Why Does My Spaniel Steal Everything? Spaniel retrieving and carrying

Spaniels can be sensitive dogs.

I know. They can also be actual dicks.

And if you currently live with a spaniel who has just disappeared through the house with a shoe, a tea towel or something they absolutely should not have, you might be questioning the sensitive bit.

But when we talk about sensitivity, we don’t necessarily mean a dog who is quiet, timid or easily worried.

A dog can be bold, busy, confident, determined and an absolute pain in the arse while still being incredibly sensitive to the consequences of their behaviour.

And with spaniels, one of the places I think we see this most is around carrying things.

Because spaniels LOVE stuff.

Your spaniel isn't being naughty for picking things up

For many spaniels, putting things in their mouth and carrying them around is incredibly natural.

It makes sense when you think about what these dogs have been bred to do.

Spaniels are gundogs. Different breeds and lines have different traits and working styles, but picking things up, carrying them and retrieving are deeply embedded in the history of these dogs.

Of course, your spaniel doesn't know that they're supposed to reserve this wonderful natural ability for a carefully selected canvas dummy.

As far as they're concerned, stuff is stuff.

Socks are stuff.

Shoes are stuff.

Toilet rolls are excellent stuff.

Things you have just put down and would quite like to remain exactly where you left them are, apparently, particularly valuable stuff.

So they pick things up.

And that's often where we start getting into trouble.

Think about what happens when your spaniel picks something up

Imagine being a young spaniel exploring the world.

You find something.

Excellent.

You put it in your mouth.

Then suddenly a human appears.

“What have you got?”

They start walking towards you.

You move away.

They move faster.

Now apparently you're playing chase.

Eventually they catch you, grab hold of whatever you've found and pull it out of your mouth.

Maybe they're annoyed. Maybe you get told off.

Then it happens again.

And again.

And again.

What are you actually learning?

Because you're probably not learning, don't pick things up.

You might be learning something completely different.

Don't let humans get near you when you've got something.

And that can become a problem.

Then we decide we'd quite like them to retrieve

This is the bit I find fascinating.

We can spend months getting frustrated with a spaniel for picking things up.

Then one day we go outside with a dummy.

We throw it.

The spaniel runs out and picks it up.

Excellent!

Then we want them to bring it back.

Except we've potentially spent months teaching them that approaching a human while they have something in their mouth results in that thing being taken away.

So they stand there.

Or run around with it.

Or drop it halfway back.

Or disappear in the opposite direction.

And suddenly we're asking:

Why won't my spaniel retrieve?

Sometimes we need to look at the whole picture.

Picking something up is one behaviour.

Carrying it is another.

Coming towards us while carrying it is another.

Giving it to us is another.

A dog can absolutely love the first two while being much less convinced about the last two.

And our behaviour can have a huge influence on that.

What carrying looks like in my own spaniels

My three spaniels are quite different around things they like to carry.

Piper has standards.

She's all for a dummy or a blue ballie, but she isn't particularly interested in collecting every random object she finds.

Saga and Brie?

Anything and everything.

They'll happily wander around with all sorts in their mouths.

I've never wanted to stop that.

I'm sensible about what I leave lying around, particularly anything potentially dangerous, but I've never routinely snatched things out of their mouths.

We trade instead.

And we've done it so often that bringing something to us is completely normal.

Brie has taken this concept and turned it into her own little economy.

She will run upstairs, find a toilet roll, bring it all the way downstairs and deposit it directly onto Erin's lap because there is a reasonable chance she can exchange it for a bit of whatever cookie Erin happens to be eating.

She has worked the system out beautifully.

But underneath the comedy of Brie apparently operating her own toilet-roll-for-cookie exchange is something I really value.

She wants to bring things to us.

I want my dogs to come towards me when they have something

This is probably the biggest thing for me.

If one of my dogs has something in their mouth, I don't want their first thought when they see me to be:

Oh shit. She's going to take this.

