Brain games for working cocker spaniel

[DelphiniumHolly]

Hi everyone,

We have a lovely 14 week old working cocker spaniel. She’s doing so well, enjoying all her training and her small walks. I’m aware of the need to keep her brain busy, though, and have been trying to do some scent games with her.

So far I’ve scattered her food into her pen (inside/under things) and left her to sniff them all out, as well as popping some treats into a toilet roll tube and securing the ends so she has to get into it to get the treats out. She’s loved both of these!

I was looking for some more ideas, if anyone has any? Of how we can test her brain/scent skills around the house.

(Also, she’s so quick to master all of her training commands, I feel like we’ve run out of things to teach her!!! What have you all taught your spaniels to do?)

Thank you!

Training is always the answer.

Sit. Down. Stay. Wait. Walk to heel. Back. Flying down. Between. Place. Left. Right. Named toys fetching. Leave. Drop. Return (different from recall - it’s the command I use to get my dogs to tidy up). Stand. Quiet. Sitting down wait. Laying down wait. Standing wait.

Ear cleaning. Nail trimming. Handling. Get her used to this.

Loads of the commands above are basics that dogs need to learn. 10-15 mins 3-4 times a day.

Giving a puppy extra food as brain games is often a bad idea because food = energy and puppies are hyper enough. It’s great you want to engage her on scent work - but I think at her age, training is really crucial as you want to install good habits now.

I’d also say it’s very easy to think your dog has picked up all the training - but you’d be amazed by how easily, they also forget them if you don’t go over them a lot.

@DelphiniumHolly With a gundog the answer is always going to be gundog training and she’s not too young to start! I started gundog work with my working cocker girl the week we got her home, just doing tiny retrieves and having fun with it. You have definitely not run out of things to teach her! She'll forget things anyway so you will need to keep going over and over things. My girl is nearly two and we are still doing things we started when she was a pup – it's entirely normal.

You don’t have to ever see a pheasant or a shotgun to do gundog training if the idea of it puts you off – there’s a whole universe of non-gun stuff you can do that will work her brain properly, in the way that she’s been bred. Once you get going it's addictive and you can spend a fortune on stuff to go with it. But a whistle from Acme – for a spaniel you want a 210.5 pitch – is ~£10 and you'll use it for life.

Feel free to DM me if you want more specific useful help but there is a whole spaniel world out there to explore.

@DelphiniumHolly Also, I would add – don't forget to teach her to do nothing. This is vital. People get obsessed with the idea of keeping their dogs busy and engaged all the time but one of the most important skills you can teach them is to stop and rest, particularly working line dogs that will gladly go all day. My girl sleeps almost all day while I WFH because that was the first thing we taught her to do – to settle on her own.

Have you tried Wordle?

Take her formal training class and have a few sessions during the day reinforcing the comands learned.
Play with your dog like tig and fetch.
But always finish as soon as she's either slowing down or getting hyper.
Also always make it so that you initiate the play and don't let her bully you into it!
(One of my previous dogs would fling toys at me when he decided it was time to play/ get my attention! Not great if you are eating or just want to relax. Lesson learned the hard way.)

Proof proof and proof your training.

You dog can sit in the kitchen in front of you when you have treats in your hand.
Can they sit at a distance from you?
Can they sit in a busy street or area?
Can they sit when kids are playing football?

Loads of basic life skillls need to be taught. Get your dog out and about and proof all your behaviours.

You have a spaniel - proof and work on heel work - that will keep you going for several days(years).

Focus on you - throw a treat out and as the dog eats it say yes and dog comes back to you for another treat. Increase the distance you throw the food and areas you do this. You should be able to throw the food in a field full of birds and the spaniel will chase back to you rather than chase the birds. Great basic training for focus on you.

Re hunting games I would most of your puppies food allowance for this. Build up to longer searches in bigger areas.

Put your dog into a sit wait and place out the food whist they are watching and waiting ( good proofing for your sit and wait) Put food in longer grass behind pots in corners etc gradually make it harder for them to find.

Get your dog interested in a ball and then use that as a search or hunting item.

Get them used to changing direction when hunting in front of you. You turn and they turn.

Teach a nose touch onto your hand - build this up to a sustained hand touch so they stay there until you release them. Great for scentwork indications and also for husbandry.

It is good to get them to settle when you want them to. However yo have got a working dog so do get them working

Oh I could go on for hours.........

This is all amazing advice from everyone, thank you so much. Lots to be getting on with!!

Lots of people suggesting that she needs to learn how to relax during the day at home. How do you go about that exactly?

@DelphiniumHolly
I crated my wcs several times during the day as a puppy.
I know crates are not for everybody but it really taught him to chill the hell out, puppies need sleep or they think they can go all day !
If you are not crate training I would let your dog sit beside you and as far as you can just ignore any demands for attention stroking your pup and they should go to sleep, but you have a pup for the next 2 years so it really is ongoing.

Great, thank you! She has a small pen with a bed in it rather than a crate. She goes in there when we leave for a bit (we’ve working our way up to being out for two hours) and she’s happy to go in with a chew. So I could pop her in there a bit during the day when we’re in.
I work from home most of the week and put her bed next to my desk. She usually curls up in there for an hour or so at a time to have a snooze. Does that sound okay?

You sound like you have it worked out fine popping her into her pen sounds a great idea,

I also used to take mine outside and just sit with him on a bench so he could watch the world go by he loves this.

Re chilling at home, we didn’t crate train either but just had beds in various places from the start, and taught a firm ‘go and lie down’. It didn’t take long for her to understand that if I was sitting down working then she was sleeping or chewing something (of hers) or just resting, if her needs were met. She just copied what I was doing – if I got up then she’d come and ‘help’, and when I sat back down she’d lie down again. I had to repeat myself a lot in the early days, guiding her back to her bed, saying ‘lie down now, sleep now’ in a gentle voice, and praising her for settling. At her age she’ll need to sleep loads so you’ve got plenty of opportunities to encourage her to take herself off to bed.

I think having her bed next to your desk is lovely. If she settles there already for a sleep then you’re winning.

A lot of the problems people seem to have with WCS seem to have been caused by the dog not having been taught to be at rest. It translates to outside too. We spend 5-10 minutes of most walks just sitting down on a bench or on the grass somewhere/at the top of the hill we’ve climbed or whatever just watching and smelling and listening. If they’re going to work they have to spend a lot of time being quiet doing nothing but even if they’re not it’s a really important skill – it translates down to you stopping to chat to someone on a walk, and them just lying down next to you. It’s all part of the same thing.

I mean here is mine ready to roll 😀

Brilliant, thank you. This helps me understand the mentality a lot more. I’ll definitely try and implement a command for going to her bed and settling down. We had an old rescue Staffy before this and he was so chilled out and slept all day, it’s a bit different 🤣

She has been a dream so far though!! Much easier than I was expecting. This is her enjoying her sunny walk this morning ☀️

@DelphiniumHolly Pleasure! What a gorgeous girl. They truly are the very best dogs – you get back what you put in! You have so much fun to come with her.

The Ladies Working Dog Group is very handy if you have a gundog - lots of advice and help, and the vibe on the FB groups is very good.

Settle is such a great command.

There’s a video on how to train them to settle here OP