Cocker Spaniel Rehabilitation For Sooty

Charlie came to me with Sooty after a recommendation from her sister, who is training Digby, an Italian Spinone, with me. What’s really needed with Sooty is some Cocker Spaniel rehabilitation. He has lived with Charlie for around 18 months. He is three years old and started his life on a farm where he was allowed free rein to run about and had no basic training. As a consequence, he has a strong prey drive but no inclination to retrieve.

Initially, I’ve worked on building the bond between Charlie and Sooty, using the principles of The Tessleymoor Way. Sooty is a very difficult dog with a limited attention span, however Charlie is young and very determined. A trainee veterinary nurse from a family of animal lovers, she’s a good match for this defiant dog.

Determination to succeed with your dog

It’s been a struggle to get Sooty to show any interest in retrieving. We have had to get him to see a hold as a positive, so it has to be an article that’s of interest to him. I always have a bag of tricks to stimulate a dog’s interest and the rabbit skin ball has worked well. Today, I decided to use some cold game to try and incorporate his prey drive into the retrieve. He did really well, retrieving the game and holding it in his mouth.

There are other issues associated with his early years that also need some Cocker Spaniel rehabilitation. Sooty does show signs of resource guarding and we are doing some work around this.

I could see from the first lesson how determined Charlie was with this dog. A couple of weeks ago I said to her that her dog would never retrieve, he just didn’t have it in him. I knew she had the grit and determination to prove me wrong. Today I told her why I’d said it. You can achieve anything with your dog given the right incentive, even if it is showing me that the impossible can be done.

Posted: June 12, 2019