I think it is a lot easier to keep a spaniel close even when it is hunting than a pointer or lab X pointer. And the closer you can keep a dog the more control you have, control diminishes with increasing distance. I know that it is not that easy with dogs like Charlie and Indie, genetically and physically they are predisposed to hunt in a different fashion.
You've achieved a huge amount with Charlie, Helen. I don't think that the word failure should even be in your vocabulary!
Definitely! I stayed in a "dog friendly" B&B last year in Liverpool, when we could't get into the wonderful place we normally stay. To get to our room, we had to navigate through a very old house with lots of windy corridors and two flights of stairs, past about eight cats! No mention of that in their description! I had a piece of sausage glued to Shadow's nose and just prayed he wouldn't notice...
Better in some respects, worse in others! We are just being very strict with taking her out on the lead to wee etc which is annoying but necessary, and we haven't sat around in the garden at all. She is still completely over-aroused near the cottage, so whatever critters love there I will be glad to leave them! We took her on a long walk up Pen y Fan yesterday so she was very tired when she got home. A slightly unrelated but annoying thing happened though - at the end of our walk we went to a beautiful deep pool with a waterfall at one end. Indie has only just been brave enough to swim, but she seemed very excited and happy to get in the water. She did three beautiful water retrieves of her dummy and I was really pleased. But then, a really fat man came and bombed off the top of the waterfall making a huge bang, just whilst indie was swimming with her dummy. Indie freaked out, ran out the water, tail between legs, shivering, and then the kids of the man started playing in the water throwing stones which made smaller bangs and indie was getting more and more overwhelmed. Before I could catch her, two people came up to our part of the pool and she ran at them barking and jumping with her hackles up it just all went wrong so quickly. I got her back but she then refused to go anywhere near the water or even look at her dummy, which I have carefully been building her desire to retrieve over many months. OH was just like 'she's fine, she'll forget, I'm going for a swim' which meant we stayed near the pool and Indie heard two more big bangs from the fat man before I could persuade OH that we really really had to get her out of there. I am upset and annoyed with myself and OH for letting her get that scared and upset that I might have put her off swimming and retrieving all in the space of 10 minutes. When indie gets a phobia, it really lasts (the car being one of them). It seems like this holiday is a bit of a disaster for indie so far should have stayed at home
Just to say sorry your holiday is not working out as the relaxing break you were hoping for, I don't have any helpful advice. I can understand how you feel about all your hard work possibly going down the pan. Fingers crossed Indie can put it behind her.
Try not to worry too much! I know it's difficult. You might find that Indie is just fine when you get home and she is back in her usual surroundings. It may take a few days for her to calm down though. Not surprising she was a little over excited at times as your holiday sounds like a perfect doggie heaven! I find that careful use of a flexi lead (wide tape) combined with a back harness is invaluable in the right environment, giving the a good balance of freedom and control. I use one occasionally with Bramble as she has a tendency to self hunt in new surroundings which I would really rather not reinforce! She is getting better, but as she is highly motivated by small furry and flappy feathery things I reckon it will be a while yet!
Thanks we'll try getting her swimming again back at home and hopefully it will be different enough for her to forget the scary fat man falling from the sky!
She seems to have recovered and isn't scared of her dummy anymore thankfully! Haven't tried her swimming again but fingers crossed. Her mad hunting got better too - in fact, a mouse came out into the living room last night and started nibbling her Kong bone and Indie remained fast asleep!
Some photos from our break, which wasn't ALL bad I suppose! The Pig in the meadow Up Pen y Fan Family photo - there's always one with their eyes closed... Gale force ears!
Beautiful part of the world! We were a bit more east, near somewhere called Llanthony and we had lots of sun up Pen y Fan. Going home yesterday the storms hit and we had to drag a fallen tree out of the road!
