My mum says I’m special (has she only just worked that out)? Anyway, it would appear that a Cocker Spaniel has particular abilities.
We went along to see a friend of my mum’s, who knows all about the things that I like to be doing and a whole new world has opened up before me. I am now training to be a gundog.
Edward Martin is a specialist Spaniel trainer and he has made some excellent dvd’s.
It is important for me to learn to walk “to heel” with my mum, even without a lead and to sit down as soon as I am asked to.
Once I learned to do this, something very strange happened…I was asked to “sit and stay”, it felt very uncomfortable to see my mum walk even a few paces away, but she came back again and gave me a huge cuddle and told me I was a very good boy. We practised this for a while and now I can make her walk to the other end of the garden and wait for a count of twenty until she comes back for her cuddle.
My mum is being instructed to use a special whistle instead of the verbal commands. My hearing is tuned to hear much higher frequencies than humans so I can hear the whistle really well, even when I am far away and am getting used to the different signals.
The best part of the day is when I get to retrieve the dummy and take it to my mum. For some strange reason she seems very pleased when I pass it to her…simple things!!!
I have met lots of new friends who can do all of these things and my best friend, Drummer is just the best…he let me borrow his special lead and dummy until I got my own.
All of this training makes me very tired but they tell me I am only young and will get used to it in time, so time to go and get some more sleep.
No more boring walks on a lead for me!
Bye for now
Charlie