@YorkshireFelix @AubrieDog She went straight in the bath, and to be fair she jumped in so I think she knew it was coming!
Hooray for off lead V! Watching them nose down is the greatest joy of spanielling, I think. One of the gundog skills I found most fun to teach was ‘back’ – it’s used a lot in the field when they’re working but at home you can use it on more banal tasks – to get them to turn around and pick up stuff they’ve left behind, ie stolen socks/toys that need tidying from the garden. My trainer gave me a really good method for it and I genuinely use it as a skill all the time – can type it out for you if you want something new to try.
Pupsy is really good with other dogs being in her space and sharing her toys/chews, so I’m not worried about that – it’ll just be really interesting to see how she reacts to a dog being more of a puppy, as I still think of her as teeny tiny, when of course she isn’t really now. I will fill you all in on Sunday!
@Bupster Another of my friends has a springador actually and she’s very labby in all ways – looks and temperament. You wouldn’t think there was any spaniel there, which is weird. It’s absolutely fine to not be arsed about training all the time, I reckon. Sometimes you just have to get through the week, and he’s still a baby so you have loads of time.
I feel a bit sad tonight. Was on a walk with my friend when we bumped into local Spaniel Man and his wife, who are friends of ours, plus their dog. SM was on the phone and, unusually, his wife let their dog off the lead and he came to play with our group. Suddenly I was taken with a flash of irritability and said to her, ‘oh puppins isn’t allowed to play with him so I’ll just keep her away.’ (Every time we see him now, including at their house, SM makes it clear that his dog is NOT a dog that plays, or that goes on ‘walks’, since he is a Serious Working Dog and is Only Allowed To Do Training Sessions, and every time I see him he makes me feel about an inch high about it – all of this despite the fact that they have known pupsy her whole life.) Anyway, his lovely wife had no idea what I was talking about and said, ‘I can’t believe that’s true, I've never noticed that’, and now I feel like a total cowbag, but he does make me feel small every single time. Maybe she’ll tell him and he’ll get some self-awareness. Probably not though. I’m not at all wet in real life despite how that sounds but I just hate the thought of having any kind of animosity with anyone, ever. And especially over something dumb like that. I always say you can only train the dog in front of you but maybe I should take my own advice and let that apply to people too. Ugh.