I'm a complete beginner when it comes to training a spaniel for work but as we've now had Dolly for a few months, she's now 17months it is pretty clear that to keep her happy she needs to be worked.
I've had coursing dogs (Lurchers) all my life up until the arrival of Dolly and have always trained them to course, pick-up and retrieve to hand with little or no difficulty but really don't know where to start with a cocker.
I've got her going out and retrieving a dummy back to hand, well 90% of the time but her releasing to hand on command needs a lot of practice.
Are there any books that could be recommended?
I live in West Lothian, Scotland and was wondering if anyone knew of someone local to me who was an old hand at this lark that could give me a few pointers?
David