more of the pieces they’ve been learning.  (Trainers call the act of putting the pieces together “chaining” behaviors).  In other words, they’re maturing and in some doggie sense, they know it.  Not only do they know they’re ready for more demanding training, they want it! 

    So this entry is really a note to self.  It’s been so long since my last puppy that I had forgotten about the proverbial “light bulb” of maturity that occurs in many breeds at 2 years old.  With some larger breeds, trainers will say this comes later, say 3 or 4 years, but whenever this light bulb flicks on, it can be almost eerie: the dog goes to bed a puppy, and seems to wake up the next day an aware, matured dog. 

    So how do Rozzie and Reardon say “I’m ready”?  The eagerness they have for their training sessions tells me a great deal.  After I’ve put on Rozzie’s working collar and leash, she throws herself at the front door, while Reardon spins in circles.  But it’s more than that: both of them are offering difficult behaviors that, prior to the “light bulb,” would have required me to lure them (meaning food right in front of their muzzle) or offer very frequent reinforcement (short spaces of the behavior with frequent stops for food rewards).   Both can handle greater distractions, and both are heading towards that magic moment when the work itself becomes a pleasure. 

    With Rozzie, I can see her readiness in her ability to heel at attention for long sequences, without visible food and with distractions.  In the photo below, Rozzie is heeling next to a ditch that has been difficult for her in the past.  It must be a ditch full of delicious smells, but today she pays it no mind:

    Reardon, the “unnatural retriever,” is now retrieving his dumbbell quickly and happily.  There were times I thought he would never gallop in with his dumbbell.  A trot on the return is acceptable in the obedience ring, but I’d prefer an eager, fast return.  Getting this from Reardon has meant lots of running away from him and making it a game, but today it’s all up to him:

    So, they’re ready!  I better be ready too.:-)

  • “When violence begins, training ends”
    Anonymous

    Exuberance

    “Exuberance is beauty” – William Blake

    Right now I’m recuperating from surgery and don’t feel well enough to do anything with the dogs other than walk out to the pasture with them.  They still give me great delight in their ability to play..

    and their effortless grace while in full extension…

    and the joy they seem to take in their own exuberance….

  • “When violence begins, training ends”
    Anonymous

    What is obedience training really about?

    Sunday as the rain poured, we worked under the patio roof on details:

    Fronts with Kani holding a retrieve object, a leather scent article…

    Finishes (where the dog moves from front to heel position) with Reardon…

    and holding the dumbbell with Roz…

    The challenge with drill work like this is keeping it fun and light.  That means knowing how much repetition each dog can take and stay enthusiastic, what each dog’s internal motivators are, and what each dog needs to understand that these drills are always done with speed and precision.  And I better not get bored either!  Bored trainers create bored dogs.

    But no matter if obedience training is done in longer sessions or these shorter drill sessions of 5-10 minutes, something else is going on beyond simply teaching behaviors.  In these moments when we come together around a physical exercise, we are both being “trained” to a picture of teamwork.  In the end, we both become obedient not simply to a set of exercises, but to a relationship.  It is a relationship where, through the grammar and syntax of  training, I am saying to the dog, “I know you…I am fully present for you…You are vital to me.”  And the dog is saying it back. That’s really what it’s all about.

  • “When violence begins, training ends”
    Anonymous

    Conditioning

    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 importance, so often in obedience and conformation, dogs are “weekend athletes” who are asked perform complex physical tasks on the weekend but lounge around as couch potatoes during the week.  Horse trainers often talk about training a young horse physically for two years before expecting complex physical behaviors like “collection” (where the horse is properly balanced and driving from the rear).  This is not only so that the horse learns the behavior mentally, but also possesses the necessary muscling to perform the behavior.

    Horse trainers are also much more aware of warm-ups and cool-downs, talking specifically about what should be done during these sessions (often lasting 15 minutes or more), before the actual training even starts.  Yet in obedience trialing, frequently you’ll see the handler pull the dog  out of his crate five minutes before they go in the ring, with a warm-up consisting of running through specific exercises, and no attention paid to warming up the dog physically.  Then what happens after 7-10 minutes of ring time that intensely taxes the dog physically and mentally?  Back in the crate, so that the handler can socialize with friends.

    So I’m trying to improve my warm-ups and cool-downs.  I need to do more stretching with Kani before she goes in the ring, but after our ring performance we now go on a walk outside, to cool us both down mentally and physically. 

    And we jog too.  Not as far as we should, because I’ve got an unexpected surgery coming up and so we’re doing the minimum, about 1 1/2 miles.  Rozzie and Reardon have just joined in, as they’re now two years old and their bodies can handle the impact.  They especially love the jog, with Rozzie squealing and Reardon throwing himself at the door (need to work on that).  Better conditioning has transformed Rozzie mentally and physically–she’s a lot more confident, with bright eyes and more energy.  Being third in the pack, and not trained as intensively for obedience as the other two, I’ve worked hard this year to build her confidence.  The jogging and agility class have done the trick.

    A side note: when I was showing my gordon setter in conformation years ago, a judge told me afterwards that she needed to be in better condition.  This puzzled me, as she had daily runs in the country and was in excellent shape.  As we talked, I realized by conditioning, he meant coat rather than muscling.  While I know today that not all conformation judges prioritize the dog this way, I remain almost as bewildered by this attitude now as I was then.

  • “When violence begins, training ends”
    Anonymous

    A typical training evening

    Last night after my day of teaching, the springers and I headed to our local outlet mall for some attention training on their heeling.  I try to vary what we do each day, so none of us gets bored.  Other nights we might be doing full run-throughs of Kani’s exercises for the obedience ring, or working on details of other behaviors.   But tonight is attention heeling, with everyone practicing at different levels. The outlet mall is a perfect place for this, since there are lots of distractions, cover from the rain, posts to practice figure eights (an obedience trial heeling exercise), and a Starbucks for afterwards. 

    Reardon is at the trickiest stage, where we’re working on both attention while heeling and proper gait.  Sometimes he paces instead of trots, meaning that both legs on one side match in movement, front to back.  This is a “lazy” gait that makes it harder to do turns, change pace and heel straight:

    Instead, we’re working on Reardon trotting consistently, which is the most economical gait, the most flexible for the various movements required in precision heeling, and the most aesthetically pleasing:

    There’s pages to say about gaits and how to encourage them, (and thank goodness the horse people have been studying gaits for literally 2000 years) but last night the priority was on Reardon’s attention in the midst of distractions.  At his young age, in a challenging environment, one thing at a time is the best approach. 

    Each dog heeled with me for about 20 minutes.  The young dogs did brief individual stays on-leash, and Kani did her signal work.  Then off to Starbucks for a decaf latte and home!  We were all quite contented with our evening’s practice.