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I am picking up an 8 week old Male spaniel on Thursday
Exciting! Our springer is now a year old. There have been times when I would have paid someone to take her away. Remember its just like having another kid. They will wake you at night, barf on your floor have the squits in their basket! But with plenty of socialisation, training, love and consistent boundaries they turn into great dogs. We use a doggie day care when we going to be out for more than 4 hrs and she has the run of the utility room and garden when we are out.
They are dirt magnets but not food hoovers (My brother in laws lab ate a 1kg block of cheese in 3 minutes when everyone was in the garden-wrapper and all). Enjoy!
Labs are great but can't really be left for long periods, very sociable dogs. They eat anything and need a lot of exercise if you want to keep them trim. Another vote for a retired greyhound here. Great dogs, will sleep all day if need be. Ours great with kids and easily house trained. Quite barmy off the lead though in a playful way. Do miss our lab though!
PS don't let anybody tell you they have no stamina, if they have been an ex racer they are fit as ****. Cat's not a good idea as our moggy with half a tail will testify after living quite happily together for about a year!
Sharkbait
I'm not doubting what it says on your pedigree..... but Sam looks very very much like a working cocker to me - I'm on my third now. They are breeding Cockers bigger now though I think.
The photos were taken when he was quite young hence he make look small but having had working springers my whole life he's probable above average size for the breed.
Working bloodlines of both cocker and springer are alot smaller than the show variants that are the more common type that you see when out and about. They are small to get into tightly packed undergrowth the flush or spring game.
Cockers are getting bigger at the upper end of the market. Here's Jasmine who's now 15 months old - I walked in to the kitchen to find her up on the table waiting to go for a walk....gotta love spaniels 😀
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Inbred456
They eat anything and need a lot of exercise if you want to keep them trim.
I completely agree but would go further and say a healthy dog should never be overweight there is absolutely no excuse. Nothing sadder than watching a barrel shaped spaniel or lab that wants to run about and play but can't.
Exercise shouldnt be the only means of keeping a dog trim, their food intake like a humans should coincide with the amount of exercise planned for that day. This however is neglected especially with breeds like spaniels and labs as they won't stop begging for food or eating no matter how much they have consumed so people think they need to keep feeding them.
Its just cruel
ha ha ha. like.
Can't believe cockers are getting bigger because then they are just becoming springers again. Both were the same breed but the smallest springers were pared producing the smaller dog before they got recognised as a breed of their own. There are very strict size limits to dogs so as soon as a size change trend occurs then it effects the ehole breed clasification.
Upper end of the market suggest your going on price which sounds like the show variant and not the working bloodline. They are very different dogs to look at and are much larger.
Springer Sam looks almost identical to one of ours. She'll be 2 next month. Our older one is 7 and a bit and the two are like chalk and cheese in their personalities. Older one is much more sociable whereas the young one is a lot more nervous of people and dogs. She's not aggressive ,but would rather avoid them. Both love mud and water though. If you get Springr also get a good Hoover.
Upper end of the market suggest your going on price which sounds like the show variant and not the working bloodline.
Haha, no mate completely the opposite - would touch a show dog even if you paid me!
Working cockers are being bred a bit bigger so they can do more work - if you see pictures of the latest FTCh dogs they're not the little cockers of 20 years ago.
Our bitch Ellie (that was the spitting image of Sam) was almost as tall as a Springer and she had a great pedigree. Not the best pic but here she is at the age of about 10 - she went on to reach 16!
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[/img]Jasmine is the second dog we've had from this breeder (Will Clulee) and both he and his son are very successful in field trials and produce some great dogs.
Pricewise I wouldn't have a clue what a show dog costs but we paid fairly big for Jasmine, but she's worth it 🙂
here's my new Springer pup from working lines 😀
[url= http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7111/6873064636_9b0e3d310f.jp g" target="_blank">
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[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/48247502@N07/ ]valley daddy[/url], on Flickr
Sam is definitely a springer! He looks fantastic.
As for springer mud magnets....one of my favourite pictures of ours:
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Definitely fantastic with kids - ours loves my nephews
Definitely okay to leave for a few hours and they will sleep. Just make sure they get a bit of a run in the morning and then an hour or so off the lead at some point.
Definitely not okay for 20 miles and don't forget they will do X times more distance than you as they will go off track. But if you plan rest breaks they don't take long to recover in between each block of several miles.
They will probably pull on the lead - they are best off the lead.
Other dog we are thinking about getting is an English Pointer. Should be able to cover more distance than the springer due to longer legs and less going off.
I also love collies but they need more constant stimulation.
There was someone on here who had just got a Hungarian Visla (?) a few weeks ago.
I'd love to know how that's going because he looked like a cracker 🙂
[i]Working cockers are being bred a bit bigger so they can do more work - if you see pictures of the latest FTCh dogs they're not the little cockers of 20 years ago.[/i]
We've a working cocker dog, and he's almost twice the size of his sisters - but he's well exercised - so maybe this helps. His parents were 'normal' sized.
Today was funny though, he led me down the GT final descent and took short cuts - he definitely knew where he was going 🙂
Therag.
great choice my first springer I had for 17yrs, my current one I've had about 18 months he's about 5yrs old (rescue dog) from someone I know.
he had a few problems but getting there now (rabbit chaser) or self employed I think they call it in the gundog world, bloody nightmare when I first got him.
Don't no what you plan on doing with him training wise, but recall (here/come) is something you want to try and get 100% with a springer imo, start as soon as you get him home on this, use food, play if you nail the recall you'll have no problems
A deaf springer is a lunatic.
Great choice therag,as l said ealier get a good springer working dog training book and digest it.lntroduce him to whistle as soon as.possible. Remember theiy come half trained and check your house insurance.............lol
Sound advice Andy,
Take him out for training sessions not walks 😮
I think springers need the mental stimulation just as much as the exercise, in fact i would say its more important
A springer will get more out of a 15 min training session than he will belting round the local park for an hour
And so will you.
Have a look into clicker training too, speeds up the command learning loads
While he's a puppy though just creating a bond is important,
He's a baby
Well buzz has arrived!! (named by my son) an 8 week old springer. He's fantastic with the kids and has settled in really well. He plays with all the family for a while and then just hops back into his crate for a few hours.
I'm sure he will get more difficult, but so far so good!