Info on welsh springer spaniel General Chat

Some good news,,,,we seem to have made a good bit of progress,,,I cant take the credit though,, I have to say him owners have taken all the advice on board and worked hard with him daily, its paid off,,,he was far more responsive tonight,,, He seemed more focused, happy, jen just more switched on to them, if only all owners put that amount of effort in,,,its so nice to see him improving rapidly,,, I feel alot happyer about the whole thing now,, I had been a bit worried as its not a breed I have ever delt with, Thanks guys for the help, will keep you updated on how things go, x

That's good news for the wee fella....I think that's the bottom line isn't it, you really have to work at it and then they surprise you. look forward to hearing about his progress.

Hi all, just a quick update on the loopy lad logan,

well I have to say he has been a pleasure to work with,,not in the slightest bit difficult to work with, not nervy or easy to upset,,,the very opposite infact,,,he has about as much subtleness of a sledgehammer

some photos taken when he came for a walk with Kaos, he is so funny,,,all the time,






now hows that for a set of ears?




logan trying to look refined all lordy faced,,




Darn good sniffin,,,





strange all the photos I took of him that day,,had a strange fussy glow round em?
​

He's lovely Shona, glad you managed to sort him out, really they just need socialising early if you can

Hi Morganstar,,,yup he defo had gained alot from socialising at the training club,,,he has had a few problems when out walking with his mum,,,hes such a happy chappy,,that on the odd occassion he has gone up to another dog only to find,,,not every other dog in the world is as happy to see him as the ones he is round at the club, luckily though,,hes not got into any real trouble, but when you think on it,,,it only takes one nasty experiance to ruin a nice dog, How many people can you think of that had a happy social dog then after a bad experiance has gone totaly the other way?

Spencer was chased by a BC pup at 6 months old, he run off and crossed a main road, with me tearing after him at full speed wheazing and having an asth,a attack. Luckily the little bright spark was so so bright he found his way home and we found him wet through (hed we'd himself)
Every since he's terrified of dogs and we cant walk him, my friends a dog behaviorist and shes worked wonders but hes still a gibbering wreck if he sees a black dog.

awe bless his wee sole, so sorry to hear that, just goes to show though,, some dogs never really get over a bad fright,, hope you get to a point were its better,,,one suggestion I would make is,,,,if you know a black dog thats ok about having cloths put on,,,you could get a wee tee shirt or similar from pah or somit,,,a nice bright pink one or somit,,,,it may just be a way to break the ice if you know what I mean,,,if he has made friends then the tee comes off,,,then its too late to change his mind about it,,,;-)

Thats a really good idea, I'll have to see if Steve got any black labs in rescue that are friendly. Its really weird he's so nervous at shows he locks himself in his crate and turns is back on everyone.
He his getting better, if we go somewhere 3 or 4 times at least I can get him out of the car now. He was a nightmare for the first 2 years

Your lucky,,thats a fairly sane idea,,,you should see some of the stuff I have done to help dogs get over fears,,,I should be locked up,,, but hey if it helps,,its worth it eh?

I almost gave up to be honest and just left him to his own devices in the garden but we caravan such a lot had to do something. I even leave him on the crexhe now with the other welshies and ignore him, its worked wonders but I feel so mean,

awe dont feel mean,,,often pandering to his insecuritys can make them worse, I often think just getting on with things has a more possitive outcome, let me know how the tee idea goes,,,if it dont work im sure I could come up with more,,,but you may not like em,,,,lol,, xx

we have just got a 9 week old WSS. Mali is obsessed with the stairs. she can go up fine but can't come down and we're reluctant to teach her with the hip dyplasia problem a future possible problem. however as we live in a split level house our lounge is downstrairs (which is where her bed/food and access to the garden is) so when shes out shes confined to the one room. when one of us goes up to the kitchen etc she is mad to get up after us, even if the other is staying in the lounge.
we're getting desperate as we are constantly stopping her/telling her off or rescuing her off the landing.
Please help!!! do we teach her to come down the stairs safely and let her have access to them and risk the hip problems or do we persevere with the restriction?

Hi hun , hip displasia is thought to be hereditary but having said that I'm reluctant to let mine run up and down stairs all the time. However rather than stress her out I'd allow her access as long as she's not constantly up and down.
I have child gates on my stairs not sure is is feasable with your house.
To be honest its not such a big problem to be stressing over I'd just make sure she take the stairs slowly
Hope this helps if you have any more worries please feel free to pm me im not an expert but I know people who are

thanks for that Morganstar. we have compromised for the time being as she is still afraid to come down so we let her follow us up and carry her down to save her joints a bit.
we can't do a gate as its an open staircase, but only a few steps, so we're taking your advice and not stressing too much over it.
thanks for your help, its good to have someone to turn to who has experience with WSS.

our experience from our 9 month WSS (from Morganstar)
re stairs - like you stair gate wasn't great option for us as stair case quite wide - so we in fact took it down and from a very early age taught her only to come up the stairs with permission (food treats did the trick)
re training classes - we took her to socialisation class early on and it scared her to bits - she just sat in the corner weeing herself or trying to hide behind my daughter - the class trainer was really kind but said several times that he had always find WSS difficult to train....so did not return to that class and did a whole load of socliasing and trainaing with friends dogs and she built up a load of doggy friends, her best mate is a huge bernese mountain dog and one of our cats - which makes an odd trio in the garden ! But will see what training class holds for her now

As several have already mentioned our WSS seems to respond brilliantly to the food, lots of praise and interdsting off lead exercise or games approach.Just turning your back on her brings her straight to the sit position for reassurance. She is very trainable and responds well to the whistle (from early on she recalled, sat, stayed and retrived) but also very shy around strangers and I don't think she will ever be a dog to show. She also has made her mind up about some people for no apparent reason and will not under any circumstances respond to their friendly pats - if she does not like you, she does not like you and will completely ignore you!

But my novice advice about them is to keep on trying with them and let them decide that they like you and then you have a fantastic dogy friend

sorry gone on a bit but a bit besotted with our WSS - she is a total delight although time consuming.