Spanaffy S.B.T And S.W.D

Im not going to go into a detailed history of the Spanish water dog on this page as there are reams of history on most of the other sites on my links page. Most of those people have a far better knowledge of the origins of the Spanish so I will leave it to them to  tell the story. I am going to concentrate more on my own reason for choosing a Spanish and my experiences with them as a working gundog. Because the Spanish are still on the import register at the time of writing this we only have a few dedicated people working them in the field. Most Spanish are pets but they are getting popular in agility, obedience and especially the flyball arena where they are starting to challenge the more traditional choice of a border collie. Hopefully once they gain full status with the kennel club we will get more shooting people on board as a lot have expressed an interest in trialling as they certainly have the ability.

We then moved both home and jobs to once again live in a shooting area, I had a few terriers and really wanted to get back into beating on shoots, my ex partner also acquired his gun licence and liked to spend his time pigeon shooting and ducking so we came to the conclusion that we needed to get a working gundog. I have worked cocker and Springer spaniels as well as Italian spinone and Labradors for a number of years and wanted a medium sized dog that was obedient, could be kept in the house without a lot of mess and loose hair and something that could be used for both beating, decoying and flighting and would be capable of carrying anything from a partridge to a goose, water work wasn’t a priority but a dog that was well behaved, social with other dogs and would sit quietly and patiently without unnecessary noise was a must. Also I wanted something that if separated from during working wouldn’t merrily go with the first person they came across as unfortunately dog thefts are on the increase.

Training can be started a lot earlier than with most labs or spaniels, you can start the basic sit and recall virtually as soon as you get your puppy home, Buffy soaked up so much information in those first few weeks and as long as the lessons are not too repetitive and boring then you can really achieve a lot by using games and even the daily meals can be a reward for a sit to command. Socks rolled up together make excellent early dummies for a puppy maybe only 8 weeks old enabling you to move onto larger retrieves as the puppy grows. Buffy retrieved her first pheasant at only 5 months old and while the basic training is the same because you can start a lot earlier than with most traditional gundogs you can get the dog working in the field in a very short period of time. As long as you concentrate on the basics and make sure all the groundwork is done thoroughly then in a very short period of time you will have a steady competent gundog.

The first difference I noticed between buffy and most spaniels is that she did not seem initially have the working nose and natural hunting ability of the usual gundog breeds, by this I mean that they do not quest for scent like a spaniel puppy would. This can be a bit of a concern if you are used to the active and constant hunting  attitude of the spaniels and you may start to doubt your decision to buy a Spanish but persevere, as there are more benefits to this than setbacks. However my second Spanish willow has totally different drives than buffy, retrieving has come more natural to her and she is more food orientated which has made training a lot easier. Spanish can have totally different instincts depending on the background of the parents. Some types have more of a herding/tracking instinct and some more gundog motivation. The main benefit is that as the hunting and scenting aspect is learnt rather than there from the start it is considerably easier to get the basic obedience training in. Walking to heel and recall to the whistle came very easy as she was totally focused on me rather than her surroundings. Retrieving does come naturally to them as it does with most gundogs and it seemed to be easy to make the transition from dummies to dead game, buffy  would find dead game but be unsure what to do so I would get another of the same type i.e. pheasant or duck and let her scent it in my hand then tell her to bring it which she promptly would go and retrieve the shot bird. I hunt with both my Spanish and my FTCH pedigree cocker and while at first the cocker far surpassed the Spanish in working ability now buffy has learnt her craft she has shown herself to have as much possibly even better scenting ability. She is also a lot steadier and not as flighty. Buffy has a very soft mouth and all game retrieved alive is undamaged. I was so impressed at the ease which I got her in the field that when i bred her in 2006 i decided the time was right to keep a girl from her, faith stayed with us and is enrolled at angel paws gundog training where we are aiming for the kennel club working gundog certificate. The other downside to a Spanish is that they are more than capable of catching rabbits on the run, which is something that you must focus on. They are very steady workers, very methodical and they don’t miss game and I have found that by keeping buffys coat short she will tackle most types of cover. She will go through briars if she scents something in there and I have found that by watching her body language you can get very reliable indications of where the game are.

Spanish are also quite happy decoying; they will stay quiet and still in a hide without the usual wriggling and inattentiveness of most spaniels and without taking up as much room as a Labrador. The other big advantage of a Spanish is the non-shedding coat. This means that as you need to clip the coat on a regular basis you get to check the dog thoroughly for embedded thorns, mats and other debris that can be missed, I know very few owners who thoroughly check their spaniel after working and as such sometime minor cuts or thorn penetrations have been missed when they are so easily treated and the most minor of things can turn nasty if not treat promptly. The coat itself when short dries very quickly and the tight curls do seem to keep the dog warm, the curls if in good condition do not seem to hinder the dog when tackling briar and do provide a lot of protection for the skin. The other advantage is that for dogs living in the house there are no mountains of hair that you get with the Labradors and spaniels, even after the muddiest day beating I put buffy into a cage to dry and she leaves all the mud and bits behind when she comes out. There is no signs of dog in the house apart from bed and bowls certainly no yellow lab shapes on the mat even when the dog is outside. At first the clipping may seem daunting but it’s quite easy to do. Once you have paid the initial outlay for the clippers its quite simple to clip the coat to one length all over and if done regularly can take minutes to do, all the hair goes in the bin in one big lump instead of being gradually shed around the house.