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First published February 2010
Gundog Club founder and author Pippa
Mattinson takes a long look at the 'lot' of the
working Springer Spaniel in modern society
No doubt
your springer is the 'Bees Knees'. He comes when
he is called, hunts within gunshot, and is steady to
shot, flush and fall. Yes?
Well you
are either a committed field trailer, or you have at
least five years gundog training experience under
your belt, or you are a member of one of the
smallest minorities in the country. The fact is
that for a lot of inexperienced gundog owners,
Springers are ‘trouble’. This article
takes a hard look at the working Springer Spaniel's
place in society, and asks why we let so many
Springers down, and what can be done about it.
A lot
of people are struggling with Springers
Over the
four years since the Gundog Club was launched we
have received a sobering amount of requests for help
from the owners of young gundogs. There are a lot of
very concerned dog owners out there that have bought
themselves a whole bundle of trouble. These people
are not for the most part, the owners of lively
young Labradors, the nation’s favourite pet gundog,
so often exuberant and destructive when young. They
are not the owners of the cheeky and mischievous
working Cocker rapidly growing in popularity and
sometimes labelled as ‘difficult’. On the contrary,
the people in trouble, over 90% of them, are the
owners of English Springer Spaniels. And they are
calling us, and emailing us, in their droves.
Out of control!
Usually
the conversation begins like this “ I have a
Springer Spaniel, and he is 8 months old”.
Sometimes it is 10 months or 12 months but you get
the picture. Usually what is happening is that the
dog is being taken for a walk in the countryside and
he is ‘running away’. And I am not talking about a
few minutes, or a couple of hundred yards here. We
are talking hours and miles. Almost in every case
the running away is triggered by chasing something.
It can be something as small as a bee, or as big as
a deer. It is all the same to the dog. And of
course, once the chase has begun, inevitably more
wildlife is disturbed and one chase leads to another
and another.
The
problem pet
Most
working bred Springer pups are actually purchased as
pets. By the time that their pet is approaching a
year old, many Springer owners are
experiencing difficulties.
There
are those that are aware that the problem lies
partly in their dog's genes, and wonder if his
talents might be appreciated elsewhere. As a
result, some people that have bought working bred
Springers as pets will phone us up, towards the end
of their pup’s first year. They are ringing to
inform us, they say, that they are about to do the
working gundog community a big favour by offering
their wild and talented little hunter up as a
working dog. He is far too good for a pet they will
tell us, and needs to work. On further gentle
questioning, it is revealed that this dog needs to
work so much, that he usually does it in the next
county, and returns home at his pleasure.
We tell
them that in fact, a
working dog needs a far higher standard of
obedience than a pet dog, and that a solid recall is
the foundation of basic gundog obedience. We ask
them to consider keeping the dog and attempting to
retrain the recall themselves, with the help of a
professional
trainer if at all possible. We remind them that
another inexperienced trainer would have the same
trouble with the dog as they are, and might not
cope. We tell them the truth - that Springers
like these, once passed on by those that raised them
from a puppy and really love them, often get passed
on again. And again. And again.
The
owners of these young tearaways can usually see that
the dog needs an experienced hand and are unable
initially to understand why
experienced trainers will not be beating a path
to their door and fighting each other for the
privilege of adopting their ‘failed pet’ We have to
explain that the many hours of training required to
reverse the damage they have done by allowing their
dog to experience the joys of self-employment, works
out fairly expensive and that the bitter truth is -
not only will no-one will be parting with good
money in exchange for their delinquent
absconder, they are going to have serious difficulty
even giving him away. We start to talk to them
about what a common problem this is, how there are
many people out there going through the same thing.
It isn’t their fault and they are not alone. It
usually rapidly becomes clear that they love the dog
really, and don’t want to part with it at all. But
they are at the end of their tether, and…. what can
they do?
We will
look at options for Springer owners that have got
into difficulties later in this article. It is
not just people that buy Springers as pets that get
into trouble. The next instalment will be
looking at Springers that get into difficulties in
working homes.
THE NEXT INSTALMENT
- THE PROBLEM WORKER
Update
to this article - October 2010
The
Gundog Club directors have decided to donate the
Graded Training Scheme to a brand new charity
dedicated to the welfare of working gundogs.
Training is a particularly vital welfare issue for
our hunting breeds. Correct training started
at an early age avoids so many of the problems that
lead to abandonment of working springers
Please
help us to launch this new charity by making a small
donation to
The Gundog Trust.
You can
read all about it by clicking on the link above.
Having
problems with a Springer? Get help now
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