Hi Naj
To answer your question, I’ve added a bit of background as I think it probably helps explain where we’re at with him.
Yes, he’s a full WCS with a good pedigree. However, unexpectedly and unfortunately, we’ve needed to work through some health issues with him, which hindered our progress as it took quite some time to work out what was actually going on. Long story short, he’s now on long-term pain relief medication to help him.
He is a learner and does want to learn, and he’s come on leaps and bounds with our trainer since we started with them 3 years ago after switching trainers. He’s 4 now. But because of everything else we’ve had to deal with health-wise, we’ve always gone at his pace rather than pushing him beyond what he’s comfortable with. I train in between lessons 2–3 times a week and see the trainer once a month, sometimes more depending on diaries. We’ve also done various workshops etc., and we’ve tried different approaches along the way, so it’s certainly not through a lack of training or opportunity.
Even as a puppy, though, he wasn’t particularly keen on retrieving. I appreciate puppies develop at different rates and I certainly wouldn’t have expected him to be showing his full potential at that age!! But looking back, the lack of enthusiasm for retrieving was there quite early on, and that would have been pain related too.
I know human analogies aren’t always helpful, but what I see from him is very much, “Well, I’ve shown you I can do that, so that’s it, I’m done for the day.” And that’s on a good day! Otherwise it’s, “Oh, did you want me to retrieve that? You get it, I’m not bovvered!”
Over the last few training lessons, the “I’m not bovvered” model of spaniel has mostly turned up. And it’s not just one particular aspect of the work. He doesn’t really show much natural hunting drive, there’s not a huge desire to retrieve, he doesn’t have great stamina for the work, and he generally isn’t particularly motivated to keep working. We’ve also factored in his pain issues, because that will be influencing all of those things to some degree for him.
So to answer your question, I think it’s really the combination of all of that that has led me and our trainer to consider whether we can actually progress any further with him, despite the family genes. It’s not that he can’t learn or do the exercises — he absolutely can, will show up when the “pay” is right, and he does want to learn — it’s that we haven’t seen the natural instinct, desire or enthusiasm behind the work that you’d expect from a working Cocker.
At our last training session we switched from regular dummies to a feather-covered dummy, and that actually got him enthusiastic for a short period. So we came away with some pheasant feathers to stick onto a dummy at home to see whether that makes a difference to his enthusiasm between lessons. Will keep you posted.
I’ve also only seen him really enthusiastic on a training ground once, which was last year. Unfortunately, the distance means that it’s probably not somewhere we could make a regular journey to, and the grounds are also used regularly for shoots, so the person whose grounds it is will be rather busy from this point onwards. Otherwise, I’d be really interested to see whether being in that sort of environment more regularly brought something different out in him. It’s another one of those things that makes me wonder whether there is something there that we just haven’t unlocked yet.
We haven’t actually reached the stage of proper game experience, and realistically I’m not sure we ever will. So, going back to the game experience point, we’ve not tested him in a game environment. I do sometimes wonder whether that means we’re missing something that might be there, particularly after seeing that little spark of enthusiasm with the feather dummy and on the different training ground. Maybe there is something that will click for him, and that’s what we’re trying to understand at the moment.
I think the hardest part for me is accepting that maybe what a dog is bred for and what they actually want to do aren’t necessarily the same thing. We’ve given him time, we’ve gone at his pace and we’ve worked through a lot with him health-wise, so I don’t feel we’ve given up easily. But equally, I do think there comes a point where I have to listen to what he’s showing me. I don’t want to keep pushing him towards something if he’s ultimately not enjoying it or showing any real desire to do it. I suppose that’s the bit I’m trying to work out now really — whether there is something there that we just haven’t unlocked yet, or whether this is simply him telling us that gundog work isn’t really his thing.
