I just asumed that everybody knew Springers were the most inteligent dogs in the world.

I've had a few dogs that have learned to open doors all by themselves. As a young dog, Fingal chose not to invest vast amounts of time in mastering this potentially rewarding skill but instead chose to eat his way from the hall - through the wall - and out into the living room.

We were laughing at the Labs here last night.

They either look gormless with a toy hanging out of thier mouth or they are laughing at you!!!
Gormless look....


He is the sweetest dog - and he doesn't half make me laugh!

How odd that my experience has been just the opposite, all the Springers owned by non experienced owners have had the worse problems & that have taken an awful lot of undoing. Border Collies that have been in similar homes, have been relatively easy to retrain, because they are also quick to pick up the retraining, especially if the training is very motivational

I know the failure rate for ESS in drug/explosive detection work is more that twice that of border collies. Some drug dog handlers prefer collies because they are less likely to get distracted(being more single minded)in trainiing. They also have found that collies have a much longer working life & can indeed "multi task"

I agree entirely. I don't think springers have the staying power - but that ties in with my beliefs that they need more 'reason' to work that just the work itself. I think the main reason BCs are more popular for the dog sports (agility/obedience etc) is becasue you can train them for a long period without them switching off. For many people who do these sports they do not have the time to dedicate 5 mins here and there to keep the dog interested, they have to train in larger block as work and life often gets in the way.

[QUOTE=JoedeeUK;1681824]How odd that my experience has been just the opposite, all the Springers owned by non experienced owners have had the worse problems & that have taken an awful lot of undoing. Border Collies that have been in similar homes, have been relatively easy to retrain, because they are also quick to pick up the retraining, especially if the training is very motivational

I know the failure rate for ESS in drug/explosive detection work is more that twice that of border collies. Some drug dog handlers prefer collies because they are less likely to get distracted(being more single minded)in trainiing. They also have found that collies have a much longer working life & can indeed "multi task"[/QUOTE

don't know about the bottom bit i do know that out of the 9 springers we have placed with the ppolice only one has failed and thats because he kept retrieving the explosives

On the sorting springer problems out most of the dogs that have come to us with supposed issues have tended to be sorted quiet quickly in the right hands, there are ones that are not wired up right for whatever reason, but most have come round in a reasonable time and have gone on to have fulfilling lifes with people who understand them

THIS!




although my girly can use a computer well....






back on topic....

i missed the other thread(havent searched yet)

will read up lol

That made me laugh more than I have laughed in days. Thanks for that Phil. I owe you a beer!!!

Only a Lab can master the gormless look so well!!

I care, if you hadnt noticed, is that not enough?

I mighht be over reacting & reading too much into it, so what thats my choice,

Its my breed, my passion, my choice.

Im not on here slagging other breeds off, so i wish others would show the same respect.

I dont take offense but there are lots of posts from people along the lines of
'easy to train, like a collie'
'Blindly obedient'
and plenty like that

I know all dogs are individuals but the collies I have know all my life always come with that little extra that is not quite disobedient - although people see it as such

Its kind of like they hear the command and understand it but believe that you are not in possetion of all the facts and if you could see what they could see then you would give a different command

Which works really great on a hill farm when the dog can see something the farmer cannot and so ignores the farmer to deal with the situation

Not so great when you are walking your mates dog and he dissapears out of sight and wont come back and when you find him it turns out that he has decided that sticks shouldnd be in the water and is going to pull every last one of them to dry land before he comes back - cos he heard you and he fully intends to come back, once he has finnished what he REALLY has to do