Spaniels

Clodagh

Clodagh

Playing chess with pigeons
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Well, they are very different to labradors!
Smut is bright as a button and quick to learn in some ways, awful at others. I have always claimed house trained as no accidents for a few days. Well, she is awful, not only submission wees but also just 'gottagonow' wees. She is actually worse than when she first came on the 'gottagonow' although heaps better on the submissive. Luckily our flooring has seen it all before.
On the other hand she sits and stops on the whistle (in the house, I haven't tried it outside yet!) and picks things up very quickly. She has worked out how to get through the gate and up the stairs. That was a real plus! (Not). She is bright and confident. She is also very skinny but it is like living with a small dynamo, so I suppose it is not unexpected.
Much as I never really had a spaniel on my 'want' list she is certainly fun. I don't think I would ever collect hordes of them. I couldn't keep up!
Sorry if I have posted this one already.
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She doesn't look skinny there! Last week pic.
 
I did warn you. Can't beat Spaniel snuggles and those curly ears though.

Every tiny positive is a 'big thing' when training a Spanna (well, training and spaniel in the same sentence?) You'll soon find you're applying 'spaniel rules' to the labs, they'll love it as you start to allow them to get away with little things because they're mostly good and well behaved!

BTW I don't think she's that skinny, just not the puppy fat that the young labs have, different shape. I ended up with Beans on the high fat Millies which really helped.
 
Mine wasn't very quick on the uptake with housetraining! Too much important spaniel business to be getting on with to realise that toiletting is required before it is too late! He was also very, very skinny as a young dog and is still slimline at 7 and a half. I've found small steps and lots of repetition required for most training but then some thing just 100% stick. Clever but distracted! Mine never stayed behind any gates and doors can always be bashed into submission with the mighty spaniel paw. He was my first dog as an adult so never had anything to compare him too. The half a collie (half a spaniel) I got next is so easy in comparison! But somehow not quite as charming. :lol: I think the next will be another spaniel. Which probably means I'm mad.

I have an almost identical pink spangle belly picture somewhere!
 
Labs are born half trained, springers die half trained, I read somewhere! One of mine zipped outside when the OH came home today. The neighbour rang the bell a minute later, Zak sitting innocently on the doorstep. What a well trained dog! :roll eyes3: They already knew the ‘I sit, I get stuff’ when we got them. They still do it now, it’s very sweet!

Gotta love a puppy belly!
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Life is too exciting and busy to 'consider' toileting when being of the spanna disposition! Our springer, who will be 3 in the summer, still can't sit still when ''going'', and I wouldn't trust her 100% in the house. (98% but not the full marks!!) She has been the most trickiest to house train i've ever dealt with.
She is good fun, and stupidly clever, or is that cleverly stupid!? but only in her mind. Put a towel on her head, and she can't get out of it, but ask her to hold a biscuit without eating it, or roll over, or go left or right, she's got it taped.
I doubt we'll ever have another springy one, it'll never be a favourite breed of mine, but she's a lovely family member all the same.

Love puppy tummies.... more photos needed.
 
well Spaniels have always been on my want list, so I'll just have to come and steal her :) so squishy!
 
We love our little cocker, but she gets away with murder. Found her on the kitchen work top this morning with her nose in lasts nights sausage casserole dish. She had jumped onto the kitchen stool and then the top. I shall be telling OH & son later cos its usually my lurcher who gets the blame for thieving!
 
Carlosmum said:
We love our little cocker, but she gets away with murder. Found her on the kitchen work top this morning with her nose in lasts nights sausage casserole dish. She had jumped onto the kitchen stool and then the top. I shall be telling OH & son later cos its usually my lurcher who gets the blame for thieving!
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You can see she could like counter surfing, she will be in a kennel PDQ if she takes that up!!
 
Thistle said:
I did warn you. Can't beat Spaniel snuggles and those curly ears though.

Every tiny positive is a 'big thing' when training a Spanna (well, training and spaniel in the same sentence?) You'll soon find you're applying 'spaniel rules' to the labs, they'll love it as you start to allow them to get away with little things because they're mostly good and well behaved!

BTW I don't think she's that skinny, just not the puppy fat that the young labs have, different shape. I ended up with Beans on the high fat Millies which really helped.
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A lot of the skinniness was OH not giving her a decent lunch, it turns out. She is a fat little ball of lard now!
 
PapaverFollis said:
Mine wasn't very quick on the uptake with housetraining! Too much important spaniel business to be getting on with to realise that toiletting is required before it is too late! He was also very, very skinny as a young dog and is still slimline at 7 and a half. I've found small steps and lots of repetition required for most training but then some thing just 100% stick. Clever but distracted! Mine never stayed behind any gates and doors can always be bashed into submission with the mighty spaniel paw. He was my first dog as an adult so never had anything to compare him too. The half a collie (half a spaniel) I got next is so easy in comparison! But somehow not quite as charming. :lol: I think the next will be another spaniel. Which probably means I'm mad.

I have an almost identical pink spangle belly picture somewhere!
Click to expand...

It is a gorgeous splodgy tum. She is charming, that is a good description. She looks like a naughty little girl with pigtails.
 
cinnamontoast said:
Labs are born half trained, springers die half trained, I read somewhere! One of mine zipped outside when the OH came home today. The neighbour rang the bell a minute later, Zak sitting innocently on the doorstep. What a well trained dog! :roll eyes3: They already knew the ‘I sit, I get stuff’ when we got them. They still do it now, it’s very sweet!

