Diary of a Squealy Spaniel 30th Jan 22

30th January 2022 The Pre-Novice

Now this was supposed to be a pre novice, but it was almost identical if not more difficult than the novice I attended at the same venue so not sure why that was.

We had a small training session before hand and I thought it might take the spark out of him and get him to focus more. We had to line up and be chosen to take retrieves, this is when the trouble started as another dog retrieving what Thorn has marked makes him squeal. As soon as the retrieves started, I had to take him out of the line and get him focused on heelwork which did really help but whenever he heard someone shout “mark” he would try to fly off the handle.

When it came to our turn he was steady, focused and quiet. He retrieved and delivered to hand. I could see lots in my class were stunned as they probably thought because he had no patience, he would be awful. I was told “that was lovely” and back in line we went for 4 more retrieves where I had to distract him in the meantime. The fence we had to jump for a second retrieve was massive and Thorn was the biggest cocker in the class so I thought lord knows how this is going to go. Even the labs had difficulty with it and most saw it as a fence and not a jump, this was much bigger than the one we had done at novice level.

The instructor had seen lots of other dogs struggling so she suggested I go closer to it as we were at the other end of the field. I went halfway and tried from there. He stopped at the fence and looked at me, I told him “hup hup” our jump cue from agility and over he went. He picked the dummy but then would not jump with the pound in his mouth and he went around and found a hole.

I had hoped he would be quieter because of all the patience exercises I had been doing but its very hard to simulate 6 dogs and handlers, one dummy thrower and one instructor. The atmosphere is very different training 1-2-1.

After the training sessions the tests started, we were told instead of off lead heel spaniels would be able to hunt up. This did not happen to us as our judge asked for off lead heel which wasn’t very good. He sat up and dummies were thrown, he was fixated on the second one thrown so I heeled him around a bit to get him facing the right way and sent him. He retrieved and delivered perfectly both dummies. We got 0 as he whimpered once in the test. Of course, that’s to be expected as its J regs. I am not there to work on the squealing so much just more him taking my direction under those conditions.

The second test we had to hunt up a cover area, there would be a shot (I also didn’t expect this at pre-novice) you would have to stop your dog and then send them for a thrown dummy when we were ready. He excelled at the hunting but unfortunately the cover was close trees, so visibility wasn’t great. The shot went off and I blew the whistle, He stopped for a few seconds but ran in once the dummy was thrown. He brought it back lovely so just more steadiness training there.

In the novice previously the dog was brought in at heel on the lead, lead off and dog asked to sit, the shot went off and then the dog was asked to find the dummy so again I thought the novice was easier than this exercise.

After Thorn could hear the shots going off in the other tests I could not get him to focus so I popped him back in the car, I then returned to see what the other two tests were. One was a retrieve into pens that again where far bigger than the ones we used before. The smaller ones were in the same field so I was frustrated that we weren’t using them. The next test was another double retrieve and I just thought you know he’s had enough today. He was so unfocused and frantic to get to that shot that I thought he’s not going to take handling now. Its better to stop than have the dog fail over and over. Overall, I was pleased with him but very frustrated that pre-novice is for young and inexperienced dogs, and it was harder than the last time.

Now that I know he can switch into business mode and take direction in that environment I will give the tests a rest for a while. I would rather work on him being quiet and not putting him in scenarios that he’s going to find it hard to be quiet.