Obedience

[winewood]

Just a basic question, why don't cocker's make it in Obedience trials?  We all know how intelligent they are but what stops them being top obedience dogs. The way I see it they have the intelligence, the bidability, are they too intelligent and get bored?

[sportsmonki]

It's quite a few years since a small dog (sheltie) won an Ob CC, so I think it is more a small dog issue?

Having worked both a border collie and a cocker I feel my collie is more stable in her heelwork position.  Not only does she have less leg movement to cope with (her shoulder is a lot higher up my leg), she is also less affected by any roughness in the ground (which causes my ankle to wobble).  Fast pace compounds these problems.  So...IMHO the length and difficulty of the heelwork in the higher classes is the main factor against the small dog.

[winewood]

Tks, I'm just a little puzzled, but I do agree with you having always owned larger breeds, rotti then Airedale's which are supposed to be hard to train, I found my both to have their own problems, I think due to original breeding, Airedales and terriers are breed to think for themselves, cocker's to if they had to have someone next to them telling them where to sniff for game they would have failed miserably along time ago, but height is a problem for tight heel work especially if you cant walk  a straight line they get kicked a bit (my poor babes) but I've found once they have learned a new trick they learn  then move on not really into repetitive work and not perfectionist so if they don't pick up exactly correct couple of times (by owners fault rewarding for near enough) its hard to continually go over to correct. Being very active dogs I think obed is a little bland, which is why agility, flyball, and high activity suites them,  also I'm getting bored with Obed and people telling me Cocker's don't do well and not suited to small made me dig my heels and continue for a while.

[Karma]

We are doing obedience training, and I can relate to a lot of what has been said.  Honey learns things very quickly, but really isn't interested in putting duration or accuracy into it...    Once she's learned something, that's it and she wants the next new thing... We've been training using clickers and hand targetting etc, which has made getting the heelwork position relatively easy, but getting her to maintain that position is hard - if I try and get her to maintain the target for more than about 10 seconds she starts whining as if to say "Look, I'm doing what you want, now where's my click??"    I do intend to keep going with the obedience training, as I think learning to perform more steady, controlled actions is good for her... but I'm pretty sure she enjoys the agility and general trick training we do more... I don't know if we'll ever get to competition standard, though!! 

[LurcherGirl]

Well, I think it is more that many people that don't bother or don't know how than that cockers aren't clever enough. Cockers aren't collies, but if obedience training is made fun (which is should be), then cockers have fun too! Jesse loves it.

I know that Jesse is an American Cocker, but I guess a close enough relative to be representative here... 

I have been doing competitive obedience with him from 8 weeks old... last year at 18 months old, he came second in Pre-Beginners in his first ever show and won out of Pre-Beginners in his third show. He was placed at almost every show in Beginners.

This year, we did three interclub matches in Beginners, we won one and came second in the other two... Two weeks ago, we had our first open show of the season, Jesse came 4th in Beginners and a placing in Novice is I think just a matter of time (he didn't do bad at all last time, but wasn't placed). I expect, or at least, hope, to win out of Beginners this season (meaning he needs to win the Beginners Class twice or win a Novice class).

Jesse always turns heads and gets loads of praise from judges. In fact, I think many judges are surprised to see how dedicated and focused Jesse is eventhough he is a spaniel. He certainly stands out amongst all the collies, but he is an excellent ambassador in the obedience circuit for all spaniels I think, particularly of course for the cockers and American cockers - which are indeed extremely rare in obedience! It's a shame as spaniels really are so able to do this.

Here's some piccies of the little fella:

Match in Culverstone earlier this year, we came 2nd (out of 4 dogs)


A 4th in Beginners in Ditton last year


Winning out of Pre-Beginners last year


These are mostly Jesse's rosettes and trophies, some also my saluki's Flash.

[Hurtwood Dogs]

Wow, Jesse's done really well 

Both my cockers have been/are very easily distracted. Dave had us in tears of laughter this week when we were out - it's obviously baby bunny season so lots of scents and rain seems to enhance the scents. He was trying SO hard with his recall, every time I blew the whistle he responded instantly and took off to come flying back to us but he'd get half way, looking SO pleased with himself and then a scent would waft across his path and it was like an unseen force yanked him sideways - he'd veer off at 90 degrees as if he was on rails. Then he'd be back again desperately trying to come to us... and another scent would waft past him. I don't think, by and large, they are the most steady breed - my Weim has been a much bigger challenge in lots of ways but when she's working with me it amazes me how steady she is compared to my cockers - and Weims can be notoriously stubborn and frustrating to train

I just think cockers - and lots of other gun dogs, do a lot of thinking for themselves and do get distracted. Additionally some, not all, have a very strong hunt drive which is another distraction, but also makes them good at what they were breed to do...