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

Raksha

There is no harm in allowing your dog to ask nicely if you will play with them, so long as you don't respond to the majority of their demands, and they don't get too OTT in their demands (barking, pawing hard etc.) I believe it makes for a much better relationship if the dogs knows they can ask and sometimes get what they want. A bit like being in a relationship yourself - if the other person decides when you are allowed some attention, it devalues the relationship.

Reward your dog for good behaviour with what they want.....

WolfSong2000

One of my all-time favorite dogs was an ESS my mother used to dogsit a few years ago called Jasper...sadly, he died last year, and I miss him terribly. He was referred to as a "regular" as his owner would drop him off at ours whenever she had to go away, etc and he became a (part-time) part of the family. Jasper had a bizarre penchant for knickers and loved to bury shoes in the garden (ironically we used to have another springer who came to stay who would dig them up!). Jasper was quite calm for a springer, but still had a lot of energy and used to "paw" you quite hard for attention. It was an annoying habit that I was never able to break. Still, I loved him as if he were my own, and it was awful to see him deteriorate (cancer that had been caught too late), but he kept his rather "unique" personality up until the end.

But yeah, spaniels are diggers. That and !!!!! pee is notorious for leaving brown patches of grass on otherwise immaculate lawns

hethmar

Thank gawd Ive never wanted an immaculate lawn! I leave our very big garden and pond mostly to nature. The garden is full of wildlife and that gives me more pleasure than manicured beds and hedges.