by Mills1234 » Tue Feb 10, 2015 8:51 am
If you do go for a springer keep in mind they are a working breed to hunt and retrieve. They are incredibly loyal, kind and generally keen to please but will come with an inbuilt desire to pick up and carry...be that pants left on the floor or children's toys. lots of people think they need hours of exercise, but what they actually need is mental stimulation. 15 mins twice a day of training exercises will take far more out of them than walking on the common not interacting with the dog for 1hr morning and night. They are also a good portable medium size, though there is huge variation within the breed so check out parents well and maybe avoid a pedigree with too many FTCHs, so there's less built in Ferrari! On the other hand it would also give more brains in some ways. We've had springers and cockers and they've been wonderful additions to the family.
Previous posters have mentioned things to consider about visitors and visiting those less keen on dogs as an issue, but if you've crate trained then you can always pop them out of the way. Also if you've taught your dog not to jump up on people, not to climb on furniture, not to go upstairs and to sit/leave when told, it actually won't be capable of offending anyone. Unfortunately there are lots of dogs that aren't super well behaved and it puts people off, but it is no different to unruly children in a pub wrecking everyone else's lunch versus being a pleasure to be around.
Bruce's doggy daycare is great if you need a regular cover for a week day. For longer stints away I would recommend looking at Mullenscote kennels near Andover if you want to keep your dog on the straight and narrow, or you could get a house sitter to come to you. There are lots of holiday cover options, just depending on what you want whether kennels to help with training or a home from home set up, and for peak summer cover you'll just need to be organised.
If you do go for a springer keep in mind they are a working breed to hunt and retrieve. They are incredibly loyal, kind and generally keen to please but will come with an inbuilt desire to pick up and carry...be that pants left on the floor or children's toys. lots of people think they need hours of exercise, but what they actually need is mental stimulation. 15 mins twice a day of training exercises will take far more out of them than walking on the common not interacting with the dog for 1hr morning and night. They are also a good portable medium size, though there is huge variation within the breed so check out parents well and maybe avoid a pedigree with too many FTCHs, so there's less built in Ferrari! On the other hand it would also give more brains in some ways. We've had springers and cockers and they've been wonderful additions to the family.
Previous posters have mentioned things to consider about visitors and visiting those less keen on dogs as an issue, but if you've crate trained then you can always pop them out of the way. Also if you've taught your dog not to jump up on people, not to climb on furniture, not to go upstairs and to sit/leave when told, it actually won't be capable of offending anyone. Unfortunately there are lots of dogs that aren't super well behaved and it puts people off, but it is no different to unruly children in a pub wrecking everyone else's lunch versus being a pleasure to be around.
Bruce's doggy daycare is great if you need a regular cover for a week day. For longer stints away I would recommend looking at Mullenscote kennels near Andover if you want to keep your dog on the straight and narrow, or you could get a house sitter to come to you. There are lots of holiday cover options, just depending on what you want whether kennels to help with training or a home from home set up, and for peak summer cover you'll just need to be organised.
