In tears over spaniel - please help

[Herewegoagainffs]

I am at the end of my tether. We have a 6 year old working cocker. He’s wonderful in so many ways and we love him. We have 3 small children he is fabulous with but…

HE IS SO EXHAUSTING IN THE GARDEN. All he does is bring object after object over to us to throw for him. It’s boiling so we have the doors open and then he brings them in the house. He has popped over 100 ball pit balls. He brings pine cones, rocks, clumps of mud.

NOTHING WORKS. We have tried ignoring him/ we have tried sending him inside. We have tried throwing a ball for varying amounts of time. Nothing helps. He is walked for several hours a day. He gets plenty of attention and stimulation. It’s driving me to distraction and I am at my wit’s end I just want to enjoy my garden and not be constantly harassed.

we sent him every summer to a gundog trainer for a month as he shoots in the autumn and last summer the gundog trainer said he just refused to retrieve properly and he was thrown off a shoot with my husband. He’s just lost the plot I don’t even know what to say anymore we have spent thousands on training, hours and hours of training at home and exercising him etc and I don’t know what we can do.

all ideas welcome please!

Hi, we used the book "fired up, frantic and freaked out" which has a detailed protocol for introducing mat work gradually. After a couple of days of this we took our dog to the pub and were surprised to find that he self settled under the table! But I'd recommend following the full plan as it's very gradual which will set your dog up to succeed

We literally just used an old rug/bath mat, I think it can be anything that can be easily transported and which you can keep consistent. We also practice the same protocol in his bed.

Finally like others have said we reward him at random times during the day when he is calm and settled

We had a spaniel cross and she was exactly like this. Given the chance she would have chased a ball/stick/rock/toy for 24 hours. If one person ignored her hard stares she'd move to the next. Relentless. She didn't bark though so was easy to ignore.

Have you tried a licki mat for calm time? I use natural yogurt, canned dog food and a bit of peanut butter and stick it in the freezer.

Natural chews like cow tails, buffalo ears etc are good for keeping them busy too. I read something that suggested chewing for 30 minutes is equal to a 30 minute walk but not sure how true this is. I'd also love to find a chew that lasted 30 minutes!

I've got a high energy, high drive breed (not a spaniel though) who can be pretty relentless, and like you, I found that in trying to wear her out I was just training an athlete and making life harder for myself. Some things that I have done to teach an off switch as it were are: relaxation protocol (can be found online, just a kind of calming routine really), settle, scentwork (I hide treats around the house and garden and she has to find them, also do mantrailing and scentwork classes), scatter feeding, a clear ending signal to play ("finished!" and then the toy is taken away and swapped for a chew/lickimat to bring the energy down again), making sure she has a quiet place to sleep that's out of the way and ignoring her when she's doing that.

Good luck with her - I've been in tears of frustration lots of times with mine, but she's getting better all the time!

Anything will work for him as a mat, but something with a bit of padding may be more comfortable for him. However some things will be a lot more convenient for you. Ideally something that rolls/folds up small so it can move easily from room to room, or come with you to the pub etc. Washable is good too especially if his preferred training treats are in any way mucky! An old towel will do just fine, we use a cheap bath mat with a memory foam backing that I picked up in the pound shop.

Lovely to read all the positive suggestions on here.

Ok I am now implementing the following:

DH to take dog on 5-10 min training walk 2 x a day on top of normal walk

scatter feeding dry food in garden for breakfast

some sort of licki Mat feeding wobble bowl for his wet food dinner

calm time training on a mat

ignoring all throwing

have ordered some antlers to give him for a set period of time per day (think someone said 30 mins?)

feeling a lot more positive having a plan, thank you x

I wouldn’t worry too much about the toddler throwing something undoing your work. Dogs are very specific learners and he can differentiate between the toddler and you.

Agree that you’ve had some good advice here. It bemuses me when I see people throwing balls throughout a walk. An off lead walk in fields or woodland has quite enough stimulation in itself. Let the dogs use their noses!

another tip for quiet occupation: frozen Kong with peanut butter (non xylitol) or wet dog food from daily ration in it. Takes time to lick out!

I don't think anyone has mentioned using a lead, it's not just for walks, great inside the house or in the garden for calming a situation down.

Sounds like a great plan! Do let us know how you get on

My boy has his soft lead in house def calms him. We teach calm, settle so when he lies down relaxed we wait and use a cue word (nice/settle) whatever you choose and gently calmly reward - he is boundary trained too so now goes on his raised bed that’s ‘his place’ kids etc do not go near him on this or in crate he is left to sleep etc. lots of amazing advice on here, I think you need to do walks solo so he’s getting undivided focused attention from one person. Take turns but be consistent. Sounds hard work, I have a retriever and it’s constant re training etc as they are clever dogs. Mine loves to play brain games, he picks them up so easily I need to find some harder ones to do. That tires him as much as a run. Good luck and it’s nice you’ve had so many positive replies from knowledgeable owners

Day 1

antler bone arrives. Dog plays with it for 30 seconds then continuously brings us children’s toys and pine cones.

any other long lasting bone/treat recommendations? He does not seem to care for this one!

it’s nice you’ve had so many positive replies from knowledgeable owners

I agree with this!

@GreenManalishi hi, I second the use of a lead a bit in the garden. Our dog gets loads of off lead time on walks now but if we are sitting in the garden playing cards or having a drink she goes on the lead as if she would in a pub or cafe, she is still quite young and will hopefully settle eventually naturally as she does mostly inside but she isn’t allowed in the garden unsupervised often (lots of digging as little pup, free roaming Guinea pigs at times) so it is v exciting for her!!

A Kong with peanut butter or chub meat inside (like a meat paste);it encourages self soothing behaviour and it's fun for them

You can also try things like air dried marrow bone, bull pizzle, camel skin, buffalo chews, etc. basically trial and error until you find something he likes.

That being said - it might take a while for him to learn to settle with a chew. Give him time to get into a new routine and see how the month goes with settle training.

My Spaniel hides chews during the day time, but will chew them in the evening once he’s getting sleepy. He settles on and off throughout the day due to the relaxation protocol.

You’ve got this! Good luck!