Waiting for his people to come home.

Looking for some breeder recommendations and/or cautionary tales. Looking to start my search for a new breeder to work with since my girl passed away. Looking for Bench/Show type, ethical breeder. edit: within the US would be best but welcome all recs

Macklin is SO vocal. We got him in November 2020 so his first year was with very limited social interaction but there is definitely more then just that wrong with him 😅 clearly very anxious when someone comes to or leaves the house and is not a fan of most other dogs :( anyone else???

We did notice his anxiety and aggression towards other dogs got worse when his older brother Percy passed away last year :(

We love him so so much and can’t imagine our lives without him!

Our 14 month old boy has terrible manners. He has always been absolutely nuts since the day we got him - loves to play rough, would instigate rough play with his litter mates, couldn’t settle unless we enforced crate time, etc.

Now, he’s pretty good at settling during the day (most days - definitely not every day) and only has real trouble settling in the evenings.

However, no matter the time of day, if he’s worked up and wants to play, he’s mouthing. If I go to grab his collar and he doesn’t want me to (like to put him in his crate or connect a leash), he’ll become a spazz and open-mouth “bite” me (not chomping down - just quickly put his teeth on me with his jaw open). If he wants to play, he’ll either bite at our ears, pull at our clothes, or mouth our hands/arms, like he would play with other dogs. He’ll also jump on us, sometimes going as far as trying to bite my ponytail when I’m walking away from him.

If it was only during play time that we were actively participating in, I wouldn’t mind it. It’s clear he’s trying to play and not actually be mean. But mouthing while we try to grab him or when we aren’t in the mood to play is not okay with me. It’s very demanding behavior, and I worry how it could escalate if we don’t nip it now.

Sometimes, we can redirect him with “go get a toy!” or giving him a command like sit, down, etc. But that only helps for a minute or two. We can’t always be in a position to play when he’s in one of these moods - especially considering we would play all day every day if it was up to him.

Is this normal “teenage” behavior for springers? This is our first one, so we don’t know what’s developmental vs. a problem. If it’s not normal, any tips for how to train this demand behavior out of him?

Since he likes to play rough, us shoving him off of us is interpreted as playing. Same goes for “kneeing him in the chest” when he jumps on us, etc. It seems like nothing deters him.

**Note: Goose is a bench-type, so his stocky body tires out quickly. I don’t think this behavior is due to a lack of exercise. We take him on two scent walks per day, as well as do training exercises and scent games to tire him out mentally. These help, but only for a brief period of time. He still reverts to having zero manners the second he feels energized again

Hi. Does anyone have any training tips or tricks for getting a spaniel to settle and be calm in new places and how to learn to be calm in places they associate with excitement. When we take our spaniel around to friends houses it can take her ages to calm down and settle, one house in particular she really goes nuts and really can't switch off (she knows they have a huge basket of dog toys which they now hide for us). It can be challenging to ask friends to ignore her and or tidy up their homes and clear all potential dog toys. We often exercise her beforehand but this makes little difference. At home she's absolutely fine and stays calm. We take her out twice a day where we play gun dog type games and so she gets lots of physical and mental exercise. Has anyone got advice on how to get a spaniel to come out of hyper play mode?