Hi, forgive me for asking what could be a very silly question (i'm working with Pippa's Total Recall book), but can i ask you all for help with my springer spaniel? If not could you point me in the right direction please. TIA
Hi there and welcome. Where have you got to with your Springer? Is there an exercise you are struggling with ?
Hello and welcome to the forum. Ask away. I'm sure someone can help. I've got five spaniels, two of them springers, myself.
There's no breed snobbery here - loads of members have other breeds, and mixed breeds, as well as, or instead of Labs. There are several people with spaniels, too, if it's something specific to the breed. Ask away, and welcome!
Thanx all. Star is 5 and i've had her almost 3 years. She was a bit of a wild child having had no training other than a sit in her previous 2 homes. Anyway we've worked really hard and sorted (pretty much lol) all but the recall. I've "retrained" it several times with a change of verbal comands and last year with the whistle. Each recall has lasted about 3 months and then she's reverted to choosing to not come back - she stops and acknowledges the recall but carries on going. I'm about to take the journey again using Pippa's book but before i start, how do i change her recall comand yet again. I still believe the whistle is the best way but how can i make it sound completely different to the 3 pips we've already used. I use 1 blast as a stop which in close quarters works well. Thanx
Out on walks on her own or with others. She's not chasing anything she just wants to get to the woods, the pond, the stream, pheasant feeding stations!! Anywhere. Its like she thinks that the area that is about a 3 mile radius from our house is just a giant garden to her and she can go where she wants, when she wants. She's been on lead walks only since last Oct, i thought we'd cracked the recall on a long line so let her off 2 weeks ago and within minutes she'd gone. Her return to home record is just short of 5 hrs!! I've been told that in her first home she was let out of the boot of the car and given free running on the beach til she came back and in her second home she was let out the patio doors to run round the fields, again til she came back of her own accord
Ok, with that sort of history you will always struggle on walks unless you can find a way to give her a purpose whenever she is off lead. By that I mean she is either walking to heel, retrieving or quartering (controlled hunting). Most springers will behave in the manner you describe when allowed to free hunt. Free hunting is the same as free running without a purpose. Pippa has written a great article called 'The Trouble with Springers'. If you haven't read it yet then please have a look at it. I will try and post the link in a minute. I don't walk my springers in the traditional sense of taking the dogs for a walk. It would sabotage everything I have ever trained for. I might get away with it with my Clumbers and my cocker but definitely not my springers who are far more independent than the others are and wouldn't think twice about hunting into the next county without a backward glance given half a chance.
This is the first part of Pippa's article. http://totallygundogs.com/the-trouble-with-springers-part-one/
Oh i agree. I do what i call "working walks" with star on a longline. We do heel work, changing direction, sit & down stays, short recalls, stops, retrieves, emergency stops etc. Whilst she's on the longline this is fine, as soon as i drop the line or take it off all focus on me disappears. We have tried quartering and when in an unfamiliar place she does hunt and work well, again on a longline , but return to that place again and she's not interested. I was hoping that going right back to the beginning and following Pippa's book, even if it takes another year, i can get some focus on me which can only help. Thanx for the article link, i'll have a read
Hi Janette, I'm not a Spaniel owner and Heidrun is the expert on the breed but we do have a rescue Labrador x Pointer called Charlie that came to us a 9 months old with absolutely NO recall at all and an absconder, to say he brought us to our knees on several ocassions is an understatement as @heidrun knows only too well and she helped us enormously over the years, so I totally sympathise. We worked through Pippa's Total Recall step by step keeping Charlie on a long training line for 3 years working relentlessly on his recall to whistle 7 days a week. I am happy to say for the last 2 years he now gets quite a bit of time off lead and at 5 years old he does have a verbal and whistle recall, but he is by no means perfect and still has the ocassional slip-up but compared to how he used to be we can live with it and manage him as well as we can as novice dog owners. Unfortunately for us Charlie is not interested in retrieving and believe me I have really tried hard but we do work on his stop whistle and just recently I have been doing some scent work in our garden which we both enjoy, we also do fun agility in our garden just to keep his brain going active. From our own experience I think you can't go wrong going back to the beginning with Total Recall taking Star to different locations and working methodically through each exercise slowly, there's no hurry so take your time and I am sure you will get there. There are a few Spaniel owners on the forum who will be only to happy to help you on your way. I wish you good luck, been there got the T-Shirt x
I think I would concentrate training on quartering, turn whistle and stop whistle. You mentioned pheasant feeders so there must be game around, which is not the ideal ground for training a dog that is used to being self employed. Could you find ground that is a little less distracting? Does she like retrieving or is she only interested in hunting?
Just a little thought, when I was training Charlie I was very lucky to have the use of a paddock for a year from a neighbour to practice recall, stop whistle, playing etc. and just allowing Charlie to burn off some of his excess energy in an enclosed safe area. I wonder if there is any possibility you could have use of somewhere secure for you to train Star?
Thanx Charlie, what a journey you've had but they are so worth it ☺ I'm so pleased to hear how things have worked out for you and must admit i know star will always have the potential to do her own thing but do think she's also worth spending the rest of her life trying to get at least some focus on me on our walks We do agility competitively which she loves and whilst her focus is on the jumping not me she does follow my voice commands brilliantly - well she has to as due to arthritis i cant run round a course with her. This is what gives me the hope that i can somehow get her working off lead on our walks even if its for short bursts at a time. There is a paddock right behind my house that i'm sure i could get permission to use while its empty so i'll ask the question later today. x
Heidrun i think you're probably right but i do need to get her focus on me first. We've been working on the quartering for 6 months now and her head is too busy 'wild childing' to concentrate properly lol She is fab at retrieving and is tennis ball obsessed... until she decides otherwise which could be on the 2nd throw or the 100th, you just never know which one she'll pick up but then keep running with!! I live in the countryside so its very difficult to get away from the distractions of foxes, rabbits, deer, badgers, pheasants, partridge etc In season, there can be shoots pretty much 360 degrees around us. I'm thinking with the use of the paddock i mention above, which is overgrown grass at the moment, i could plant some balls and dummies to help stars focus on quartering. Also if i work through the recall book to attempt to get her focus on me better i then get a double pronged approach. What do you think?
If she is tennis ball obsessed and loves retrieving then you have got a good chance of turning her around. I would work through Total Recall again and also start to teach her quartering with the help of tennis balls. The idea is that she finds balls as close to your feet as possible. When she is quartering you need to keep her literally just a couple of yards from you before turning her on the turn whistle and you walking a couple of steps in the opposite direction. You only need a very small area of ground to start with, a corner of a field would be ideal so that you are fenced in on two sides. Pre planting some tennis balls before you take her to the area is a good idea as it will also move on any game that might be on the ground. I took on a rescue cocker a few years ago and I hand fed him for the best part of a year to build a strong bond with him and to use all of his food rations as rewards in training. I'm now doing the same with a young Clumber spaniel who came to me second hand five months ago. The hand feeding and short but often training sessions have worked wonders for her. By the way, my recall whistle is just a series of pips. I don't consciously count three, four, five or however many pips. Sometimes I blow the whistle very softly and sometimes with a bit more intensity, all depends on the situation and the distance the dog is from me.
Thanks Heidrun. We'll get working on that and let you know how we get on. I much appreciate all yr advice x
Best of luck! Looking forward to updates. It's always nice to see another spaniel owner on the forum.
