THE CHRONICLES OF TED: THE COCKER SPANIEL
Last month we took a few days rest and relaxation and headed back up to Cumbria to spend a weekend with Ted’s breeder and to see how his sister Gaby was getting on with her training. Right from the beginning Ted has travelled very well in the car and for that I am really grateful. I once had a lurcher that was terrible traveller and it was not fun having to stop every hour or so to clear up the mess. Once we had a quick cup of tea, we headed up to the hills to let the dogs stretch their legs and it was interesting to see the difference between the two pups. It wasn’t long before they were chasing each other around like a couple of headless chickens.
Gaby was obviously quite used to running through the white grass and over the heather whereas initially
Ted wasn’t so confident and I found it quite interesting to see this part of his personality, as at home in his own surroundings he is a very confident pup. The one thing I have been working on is his recall and at one point as he headed off down a track I gave him a quick couple of pips and he immediately turned around and ran full pelt back towards me. Just as he reached the top of a slight dip in the track Gaby saw him and ran to head him off, it all happened very quickly but to cut a long story short there was a head-on collision. Both pups screamed and Gaby limped off carrying a front leg and when I looked at Ted his jaw was hanging at a funny angle. Andy got hold of the little bitch and by the time I got to Ted his jaw had gone back to normal, although he was in a bit of discomfort because he was panting quite a lot. After a quick check over Andy confirmed that everything felt okay and I couldn’t see or feel anything amiss with Ted. I think they were both very lucky because if they had been adult dogs I think we could have both been looking at a visit to the local vets.
SPORTING GUN