Well, one of them at least. I tried so many times to take a picture of her and me, that when I got one of her not trying to turn away from the camera I didn’t smile. Oops!
My & My Girl
Tag: english springer spaniel
Happy 3rd Birthday
Today is Mazikeen’s 3rd Birthday. I cannot believe how fast the time has passed since we got her as a little puppy aged just 8 weeks. Since we always spoil our dogs on their birthday, and the others always get present too as they would not understand, off M and I went with the girls to the pet store to spend a fortune, then off for a walk. Both of them had a great day with all the treats and toys and are totally exhausted.
Wet Spaniel = Happy Spaniel
Mazikeen is never happier than when she is getting dirty or soaking wet. Whenever we are at the beach she is straight in the sea, even if it’s freezing cold, there is no holding her back.
Harper too lives the water, but only the sea or natural pools and ponds. She isn’t so keen on the paddling pool and will only venture to remove the balls from it or to drink the contents.
Training End…
Tonight I would usually take Mazikeen out to training classes, I decided I did not want to go, although guilt slipped in for a moment. Lately, in the class, I think Mazikeen is bored too as the last few weeks she has starts playing up and ignores instructions. She is great during the day and I feel the evening class is too late for her finishing at 9:30 pm, her attention is zapped and so is mine after a day of number crunching. M and I talked about the training as Mazikeen is not learning anything extra at the moment, we just seem to repeat the same things over and over each week. Some of the other dogs don’t catch on and struggle, but Mazikeen is hyper-intelligent and usually only a few repeats of something and she has it.
She is 10 months now and definitely is Daddies little girl. Oh, I am Daddy and M is Dad. She follows me about and likes to sit in my lap, so thank the lord she is small, as when Harper decides she wants to do the same I am crushed under 22kg of fidgety dog. If I have a treat in my hand I can get her to do anything I want, even today whilst out in the forest off lead she never strayed too far, and when I called her, knowing I may have treats she came back. This does not work for Harper who has her own agenda whilst out, so never gets off the lead unless we are in one of the small fields by the house.
We finally came to the conclusion that the training classes were not working for us and any training we do will be done from home the way we have successfully trained all our other dogs. This was never going to be a permanent thing, and I did like the idea of doing agility, but Mazikeen has a busy and fulfilling life without adding competitions and constant training to her schedule. For an English Springer, she is only small, and I think all the work will take its toll on her. Even though she was first born she was the smallest of the litter and all her brothers and sisters are massive in comparison, so I have to take that into consideration. The vet told us the other month that her ovaries are not fully developed and that will be down to her being small, hence not having her first season yet.
I think we have made the right decision for her and any training will be a lot more fun now rather than sitting about waiting for her turn in class.
Mr Knitter 