And this is how I got
started down this enjoyable path.
I had never had a dog before I got Chandler. I had some friends who
had to put their Cocker Spaniel to sleep, they decided against getting
another puppy. I wanted to give them a present of another Cocker and
picked a puppy up here in Denver, near Ken Carl Ranch. I was just
going to keep her for a couple weeks, so that I could house train
the puppy and then give her to my friends. Well Chandler grew on me
and there was no way I was going to give her away! I did end up going
down to Chandler, Arizona (Yes, that's where her name came from.)
and did get my friends another Cocker Spaniel, so I did follow through
with my good deed!
Once I decided to keep Chandler, I went out and purchased a few books
on Cocker Spaniel dog training and did some investigative reading.
I had read that Cockers are notorious for chewing, nipping and other
bad connotations because of their behavior. I also read that with
training that they can be excellent pets. (I believe that all dogs
are smart, some more than others!, and you can train them if you spend
the time to communicate with them.) As I had been a Tennis Pro for
most of my adult life I took the lessons I had learned from teaching
tennis and applied them to training Chandler. I have trained her to
do quite a few tricks including:
- Sit, stay and fetch
- Speaking
- Rolling over in both
directions
- Spinning in the air
- High fives with both
paws
- Standing on her hind
legs
- Counting by barking
from 1 to 10 either by verbal numbers or fingers held up
- Answering the question
"How old are you?" by barking
She does a great job of going everywhere with me because she has always
gone everywhere with me. When I first had her, I didn't realize that
dogs where not exactly welcome everywhere. I would take her anyplace
I was going and would show everyone the tricks she did. I would also
get them to do the tricks so that she would get use to being around
other people and would be good in social situations. With all these
tricks and her ability to be comfortable with everyone we became volunteers
at a local hospital and local care centers for the elderly.
I do feel that one mistake I did make, as I was training her, was
that I always gave her treats every time she did a trick. Now she
will hardly do anything with out a treat!
As
she is now almost 6 years, I bred her this past year. Partly because
many of my friends wanted puppies from her. I also was starting to
worry about what I would do without her, I wanted one of her daughters
to carry on her genes. As you can see from the pictures, she had six
puppies, Mille, Stella Luna, Hunter, Mr. Green, CJ and Bailey.
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