Gotta love a puppy belly!
28424179_10157171846849377_149285470269781741_o.jpg
Click to expand...

Oh my. *swoon*
 
Fools Motto said:
Life is too exciting and busy to 'consider' toileting when being of the spanna disposition! Our springer, who will be 3 in the summer, still can't sit still when ''going'', and I wouldn't trust her 100% in the house. (98% but not the full marks!!) She has been the most trickiest to house train i've ever dealt with.
She is good fun, and stupidly clever, or is that cleverly stupid!? but only in her mind. Put a towel on her head, and she can't get out of it, but ask her to hold a biscuit without eating it, or roll over, or go left or right, she's got it taped.
I doubt we'll ever have another springy one, it'll never be a favourite breed of mine, but she's a lovely family member all the same.

Love puppy tummies.... more photos needed.
Click to expand...

Like you, I would not have chosen a spaniel but she is a dear little thing. Going well today - all wees outside, well in the porch for some but it is b cold out there and snow up to your wan can't help!
 
You've made me go back and look at puppy pictures. This is not good. I've gone all broody.

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Told you I had a splodgey tum picture somewhere.

ETA - this is a dog taht wasn't going to be allowed on the sofa, he now sits on the dining table whenever he fancies it. I gave up. :lol: (I clean said table thoroughly before we eat at it but mostly we eat on our knees anyway! :lol:)
 
She is just adorable! We were debating between a collie and a spaniel and going by your description I’m not sorry I went for the collie! He’s only had 2 accidents in the house in the week he has been here and they were both my fault for not paying attention! He sleeps from 2330 til 05:30 and still makes it out of the door for a wee in the morning (not trying to make you jealous, but I seem to have an unusually easy puppy...thank goodness as my first one on my own!
 
BBP said:
She is just adorable! We were debating between a collie and a spaniel and going by your description I’m not sorry I went for the collie! He’s only had 2 accidents in the house in the week he has been here and they were both my fault for not paying attention! He sleeps from 2330 til 05:30 and still makes it out of the door for a wee in the morning (not trying to make you jealous, but I seem to have an unusually easy puppy...thank goodness as my first one on my own!
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He sounds like a labrador! On the plus side she does sleep from 9.30pm to 6.30am so cannot complain there, and does make it to the porch if you get it all open before you unleash her. :-)
 
Oh my God, all of these puppy pics are making me want another!
You could say that we have the best of both worlds:
Rosie, a 3yo LabXSpringer
Dot, a 2yo (will be 3 in June) Springer
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Rosie was an accidental puppy born with no brothers or sisters! We never intended to get her as we had reserved one of Dot's litter, but someone sent us a baby photo of her and we just couldn't say no... She is a fab mix of both breeds, but doesn't have the constant need to be 'busy' like Dottie does. She loves a good old nap but also loves to wrestle. She has been the harder out of the two to train, but does enjoy it up on the shoot. She looks like a streamlined lab with long ears.

Dottie was the first born in her litter. Her mum even 'retrieved' her to my dad's friend (who bred her) as she didn't know what to with her! She is like an eternal puppy. People don't believe us when we say she's nearly three. She is constantly switched on and so much fun. A bit more impulsive than Rosie-which ended up with her once jumping off a bridge and breaking her leg because she saw Rose was having a look and decided to go for a flying lesson!! She's fab on the shoot.

We love them both to the ends of the Earth.
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Rosie in November 2016:
My favourite photo of her that I have taken. Looking so sophisticated but still with an inside out ear!
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Puppy Rosie:
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Dot as a pup:
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Dot more recently:
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Omg, Dot and Rosie are beautiful.

As well as the spaniel I have a Springer x collie and he's like a small collie with long ears so I liked your description of Rosie as streamlined lab with long ears!
 
I quite often look at pictures of the cocker as a pup and wish he was that small and cute again :D. Not that I don't think he's cute now.

For some reason my BF cocker as a pup was house trained everywhere but his house. In his house he seemed to think the kitchen floor was where the pees and poos went. He would go outside for about half an hour then promptly come in and squat.
 
The housetraining is making progress, we don't have any gottagonow pees but plenty of submission squeezes. We just ingore those and I hope they soon go away.
 
PapaverFollis said:
Omg, Dot and Rosie are beautiful.

As well as the spaniel I have a Springer x collie and he's like a small collie with long ears so I liked your description of Rosie as streamlined lab with long ears!
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Can't multiquote for some reason, but thank you clodagh, too. I think the spanXlab mix turned out to be a very happy mistake indeed!
 
Clodagh said:
The housetraining is making progress, we don't have any gottagonow pees but plenty of submission squeezes. We just ingore those and I hope they soon go away.
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Dottie used to pee when she got excited/submission pees as you say. We did the same as you, just ignored and wiped them up without a fuss and they stopped eventually. Very, very rarely she'll still have a tiny tinkle if she's through the roof excited!!
 
rosiesowner said:
Dottie used to pee when she got excited/submission pees as you say. We did the same as you, just ignored and wiped them up without a fuss and they stopped eventually. Very, very rarely she'll still have a tiny tinkle if she's through the roof excited!!
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She is so funny, although we are/were not planning on her being a retriver she loves picking things up and bringing them to you, she is all wiggly and excited. When you bend down to take them, and say 'dead', she does a waggle of the bum and a little wee. I am not sure if it is because I am bending down over her or the whole 'Gosh I'm so clever' is too much for her little spaniel brain.
I am glad to hear it does get grown out of though, my kitchen floor has never been so clean!
 
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