Just for interest, what is 'dogging in'.
I think it really depends on which part of the country you are in. The link Pat posted gives a flavour of the issues that can become a learned behaviour for dogs.
In this area, dogging in is for dogs that (in the main) are allowed to run free at distance from the handler. Pearl is great at dogging in but it means I can't take her beating anymore as she runs too far ahead! Where she used to be 20-30 feet from me, she now disappears into the distance and would clear the drive on her own in a few minutes
Purdey is fab, she's 6.5 years old and an all rounder with a great stop and recall. She stops on shot and flush but we wouldn't ask Purdey to dog in as she may start pulling further out....
Coral and Sally are just too young to beat let alone dog-in and both are 2 years +/-
To ask a one year old cocker to push birds on runs the risk of teaching it to chase and that's the bit that upset me - he's effectively a blank canvas that may be a really good worker with the right handling. I spend all my time keeping Coral close and stopping her when she flushes (when she does stop) if Teddy gets a taste for chasing to stop him doing it in the future will be very difficult.....I have a natural chaser so know just how hard this is.
I did go onto the Spaniel Aid page to ask them to consider changing the post but they see very defensive to the point that I won't bother to comment in future. The dog sounds as though he has a great foster home and isn't actually dogging in - he's being allowed to run on then recalled from the birds, that is a very different message to the one in his "CV". The latter is a great advert and I would imagine he'll find his new home very quickly.
My previous post had a typo - "forget home" should have read "forever home"!
