I read once that the only bad dogs for rabbit hawking is one that will not lissen when call / ask to stop chasing. If the dog points great but what happens when the flush occurs? that will be the dediding question.
A friend of mine took Buddy squirrel hunting with him this weekend. He told me he did great! The mutt treed squirrels and flushed rabbits all over the place! It looks like he may work out alright after all!
actually Bob thats what we intend to do. Creat train that is. I'm looking foreward to pointing and flushing for me that will be different.
I know this was an old thread but had to comment on the crate training.
I have the dogs sleep in their crates and eat in their crates 2x daily. I will also put them in their crates if I'm going to be gone for only a couple of hours. I would never crate a dog over 4 hours even an adult, unless it was to sleep at night. It should be a refuge and training aid , not a jail. I had performance dogs and if I kept them crated all day they'd have no muscle tone.
I use xpens to block off a small area. They have a dog door out to a run or out to the back yard. So that way they can come in the house when I'm gone and don't bark their heads off from being locked out, but they also don't have free run of the house.
Sighthounds that are over crated get weird. They get neurotic and can break teeth trying to escape.
I'm sure Bob has good experiences with his method but I wanted to chime in on this topic. My puppies needed muscle tone also as I was showing them and they started hunting/coursing by 6 months. Competed in the field by 1 yr.
And yes I'm lazy I love having a dog door. Of course at one point I had 6 adult dogs and 7 puppies. All my puppies learned to use the dog door at 5 weeks old. And all were crate training at 5 weeks and went to their new homes damn near trained already at 8 weeks. They were paper trained as well as dog door trained and crate trained. It worked for me.
" Insanity takes its toll..........please have exact change"
I have been crate training for 30 years without a mishap. The crate becomes a safety zone. It's a far cry from a jail. It is their space, their's and their's alone. I've crated my woldhounds, my greyhounds, bloodhounds, elkhunds, german shepherd dogs, bulldogs, and now my beagle. I've never had a cracked tooth or a stubbed toe. Keep in mind that i do this for housebreaking. This isn't a perminent placement. After the dog is housebroken it's moved into it's home, be it in the kennel or in the house. The crate then becomes the bed. Ex-pens are great for putting a pup in the sun for a while but it doesn't tap into the cave mentality used in house training.
I have been crate training for 30 years without a mishap. The crate becomes a safety zone. It's a far cry from a jail. It is their space, their's and their's alone. I've crated my woldhounds, my greyhounds, bloodhounds, elkhunds, german shepherd dogs, bulldogs, and now my beagle. I've never had a cracked tooth or a stubbed toe. Keep in mind that i do this for housebreaking. This isn't a perminent placement. After the dog is housebroken it's moved into it's home, be it in the kennel or in the house. The crate then becomes the bed. Ex-pens are great for putting a pup in the sun for a while but it doesn't tap into the cave mentality used in house training.
My dogs love their crates as well. I yell "kennel" and they all run to their crates for food or sleep. Guests used to be impressed by 6 dogs all running to their own crates. People liked housesitting my place. Dogs all well trained and easy to feed. It only took 15 minutes to feed my pack. bowls left in crates, put food in bowl, shut door. Go back in a few minutes and let the horde out.
When I was housebreaking my litter they had a whelping box. As they got old enough I took down one side and they'd leave the box to go potty on papers. Then I gave them more room with a tarp down just in case with papers further away. Then they were shown the dog door. And since they liked to go to the bathroom as far away as possible they'd go out the dog door with the others. They got beds and toys and water in the xpen and they still had their whelping box with a blanket for sleeping during the day. At night they all went into a big crate and then after a few days were split up into pairs in smaller crates till later each had their own crate. I started feeding in crates with treats and then later with their daily rations.
There doesn't have to be a tiny space so much as there needs to be a will to keep clean. I absolutely size the crate to the puppy at first. Not argueing with you, just stating a different method.
And back to Spaniels, there are "Field-bred" Spaniels. They are just less easy to find depending on where you live. Many still have the instincts but many from show stock will have a ton of feathers that you should shave before taking it into the field. Thus the grooming term "Field strip". I usually even shave down the ears on actual hunting dogs. Though sometimes the wives want me to leave those and promise to keep them brushed. I used to get tipped in pheasants and chukkar by a hunting family. 3 Springers, 3 guns, lots of birds.
And Bob I envy you getting to live with an IW. Never tried it, but perhaps someday either that or a Scottish Deerhound.
" Insanity takes its toll..........please have exact change"
As the saying goes, "there's more than one way to skin a cat." We all have a tendency to stick with what works. For the average working slob who leaves the house at 7:00 and comes back at 5:00, crate training is a good solution to messes and chewing accidents (accidents my foot! They put that pile there on purpose!) I missed my chance at a deerhound. I'd love to have one. My IW came out of great stock. His conformation was impecable. He finished before one year and did great as a special. As you know, IWs don't live that long. He died at 8 years old just like his sire, grand sire and great grand sire. My son was crushed! I like spaniels and i'm hoping Chris will have good things to say about his next year. Everything in this area is strickly pet quality. I can't find a hunting spaniel of any description. It seems that they are used more in the north and northeast.
I ran a search for field type spaniels and came across this page. It is about field type (hunting) English Springer Spaniels (ESS). www.essft.com/fieldshow.html
This is a list of breeders of field ESS www.essft.com/breeder.html I don't know any of these kennels, just passing on info.
But it may come in handy for someone else, so I posted it. I know I'm behind but there is no way I can keep up on this BB. So I get to stuff whenever and go ahead and post on old topics cuz we get new people all the time.
" Insanity takes its toll..........please have exact change"
I would have rather had a spaniel but the beagle was there, available, right age, good health and i had a bad day in the field the day before so i bought it! Chris!! I'm still waiting to hear how your cocker is doing. Is it pointing any huns for you yet?
I would have rather had a spaniel but the beagle was there, available, right age, good health and i had a bad day in the field the day before so i bought it!
Impulse buying? But at least you have the dog experience to make this one work out for you. And much less grooming ! I used to work at a Springer, Eng. Cocker, Am. Cocker kennel. Show bred. But the Eng. Cockers had great temperaments even unsocialized. I've thought of getting one since then. This was a big kennel, over 100 dogs, short on staff. One of my favorite dogs that I wanted to "rescue" was a retired Champion Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Lovely dog, great temperament, just thrown in a crate or out in a yard with puppies to big for him. The owner didn't have any dogs as house pets. She had a few of her best show prospect young ones in crates in the house for "socialization".
So I'm wary of big kennels unless I've seen their set up. Her dogs were mostly head cases even at a young age due to not being handled much at all. She had a name and an ad in Dog World. She'd had a big winner at one time. But she got older and the dogs got ignored.
So for a falconry dog esp. I'd want one that is raised around lots of things. ( back on topic). But I know that some of my best dogs were rescues, so any dog can be a good dog if it's not psycho.
" Insanity takes its toll..........please have exact change"