Springer Spaniel Crazies

Caveman requested some tips on managing the craziness of Springer Spaniels so I'm writing this in response. You other guys with Springers please chime in ...

I fully understand the crazies with this breed. Charlie is 2 1/2 years old now and he has been a challenge. A very worthwhile challenge though ... He gets those red eyes that you look into and see nothing but pure craziness and when that happens there is absolutely nothing I can do to help him but work him. Exercise is the whole key here and it doesn't take a whole lot.

Here's my Charliegoing ape-chit crazy in the living room :




Springers have got to have exercise just about every day. We usually exercise Charlie 6 days a week and make him rest one day. It's getting better now and he is settling down a little bit but while your's is a puppy you're gonna need to work him/her pretty good each day. Going on a mile long walk is also a great way to exercise him, hiking in the woods even better. Again, making sure he gets to expend some energy doing something physical is the whole key to managing a Springer ... You just have to spend the time and make sure it gets done.

Here are some of the things I did that helped a lot ...

I bought some bumpers from Bird Dog Supply.

They are pretty cheap but I ran through a couple every 3 months or so.Anyway, I'd throw with Charlie in the front yard 10 minutes or so in the morning and another 10 or 15 when I got home at night. I don't know your dog and it's history of running off but Springers like to hang close to their owners. That's just something I don't worry about. He ran around the corner once but came back in a minute or so wondering where I was

I also bought some of those cheap $0.95 Frisbees at PetSmart and threw those with him too. I was amazed, I really didn't have to train him to catch them, just floated them and he chased them down, caught the first one I threw him in mid air.

One mistake we made was penning him up every day. Recently we started putting his pen in the bathroom doorway and letting him have the whole room while we were at work. That made a great bit of difference in his anxiety level when we got home. I suppose that being able to play with a little more room was what he needed.

Springers love to chase lasers. Get a laser pen and let him chase it in an open area of your home. He'll love that and 10 minutes of that will help him mentally and physically a huge bit ...


Every other weekend or so I take him to a pond or some type of water reservoir that he can swim in safely. We do retrieves with the bumper there too. If you aren't confident he will bring it back to you, tie a para-cord to it and drag it back in to steer him. This works good with a fishing kayak also. If you have waders, go to a flooded park after a good rain and find some large puddles, they work great also. Here's a few videos of things I do with Charlie that might give you some good ideas :

I meant to say that even though Charlie has been a challenge and requires a lot of time and effort, I wouldn't trade him for any dog on the planet. He is one of the most loving and loyal animal's I've ever met and I love being able to play hard with him.

We have a Springer just over 2 years old. I will agree exercise helps manage the crazy. And when she gets that certain look fetching the ball is about all that gets her out of it. Ginger will chase a ball for as long as I will (can) throw it.

She is a smart dog that will go from resting to bouncing off the walls in nothing flat.

I will say having a second dog for her to play with helps as well. They will wrestle and carry on with each other. It gives her another outlet for that energy and helps with the anxiety when she is home without us.

I have a 2.5 year old Field Bred English Cocker and she MUST have work. Abbey lives to retrieve. Endless energy in the field or at the park, loves the water. Smartest dog I have ever owned.
I enjoy a dog with energy but it comes with responsibility to work them or it's a bad situation for owner and dog.

We are seriously considering getting Charlie a little sister for this reason ...


^^^ This, truth ... nuff said

Thanks for the videos. I used to raise and train Springers up until about 20 years ago, field trialed when I lived in the Midwest. Had two females out of Dansmirths Kennels in Illinois. Cannot say enough good things about the breed. When he gets to 3 or 4, he'll start to settle down a bit, mine did. Smartest dogs I ever had. Don't know if you have ever seen a field trial dog perform, but you train them to hup (sit) by voice or whistle when they flush, then wait until 'sent' to go retrieve. As you can very well imagine, controlling a bundle of extreme energy to do that takes a lot of work!! A lot of folks don't realize the difference between field bred and show dogs. Two different breeds.

The wife said you are right on in handling Springers. We got Abby after a couple divorced and was about 1.5 years old. We aren't sure how she was treated.
She was very meek, but mannerly, as loving as they come, and a real sweetheart.
We or another dog can get her fired up, but retrieving and catching frisbies aren't in her repertoire.

Thanks for this. My dog is half show, half field. He definitely gets the crazies about 7 pm each night, and then right after that he starts winding down and is usually snoozing by around or 830. I try to get him plenty of exercise and he gets a lot on his own out in the yard chasing birds. He does laps around the house chasing the birds and squirrels he sees through the windows. He stays on constant patrol checking each window around the house to see if he sees any critters. He was a year old around April/May. I am teaching him to hup and wait for my release. I have been making him do that every time I feed him and he is good at it. Working on doing it for bumpers and he is doing well so far. This is just training inside right now, we will start working on it outside once the weather starts to improve. Been a miserably wet summer down here on the Coast. The biggest challenge right now is not him waiting for my release but in retrieving to hand and relinguishing the bumper, he wants to keep it and play with it on his own. He is a sweet dog when he is not going berserk. I hope to get him some time in the field this fall, if for nothing else then to get used to being out there. My Merlin looks a lot like your Charlie, Rocket. He has more liver than white and his tail was cut shorter (not my choice). Funny how much your videos remind me of him. Also amazing how he can be snoring on the floor, but if the doorbell rings, he is gone in an instant. If I can get some good pictures and videos and figure out how to post them, I will.

That's funny, Charlie is bird crazy too. We usually eat dinner on the back porch and we have bird feeders in the back yard. We let him run fee back there when we're eating. He tracks every single bird in view. When they light on a tree close by he runs them off. When they light in a tree out of range he watches them constantly, moving his head from one to the other to he other ... like he has a missile prepped and ready to launch if they do something he doesn't like haha

I'd love to see pics of Merlin, post em up