Hello all,

This is one for the working spaniel owners out there.

I am currently looking to get a working cocker to trial with my labs (Working Trials, not Field Trials) and have read in loads of books that cockers are 'late starters' when it comes to training. I don't mean basic heelwork, retrieves etc, but the more advanced exercises.  I've spoken to a local gamekeeper who has worked both cockers and springers and he agrees with this, his springers can take more training at an earlier age than his cockers can.

I just wondered what peoples thoughts were on this.

Many thanks

Ali :)

Only going on what our keeper has done with his pup.  He got a cocker and I got a springer and we started training at the same time.  I went to Edward Martin for a training lesson and he had a cocker pup who was only about 10 weeks old and he was demonstrating how he teaches sit, puppy retrieves etc.  She was a lovely little dog and was very willing to please. 

Not an expert on cockers by all means, just going on what I've had experience of.

Helen

Personally, I agree that spaniels are slow starters but feel it has lots to do with what you hope to achieve in the end.  Slowly, slowly catchy monkey is my motto here.

My neighbour disagrees and took her cocker out working at about 5 - 6 months!  In my experience our springer is much more maleable and approachable than our cocker is.  If you push the cocker too hard she just does her own thing and is much more resistant that the springer.  He looks at you with big brown eyes and says "oh, alright then, I've got it now" where as she says "bu**** off! I'll do it my way".  Back to basics is always the key and the longer you leave the complicated bits of the training and the more ingrained you have the basics the more likely I feel you are to succeed or less likely to make a serious error in their training.  I also feel there are lots of factors involved: how experienced you are as a trainer, how confident you are, how well you work with your dog, what is the relationship between you, etc.

We have a cocker pup who I will train, the 'mistake' we have made with our springer and cocker mum is my son has done most of the training and they work far better for him than me (good cop/bad cop scenario).  This time we will take a more structured approach and I am confident that I can make quite a good worker out of our pup. 

Personally I think cockers are fantastic dogs, my son thinks the same of springers.  Whatever you do I am sure you will have fun.

Ive done a bit of training with my wifes parents working cockers and have now got a 5 month old springer. I'd say that the springer is far more receptive to training at an early age than the cockers. Cockers can have the tricky combination of a sensitive temperament with a cheeky/naughty nature. Cockers really like to think that they are doing their own thing, and benefit from being kidded that what you want is what they want as well. Try really hard not to fall out with them as they are no-where near as forgiving as most labradors.

From a gundog perspective cockers can make decent working dogs, although I would say only the very best can compare with a decent springer. Ian Openshaw (probably the UKs most successful spaniel trainer) compares them as Robin Reliants to Range Rovers!

Many working springers can be very sensitive, and need really careful socialisation, more so than most working cockers.

From a working trials perpective, I'm not sure how one of the smaller cockers would cope with the scale jumps involved. (Or are these scaled down for the size of the dog?)

... I'm just about to take my Robin Reliants out :-( and if he's lucky, I'll let the Range Rover come too!

I must remember to make sure they never see an "Only Fools and Horses" video! :-)

The working trials jumps are scaled down to the size of the dog, off the top of my hat i am thinking 15 inches height and below, dog does the scale at 4ft and the long jump at 6 ft but I am happy to be corrected if that's wrong.

Lindsay
X

Only up to UD once your dog is competing in WD & above the jumps are the same size for all dogs

The reduction for under 15" dogs is scale 4 foot, long junp 6 feet(number of element 4 instead 5), clear jump 2 feet

From WD upwards the jumps are 6 feet scale, 9 feet long jump, 3 feet clear jump

Why don't you get in touch with Judy Meekings the secretary of ASPADS, I think she has worked cockers in WT in the past; she has certainly worked springers but now is on a lab! :

There's a lot of information about working cockers on the Felstead Gundogs web site.