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

  • “When violence begins, training ends”
    Anonymous

    Brian at Home Depot

    Today we took advantage of a trip to Home Depot to get in a bit of socializing/training for Brian. I’ve seen just a few startle responses from Brian lately, making me wonder if he’s going into a little bit of a fear period, or possibly just needs to get out more! So off we went to Home Depot while Jeff picked up some repair supplies. My first goal was to help him gain confidence in a new environment, especially if anything scared him. Very quickly it was obvious that there was nothing scary in the store for him (although I did not take him down the Halloween aisle). So then we went to a few areas in the store and worked on sits, downs, stands and go to heel. Here was a short ending sequence before we left (sorry about the poor focus):

    In retrospect I wish we had done some impulse control work, but this was a very successful trip!

  • “When violence begins, training ends”
    Anonymous

    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, we started struggling with a benign cyst that flared up into an infection. Antibiotics and compresses are bringing it down.

    I just wanted to share some of the ways we celebrated Rozzie reaching this very special age:

    Rozzie getting a birthday massage with her friend Martha Jordan.
    Rozzie’s birthday cookie shared with all
    Yummers!

    And just to show you the things we do to keep Rozzie healthy and active:

    doing her interior searches for birch–she LOVES her searches!

    finding her scent
    balancing on her inflatables, combined with calisthenics (sits and downs) and cavellettis a few times a week

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ROZZIE!

  • “When violence begins, training ends”
    Anonymous

    Fall 2020

    It’s time for our annual photos amongst the pumpkins. We’re having quite a squash harvest this year, so here is the first of probably 3 harvests in the next few weeks. This photo session produced a lot of throw-aways, but here is the best of what we got:

    Robbie and Rozzie

    Gael

    The rodeo starts!
    A moment of stillness for 5-month-old Brian

  • “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

    20200826_083514
    Approaching a corner, marked by the orange flag

    20200826_083612
    We made it around the corner! Second leg.

    20200826_090312
    Brian at the startline.

    20200826_090318
    He’s off!  I’ve started extending his line a bit more.

    20200826_090323
    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!

    20200722_092127
    I’m doing it, Mom!

    20200722_092133
    I’m gonna cheat by looking!

    20200722_092205
    Found it! I can track!