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In 2005 I had to give away my then new Springer
spaniel Miss Sophie (read The Miss Sophie story on our website) since she had
become so attached to our ES bitch Briz who had fostered her to become a dog (I
tried to foster her to become a gun-dog). It was more or less useless to try to
train Sophie when Briz was in the vicinity. Either me and Sophie had to move or
Sophie alone had to move. Sophie moved to a better home, to an entirely new
environment and immediately clamed down and the new owner could again carry on
the training.
Among the 3 Irish setters that temporarily moved
into our house a couple of days ago there is this 10 months old young bitch
"Hicka". Then there is the 4 years old bitch "Mig" and finally the
10+ years old "Setter".
To Hicka the middle age Mig is the Hero and
almighty God in the family, just like Briz was to Miss Sophie. When alone with
me Hicka is very nice to train but when Mig is in the vicinity she is very
unconcentrated and only has eyes for Mig and tries to find out what Mig is doing
(as far as Mig is concerned there is absolutely no need to keep her on a lead or
locked up in a car, she is one of the best trained and "safest" setters I've
seen - Cj would probably say "a co-operative dog").
I have not heard of this kind of young
"problematic" dogs very often but the cure is, the experts say, to keep the
youngster separated from it's "Hero" as much as possible and always train and be
together with separately. This might be difficult in an ordinary family with man
and wife, children and relatives having different opinions about the practice
and also from a practical point of view. For my part I found it impossible to
first go out with Foxy and Briz, then come back home and go out again with Miss
Sophie.
Other possibilities are of course to give up and
give the dog to some other family. Also perhaps to give the dog to a
professional trainer for say 6 months so that it is entirely and thoroughly
trained before it comes back to its family.
I have not asked the owner, but the good behaviour
and instant reaction to my signals from the 4 year old Mig makes me believe
that she was thoroughly trained by a pro. One thing is for sure, this particular
family did not train her to such a high standard. So I am tempted to tell
the family to also send the young Hicka to a pro for the next 6
months.
Is there anyone who has got any other
solutions to such less common problem? Hicka is otherwise a very nice and above
all bold and courageous setter and hence worth to make the best out
of.
BTW I have now got a tail and I like it )) The 4
year old Mig seems to love me very much for some reason. She follows me
everywhere and sleeps with me at night and on the field she co-operates with me
like we had hunted together for years! As far as I am concerned she can stay
with me for the rest of her life, she could substitute the spaniel I have not
got and perhaps never will get. She has great speed, great style, is very good
looking and as I said, she is naturally very co-operative to be a setter!
The family would like me to keep Hicka for 6 months
to train her but there are some practical problems with efficient field
training and besides I would get attached to her during such a long time
and miss her a lot when she went home again, as I do regret
giving Miss Sophie away - even if I know it was the best thing to do for
her own sake.
Torsti
Borta Med Vindens Kennel "Ask not what your dog can do for you. Ask
what you can do for your dog." www.rospigan.net |