1st family dog. Spaniel?

Greyhound, Lurcher (like what I’ve got) or a whippet certainly fit the bill as far as loving sitting around doing nowt for 12 hours at a time, followed by an hours walk with a few sprints and then more sleeping. Ours is great with our 16 month old son and doesnt do anything other than get up and leave when he pulls her hair out or hits her with a toy. But she wouldnt be any good as a bike dog as she’d be off after the nearest small furry and leave you to your biking and despite her being really good with our son she doesnt like being treated roughly like a lab for example which often love attention even if its the being poked and prodded kind.
Call me over cautious but if I had young kids I wouldnt get a rescue of any breed I’m afraid.

Having been owned and been around Springers, Collies and Retrievers I can categorically say a Labrador Retriever is hands-down the best dog around young families.

They want for little (apart from food), patient, intelligent, can be left for long periods and from my experience are entirely passive.

My current Lab is 8 years old, he’s perhaps not walked as much as he should be but he can suffer with his hips if exercised too much. Eventually when we had kids he became a play-fight mate, a step, a horse and their protector. He’s gentle but makes his presence known when he needs to.

Okay, so we had to replace the kitchen a few months after we brought him because he chewed the lot but we never liked the faux cottage look anyway.

I’ll point out that if you do go for a lab be prepared to buy expensive food (we buy Burns High Oats). Bakers and like like contain far too much salt and additives that can play havoc with a labradors hips.

Well I’ve just built a kennel but it’s vacant at the moment.

I have a Rottweiler/Lab cross. He is very gentle, a lovely dog. I know Rotties have a bad reputation, but a dog is what you raise it to be. I would tend to recommend cross breeds as they are generally less prone to genetic illnesses, and cheaper to insure.

I work full time now, so I use a combination of a dog walker and a friend who will look after him on the days she doesn’t work, so he is not on his own for a long time. If you are out all day 2 days a week and can afford it, a dog walker would be a good solution.

My dog won’t trot along with a bike – gets too distracted. I do see dogs doing that though when I’m out and about.

my heart is currently breaking looking through the rspca website at all the dogs they need to rehome!

My springer Sam who is from a working blood line loves anything wet, from rivers and puddles but most of all the snow. He’s almost 2 now and has such a lovely nature. His only downside is his husky like pulling ability on the lead, but thats not too much of a problem as he’s off the lead most of the time.

He can be left alone without any trouble, he literally goes to sleep the min you leave the house and your return even after maybe 4 hours looks peeved that you’ve returned and woken him up!

he is like my wife and my shadow around the house and loves to be involved with everything especially when heading towards the kitchen!!

One thing does anoy me is over weight dogs, there is absolutely no excuse. The owner controls what they eat! He’s. Hungry is not an excuse to keep feeding because a dog being a dog will eat till they burst.

I am picking up an 8 week old Male spaniel on Thursday 🙂

I’ve posted a couple of times on here asking if anyone wanted to rehome my springer as I was stressing/worrying about leaving him alone during the day……..but I am so glad I didnt take up any of the offers I had for him (sorry Alex), he is a gem. 12months old now and such a character, easily trained, and a perfect ‘friend’ for our 5 year old Spanish Water Dog (the reason we got him was to be a companion for our first dog as our work commitments changed meaning out of the house all day a couple of days a week). Wouldnt want to leave them alone all day but luckily a neuighbour goes in each lunchtime to say hello and let them out in garden for 20 mins, other than that they seem perfectly happy with two walks everyday – normally 30 mins in morning then an hour in the evening all of which is off the lead.

Yes, they have their mad times in the garden and churn up the lawn doing circuits around it so garden is getting fenced off soon soon so half is paved for them and the other half returfed for the family. Yes, he loves mud and water and this can be a pain but its part of owning a Springer (wooden floors very handy for cleaning) and yes, he is like my shadow, sometimes too much at times.

Have I any regrets about getting him? No. Would I do it again knowing what I know now? Yes. This might be a completely different answetr though if he was my only dog. As I said we got him to keep our other dog company and its worked a treat.

We’ve got two kids who he is great with (not small kids though, 18 and 15).

Vocal when ‘protecting’ the house, great with visitors.

Sorry this is all a bit disjointed, hope it helps a bit.

Good luck.

My springer Sam who is from a working blood line

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.

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 😀

Inbred456

[/quote]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!

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]
photo.JPG[/url] by 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:

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 🙂

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.

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!