Last year, I asked for some advice on whether or not to acquire a ESS.... After much deliberation, I decided to go for it and I'm so pleased that I did! Ivy is 15 months old now and an absolute pleasure to be around! She and Dill the heeler are best mates and entertain me every evening with their goofy games. I am training Ivy with a view to her coming out with me this season and loving the contrast between working a typically mega-focussed, vocal (!) and driven pastoral breed and a big, floppy thing that never quite looks like her brain is fully engaged..............but then shocks me by picking things up so quickly! I'm taking the training slowly but surely and to date she's quartering well, not ranging too far; sitting on the whistle; can be sent left or right (as part of a controlled exercise - I hasten to add - everything is very 'staged' at the moment) and she absolutely adores marking retrieves and hunting for dummies. Low points: being daft enough to spend too much on plants for the pond last summer; only to find every single one lovingly 'saved' from the water and transported into the house Feeling I was going to be absolutely hopeless for the first few weeks, when she made it clear she felt the onlt thing that mattered was Dill the heeler and I was just surplus to requirements! High Points: Everything else Funniest moment: Teaching her to be steady and wait her turn for retrieves. We were on the canal bank and got one worthy old gundog type very perplexed when he was a springer sitting on the bank and a heeler dragging a dummy by the toddle though the water I know it was mean - but I just had to pretend I had no idea I was doing anything untoward! I said, "Is this not what I'm supposed to do?" I have also learned that Spaniel Pants are essential and that in the summer cyclists on the tow path are not the only people who whould use bells to warn of their approach....people in beige trousers should too Anyway - thanks again everyone who contributed sensible and helpful advice. I did leave Dogsey because of the antics of a couple of people, but I really did want to say thanks to those who helped me make my choice!
Hey hello, it is funny (for me) to read about the fun you're having, the garden pond plants especially I don't have trouble with beige trousers but..... Those weird people who jog for fun popping up from nowhere are a nightmare, just warn a girl your coming would ya Oh but I did get a nice rug full of mud worms and grass when Sasha kindly told Samson that pulling up grass was fun Can't not have fun when you own a dog or 2 (3,4,5,6,7,8...) Glad it's going so well
