Whats up with the cavalier king charles spaniels and their birding instinct?
We contacted a very prestigous and knowledgable breeder who said they have an extremely bad instinct of chasing birds, butterflies, ect…and they need to be ona leash or fenced at all times otherwise they will run and not stop because that is what they were originally bred for. is this true? what is your experiences?
this breeder said that even when called the dogs will just take off and follow instinct and run and then often times get lost. so they must always be leashed. is this your experience?
Related posts:
its not true, all well trained dogs will come back when called
that is true all spaniels were breed to be hunting dogs but if you train your dog enough it will eventually not do it. if you get a whistle and a treat let your dog out in a backyard and blow the whistle and every time the dog comes back give them a treat. eventually theyll understand to come back and if you have a strong enough bond with the dog theyll autimatically come back even if there trying to chase something. my spaniel was a breed for hunting and he ends up escaping from the house and hes always trying to chase anything he sees especially squirrels birds and other dogs . he comes back when called even when his eyes are locked on something. its more effective with a whistle though. me and my dog also have a great bond.
Any dog can be trained for recall. I hunt with my dogs (Springer Spaniels, Field Spaniel, and flat coated retriever) and they have to be offleash for that. My dogs have serious hunting instincts and I trust them to come back. It’s a matter of time, patience, and lots of reinforced training. A bird dog is no use if it takes off after something and never comes back. Of course, I never let them offleash in open public areas, but in open fields I can trust them to do their jobs without any worry of them running off.
Honestly, I’ve never met a Cavalier with serious hunting instincts. They had that bred out of them years ago. Most are lap dogs and the ones that want to chase birds or butterflies are just poorly trained. Keep the dog leash when you’re in open public areas. Work on recall in secure and enclosed areas.
i have a 5 year old cavalier and she chases birds and butterflies all day. she is in a big enclosed backyard so she is safe though. we were at the beach yesterday and if she see’s a bird she chases it but i always manage to get her back when i call her. i would advise you to keep it on a leash though as they have very bad road sense and when ours was a puppy she would run away every chance she had when the front door was open