Karran
Well-Known Member
Although Mrs Spaniel is a savvy city-dog sometimes I am sharply reminded that she is a working dog, from a long line of working dogs and that needs to be stimulated and exercised accordingly.
After my panicked post here about Mystery Bruise I was in two minds whether to run or not. The Vet said it would probably upset her not to run more than to run, I had a hotel booked, so I made the call to head to Peterborough for Just Dogs. There were 5 dogs on a team of 4 so if it proved to be too much I'd not run her, and we'd have a lovely day out admiring the show dogs and sniffing out bargains.
I try to keep Mrs Spaniel active, we walk for two hours a weekday spread out over 3 walks, she is up the yard with me three days a week, on Saturdays we go out on a rotation of her favoured three walks for a solid two hours and then has an evening stroll, on Sundays we normally walk for 30 minutes, then do an hours flyball training and then up to the yard for two hours and then she is out cold mentally for the afternoon before a casual stroll in the evening if she fancies it, which more often than not she doesn't.
We did nothing from Wednesday as I was worried about making it worse. I don't normally walk her the day before a comp anyway to conserve energy but this is the longest she has been house-bound since she was spayed.
Oh Dear! She had a complete breakdown. She broke away from me in our warm up, and danced about me, play bowing and deliberately staying out of reach. To say she bites is incorrect, but when she is simply frantic with pent up energy she puts on a snarly face and will mouth my hand, it is something I am trying very hard to correct, it is something that doesn't happen often because I am careful to keep her stimulated and fully exercised to avoid this, but I could see how her previous owners, would have struggled to deal with this, It is never an issue of breaking the skin or even hurting me but I obviously try to correct it when it happens, I can't actually remember the last time it happened.
(I was quite unsure as to whether to put this as I am aware things put online can be taken out of context and it is hard to correct assumptions.)
She is not an aggressive dog by any means but even shocked my team captain. I was quite aware that people were watching, so my first instinct of walking instantly away and pretending she wasn't with me wouldn't work! Holding her collar only makes her writhe around on her back kicking out with all paws and attempting to hold onto me with her front paws. Again not a good look and makes her seem rather uncontrollable and vicious.
Eventually I got the little ratbag under some semblance of control and we sat out the morning racing.
Quote of the day: " I just wanted to come and shake your dog by the paw. Its so nice to know that its not just my spaniel who will run perfectly once and then be an utter embarrassing horror."
I took her to play on the have a go agility and we fetched sticks for two hours solid, I then asked if we could have a go racing and if it was too much we would withdraw.
She was foot perfect. I knew she would be. She had gotten all the excess energy out of her system and was able to concentrate on doing her job. She was back to her usual excitable but genuinely happy friendly nature.
We got back to the hotel and she instantly collapsed on the bed tired after her day out
and yes - it was a good day's work!
Very happy as we now have enough points to get our flyball dog award, which hopefully will come our way at Imber Court in a fortnight's time.
Normal Service has now been resumed at Spaniel Towers, i have dog-loving friends visiting all this week and she is super excited about showing them some of our adventures and favourite routes!
After my panicked post here about Mystery Bruise I was in two minds whether to run or not. The Vet said it would probably upset her not to run more than to run, I had a hotel booked, so I made the call to head to Peterborough for Just Dogs. There were 5 dogs on a team of 4 so if it proved to be too much I'd not run her, and we'd have a lovely day out admiring the show dogs and sniffing out bargains.
I try to keep Mrs Spaniel active, we walk for two hours a weekday spread out over 3 walks, she is up the yard with me three days a week, on Saturdays we go out on a rotation of her favoured three walks for a solid two hours and then has an evening stroll, on Sundays we normally walk for 30 minutes, then do an hours flyball training and then up to the yard for two hours and then she is out cold mentally for the afternoon before a casual stroll in the evening if she fancies it, which more often than not she doesn't.
We did nothing from Wednesday as I was worried about making it worse. I don't normally walk her the day before a comp anyway to conserve energy but this is the longest she has been house-bound since she was spayed.
Oh Dear! She had a complete breakdown. She broke away from me in our warm up, and danced about me, play bowing and deliberately staying out of reach. To say she bites is incorrect, but when she is simply frantic with pent up energy she puts on a snarly face and will mouth my hand, it is something I am trying very hard to correct, it is something that doesn't happen often because I am careful to keep her stimulated and fully exercised to avoid this, but I could see how her previous owners, would have struggled to deal with this, It is never an issue of breaking the skin or even hurting me but I obviously try to correct it when it happens, I can't actually remember the last time it happened.
(I was quite unsure as to whether to put this as I am aware things put online can be taken out of context and it is hard to correct assumptions.)
She is not an aggressive dog by any means but even shocked my team captain. I was quite aware that people were watching, so my first instinct of walking instantly away and pretending she wasn't with me wouldn't work! Holding her collar only makes her writhe around on her back kicking out with all paws and attempting to hold onto me with her front paws. Again not a good look and makes her seem rather uncontrollable and vicious.
Eventually I got the little ratbag under some semblance of control and we sat out the morning racing.
Quote of the day: " I just wanted to come and shake your dog by the paw. Its so nice to know that its not just my spaniel who will run perfectly once and then be an utter embarrassing horror."
I took her to play on the have a go agility and we fetched sticks for two hours solid, I then asked if we could have a go racing and if it was too much we would withdraw.
She was foot perfect. I knew she would be. She had gotten all the excess energy out of her system and was able to concentrate on doing her job. She was back to her usual excitable but genuinely happy friendly nature.
We got back to the hotel and she instantly collapsed on the bed tired after her day out
and yes - it was a good day's work!
Very happy as we now have enough points to get our flyball dog award, which hopefully will come our way at Imber Court in a fortnight's time.
Normal Service has now been resumed at Spaniel Towers, i have dog-loving friends visiting all this week and she is super excited about showing them some of our adventures and favourite routes!