I want coming towards me to feel safe.

That matters for training, obviously.

But it matters in everyday life too.

Dogs occasionally pick up things they genuinely shouldn't have.

If that happens, I would much rather have a dog who is comfortable approaching me with their latest treasure than one who has learned to run away, hide or quickly swallow something before I can reach them.

That's why I think we need to be really careful about turning every stolen sock into a confrontation.

Yes, sometimes we need the thing back.

Yes, living with a spaniel who thinks everything belongs in their mouth can be annoying.

But we can deal with the practical problem without making carrying things around us feel unsafe.

A good retrieve starts long before you throw a dummy

When people think about teaching a retrieve, they often picture the finished exercise.

Throw dummy.

Dog runs out.

Dog picks it up.

Dog comes back.

Dog delivers it.

Lovely.

But there is so much underneath that.

I want a dog who loves picking something up.

I want them comfortable carrying it.

I want them to think moving towards me with something in their mouth is a really good idea.

I want them confident holding things around me.

I don't want tension when my hands move towards whatever they're carrying.

Those feelings are part of the retrieve too.

And they can start developing long before anybody decides to formally teach one.

This isn't about letting your spaniel have everything

There is an important distinction here.

I'm not suggesting that if your spaniel steals your glasses, the TV remote and the contents of your handbag you should simply accept that all possessions now belong to the dog.

Management matters.

I'm careful about what is accessible to my dogs.

If something would be dangerous or incredibly inconvenient for them to pick up, I'd rather not leave it somewhere they can practise stealing it twenty times a day.

That's not really a training issue. That's just making life easier for everyone.

But when they do pick things up, I want to think about what I'm teaching when I respond.

Because stopping the immediate behaviour and changing how a dog feels about carrying are not necessarily the same thing.

Spaniels are very good at learning patterns

This is where that sensitivity comes back in.

Dogs notice what happens next.

Spaniels can be incredibly quick at learning patterns around things that matter to them.

Pick something up → human chases me.

Pick something up → human gets cross.

Human approaches → I'm about to lose my thing.

Or...

Pick something up → I can take it to my human.

Approaching with something → good things happen.

Human hands near my mouth → absolutely nothing to worry about.

Those are very different histories.

And they can create very different dogs around retrieving.

Don't squash the bit you might want later

My dogs are pretty wild.

They pick things up. They carry ridiculous things around. They have opinions.

I'm completely fine with that.

Because underneath some of the slightly annoying spaniel behaviour are traits that I absolutely love and can channel into so many things.

Retrieving.

Searching.

Gundog work.

Scent games.

Finding objects.

Delivering things.

Holding things.

Carrying things together.

Games that involve using their mouths, their noses and their brains.

I don't need to manufacture a love of carrying because it's already there.

My job is not to accidentally get rid of it.

And I think that's something worth considering with a lot of natural dog behaviour.

We're often incredibly quick to look at the inconvenient version and think:

How do I stop this?

Sometimes a better question is:

What is underneath this, and is there something here that I actually want to keep?

Because the spaniel running around your living room with a sock today might be showing you exactly the enthusiasm you'll want when you start developing retrieving later.

It is really easy to keep the joy

A spaniel proudly carrying something is one of my favourite things.

There's something wonderfully uncomplicated about it.

I found this.

I have it.

Look at my excellent thing.

And if they want to bring that excellent thing over and share it with us, even better.

We can put boundaries around it.

We can teach skills.

We can develop beautiful retrieves and useful behaviours later.

But before any of that, we can protect the bit that came for free.

The desire to pick something up.

The confidence to carry it.

And the feeling that bringing it towards us is safe.

Because it's really easy to keep that absolute joy.

And it's also really easy to break.

Sometimes living with a spaniel isn't about stopping every annoying spaniel thing they do.

Sometimes it's about recognising what is underneath it before we accidentally train the really good bit out.