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.

  • “When violence begins, training ends”
    Anonymous

    Brian’s first hunt test trip

    I traveled to the spaniel clubs’ hunt tests in Oakville, WA to run a cocker for a friend, and Robbie and Brian came along. My favorite memory from this trip was watching Brian run in a big field, which we did in the evening after the tests were done. He loved chasing some cocker friends who came with us, and ran circles around Uncle Robbie, who is definitely slowing down. This picture captures a sweet memory that will stay with me long after all the pass and fail reports are posted. Plus Brian handled an overnight in my friend’s RV pretty well, crying a bit at first in a crate above my bed, but then settling for the whole night. A lovely adventure for a baby dog.

  • “When violence begins, training ends”
    Anonymous

    First Things

    First things in a dog’s life should be commemorated.   So here is Brian’s first toweling.  Toweling is pretty typical for spaniels after a bath, to tighten down their coat while drying.  I haven’t done it before with Brian, since it involves horse pins.  I figured this first time he might wear it for just a short time, especially if he tried to fight it, but he was a champ.  Note the madly wiggling tail…

    First towel

  • “When violence begins, training ends”
    Anonymous

    Back to tracking again!

    We’ve been tracking twice a week all summer, and Robbie is starting to show improvement on his turns, although his start is still a work in progress.  Meanwhile Brian is running tracks of about 125-150 yards with one turn.  He loves it and shows a lot of drive!  Thanks to my tracking partner Martha for taking these great pictures of the boys.

    20200826_083510
    Robbie’s first leg of his track

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    Approaching a corner, marked by the orange flag

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    We made it around the corner! Second leg.

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    Brian at the startline.

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    He’s off!  I’ve started extending his line a bit more.

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    After his corner.

    I’m so enjoying this process of encouraging the boys’ ability to follow scent.  As my tracking instructor says, “Let the track be the teacher.”  More adventures in this wonderful sport to follow!

    If this sport interests you, note that an exceptional online dog training school, Fenzi Academy of Dog Sports, provides tracking lessons with Lucy Newton, who works with her dogs in SAR, IPO and AKC tracking.  I’ve never had consistent, high quality tracking instruction before and very excited about pursuing this sport more.

  • “When violence begins, training ends”
    Anonymous

    Second Dinner

    Brian is getting Second Dinner right now (some of his dinner in a food toy), so we can have a quiet dinner to ourselves to wind down our evening.

    20200818_175332

    But Rozzie, at 12 years and nearly 11 months, thinks she also should get Second Dinner. I have promised her that if she will make it to 13 on Oct. 5, she can have Second Dinner too!!! Now I can’t wait to order her food toy for her….(ahem, yeah we might not wait until October…)

    20200818_175712

  • “When violence begins, training ends”
    Anonymous

    Toy retrieve is back!

    Brian’s play retrieve went on hiatus the last few weeks, which I chalked up to teething issues.  It’s back this morning!  The lighting is awful for this video, but he’s picking it up and bringing it all the way in.  Yay!  He did 3 of them, and I included the one where he falls over just for giggles.

    What has he been up lately?  Sunday he had a big day of attending a spaniel club’s field practice, where he met lots of new friends, doggy and human, heard gunshot from afar with no reaction, and played with a shot bird.  It was a fun day that I hoped would exhaust him, but a long car road home took care of that. [sigh]

  • “When violence begins, training ends”
    Anonymous

    14th week!

    Brian hit his 14th week birthday this Wednesday, and has had lots of adventures that I have been lax about posting!  A play visit with his sister and a haircut, some spaniel training parties, more tracking and his new online obedience class starting.  This weekend he’s off to a hunt test training event, where he’ll hear gunfire from a distance, meet birds and see lots of friends.  Here is some splices of his recent baby tracking practice for fun:

  • “When violence begins, training ends”
    Anonymous

    Puppy tracking

    Brian joined in on our tracking session today, with his 3rd baby track.  He had moments of distraction, but also had good moments of finding the yummies on the track.

    20200722_091917
    Off we go to the track!

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    I’m doing it, Mom!

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    I’m gonna cheat by looking!

    20200722_092205
    Found it! I can track!

  • “When violence begins, training ends”
    Anonymous

    Tugging thoughts

    Brian loves toys, and so we’ve been doing some tugging as part of his puppy training.  I’m not into tugging like some trainers, who often seem to use the activity as a way to amp up the dog before running on an agility course.  I’m not sure running an overly aroused dog on an agility course is good anyway, and I definitely don’t want it for the obedience ring.  But tugging has other benefits.  Here we’re working on two things: stillness for a few seconds before a “strike” at the toy, and then releasing the toy when it goes “dead.”  I need to get better at this, but he does release near the end of this brief session.  Eventually this release will become an “out” for a retrieve, and overall I hope it dispels any tendency towards excessive possessiveness of toys.  Little baby steps are in this video, but they make a good start.

  • “When violence begins, training ends”
    Anonymous

    Flying with the big dogs!

    We’ve had a busy week, with many new experiences.  One of them was Brian finally annoying my much older pack enough into playing with him:

    Brian also ran a baby track for the first time this week (pics next week!), and last night met a friendly adult springer owned by a training friend of mine when we met up to work our dogs in Woodinville.  So Brian also got to do recalls, positions and simply explore a new place.  The last 2 days have suddenly gotten hot, and I’ve had to recognize that a baby dog can’t handle temperature shifts very effectively.  Happily we have cooler weather today before a heat wave comes in next week.  Brian adventures continue!

     

     

     

  • “When violence begins, training ends”
    Anonymous

    Roz and her puppy

    In a world of new normals, 12 1/2-year-old Roz makes her own peace with the craziness of a new puppy.  She even played with him a bit this morning.

    Roz and Brian