Can I be garden/house proud and have a puppy?

Raksha

The best 'work' for a Springer is searching - get her to use her nose to find pieces of hard food you've hidden. Hide them in the house, in the garden etc.

Try not to react when she does stuff - manage situations so she can't do the 'bad stuff' - use the Kongs etc for when you would like her to 'settle'. Each time you interact with her you are rewarding her demands for attention. If it's attention she wants, use it to reward her when she's quiet. Be careful of over use of the crate.

If she comes from working stock, it will be very hard to wear her out - a working dog is bred to hunt, quiet literally all day, and IMHO should not be homed to the majority of domestic situations. So many of these dogs end up in rescue, and the best possible place for them then is a Military or Police establishment, where their desire to hunt can be fullfilled.

mumoftwins

I had an English Springer who came to us as a rescue dog ages about 4 or 5 years. She was very overweight and smelly but after a good bath and lots of long walks, she lost weight and was more pleasant to the nose .

However..........................boy! did we know we had her! She was only still when she was asleep and she adored my then husband who would do anything for her.

My house was never the same

MRSCARNEY

It should get easier with time. 4 months is still young and she will be into everything. Springers are very trainable and eager to please and if they have the right training and excerise they are fantastic pets - I have 3 lying next to me on the settee snoring right now

But as for house/garden proud - forget it. It's a constant war againt the dog hairs in here and when we had 10 pups they went through the garden like a plague of locusts.

Putting the effort into training now though will pay dividends in the future. Good luck

SAMHP_2

Entirely agree with all the above posts! I was keen on a Spaniel but warned that as a first dog would be too much, so we plumped for a Lab and I even found that more exhausting than I thought I would!
If there is a gundog training class near you why not try it? Many of them are run for fun, not with a view to working your dog, but go through the same training. It is really stimulating for them - they are doing what they are bred for - mine adores it.
This will hopefully be the worst time for your garden - mine used to dig all the time and tip flower pots of growing-on seeds over her head as a game. It is frustrating, but please don't forget to enjoy her - they are only really puppies for a very short time!
Sam

little_evo

We have a springer spaniel cross with a staffy so twice the energy! And I have to say searching is the best thing we found which tires her put more than anything. And yes we hide everything including the kids! :rotfl: She loves it.

allIcouldwishfor

We've got a 3yo ESS boy we've had since 12 weeks, he's just starting to calm down a bit now! He was very chewy until about 9 months old, he chewed the kids toys, the stair spindles, doors, carpets, even a metal comb! They do grow out of it but 4 months is still very young.

About jumping up, we used to just turn away from him without saying anything or looking at him - he got the message quite quickly and is very good in that respect now. They do love to be near people though - when our boy was a pup he used to fling himself at doors if I was the other side of them - I couldn't even go to the loo in peace! Over time he has got less clingy but if I leave the room, it normally won't be long before he follows, I think that's common of the breed.

Search exercises are very good for keeping them occupied, we do them most evenings with Jasper, just hiding little treats in different places for him to find.

About the garden, can you give her a little area to dig in? It's sometimes easier to train them to limit their behaviour to a particular patch rather than trying stop them doing it altogether.

Good luck!

MRSCARNEY

I'm glad it's not just me who can't go to the loo in private :rotfl:

One of ours even used to get in the bath with you when she was a pup.

As I always tell people, you're never alone with a Springer - and certainly not with 3

smileypigface

Totally agree with all the other ESS owners here - wave goodbye to your carefully pruned garden and beautiful hair free home - and say a big hello to the most wonderful, loyal, fun bundles of love you could ever wish to meet.

You guessed it - we have two - and wouldn't be without them x

I've set aside time to be house and garden proud - just after my 345th birthday .. if I don't last that long .. oh well .. never mind!

There are some things you can do to stop yourself descending deep into the depths of ex-gardener and ex-clean and neat - I'd recommend hanging baskets in the garden and there are some great pet hair hard floor and carpet cleaners on the market - I've just bought a Bissel flip hard floor cleaner in their sale and it deals with muddy paw prints on our wooden floors in a flash and is a nice compact size for regular (daily!) use!

Edited to add - that once your puppy is big enough for really active walks you won't have any time for house and garden anyway as it's addictive seeing the joy they find in exploring new places and finding sniffs to sniff in the great outdoors - you be out and about in the fresh air all the time!!!

Enjoy!

allIcouldwishfor

MRSCARNEY wrote: »

I'm glad it's not just me who can't go to the loo in private :rotfl:

One of ours even used to get in the bath with you when she was a pup.

As I always tell people, you're never alone with a Springer - and certainly not with 3

Ours is known as the Velcro dog as he's always right at your side. He does draw the line at the bath :rolleyes: (although his love of "outside" water meant he stood in a freezing river during the snowy weather at the beginning of the month and spent the rest of the morning chewing frozen chunks of snow and ice from his leg feathers!) Both OH and I run and cycle with him - he'll do a 12-mile bike ride and still get excited if you jangle his lead afterwards. That said, I love him to bits and he's my fur-kid who I wouldn't ever want to be without.

Seriously though, I find it terribly sad how so many Springers get put up for rehoming once people realise what they are like - they are not for anyone other than a true die-hard outdoors type which people don't always realise if they haven't properly researched the breed and, like any puppy, they are as much of a commitment as a child.

I foundthe hardest period with a Springer is up to a year old when you have to be careful of how much you exercise them as it's difficult striking a balance between enough exercise that they don't wreck your house and too much exercise that they get injured.

remembered_nights

potsofmoney_(I_wish) wrote: »

"How do you react when she paws you for attention when you are on the PC or with your children?

It's tricky because ideally I know I should ignore her, but she will accidently claw the kids and hurt them and bang on the keyboard of the lap top, so I do push her (gently) away and ask her to leave it. We do try and give her lots of calm fuss when she is calm and she does get lots of reward for positive behaviour.
.

We were just doing this in puppy class! You're right you have to completely ignore it - no eye contact, no speaking. When asked about kids the trainer said basically you have to train your kids! (To do the same.) And if the pup gets very over-excited, calmly leave them in another room for a 5 minute time-out.