Just been musing today, took Jess out this morning on her own (OH took Charlie for his haircut ) so I decided to go to the park, thought she might like to meet some other dogs etc.
I was out for a good 45 minutes, met lots of dogs/people/bikes etc, bless her, she was a scaredy pup without her big brother .
But when I got back, it could've been that she'd not had a walk at all, boing boing dog!
Normally, she could have a morning walk over at the fields and will settle easily.
I've just got back from the fields now and she's happily lying on the doorstep watching the world.

Is this why (I'm not specifically talking about my dogs here at all) some spaniels end up in rescue? I wonder if people think that a poddle round the park once a day is sufficient, I certainly saw tons of over weight dogs this morning

I guess I'm thinking all this as another follow on from the workers thread.

Also meant to say, been thinking on this for ages, after a conversation with Jen (Fraggle) about how the local parks just couldn't 'contain' a Springer.

i think there are quality walks and walks that wont satisfy a Springer. If i take Oliver on a lead to a park he comes back and runs in the garden desparate to play. If i take him to the woods and fields he comes home and snores blissfully for ages.
I usually take a dummie to throw as well but today i didnt because yesterday we thought he had a slight limp so i wanted him to exercise himself(if you get my meaning) He ran straight into the field where he knows i start the game and sat there waiting. He got so fed up in the end with me not playing that he went and bought me a stick to throw

I rather think this has to do with excitement, meeting loads of strange dogs, cyclists, people, maybe joggers and Jess feeling a bit scared with this will have raised his adrenalin levels. If you took him out to this enviroment every day he would soon be fine. Just my opinion.

That's really interesting, do you think that because she was a bit scared, she would've got a rush of adrenalin when she got home? She often has a loon when we get back after a walk.

BTW, I didn't mean to suggest that a park can't be a daily walk, it obviously makes a difference what you'd do on a walk, wherever it is, whether it's training or hide n seek etc etc.

we live in the middle of a city, and we walk the dogs at the park 3 times a day in week and take them out to fields/bradgate at weekend. Maybe because mine are used to the park, this has the same effect as the weekend trips out. Sally and yoyo race around the park, sniff in bushes, dig up the rugby pitch and chase pigeons, and come home worn out (and somehow always wet, even though there's no river..... )

Badger is a little diff as we can only let him offlead at the mo on the local park, as i always meet the dog walking group morning and evening, and he can go offlead then as he plays with the other dogs and races around. When it is just him and sally and yoyo at the weekends, they don't play, and he can't go offlead as without other dogs to play with he becomes completely distracted, and has chased sheep, attempted to chase deer, and run away from me so till his recall is better, it's a no go. Therefore, i think he prefers the park!!

Sally and yoyo will noly snooze depending on walk length. it doesn't seem to matter where we are, if the walk is long enough they will get tired.

If i could let badger off in the fields/bradgate though i think it would be nicer

Rufus was used to twn parks when we first got him and he was fine with these kinds of walks, now we are lucky enough to live more rural and they all get field/moor type walks mostly daily and they love it, on occasion they still get park type walks we just make sure we've got a tennis ball/chuckit with us to keep there attention or they just go off squirrel hunting .

They don't seem to mind what kind of walk it is but maybe that's because I always do mental stimulation stuff wherever we walk, hide/find treats in the long grass and dummy retrieves and such like.

Titch does prefer the woodland/moor type walks in general but he doesn't get a loon on when we get home with either. He only does that after a nice chewy bone

I think I was thinking of the woman I met with her podgy springer who walks for twenty minutes round the park once a day. Just so sad. And the woman on the corner of my road who has two rotties, she doesn't take them out because they 'don't like walks'
We're very lucky, the fields are as close as the park, so we can choose. No point taking Charlie to the park, he'd find it really stressful and unless we went for the specific purpose of training, it wouldn't be enjoyable for any of us.
But I'm going to take Jess a bit more often, she needs to meet dogs/bikes/kids etc. I wonder as she gets more confident with it if she'll change and settle when we get home.

Her excitement may not have had anything to do with the park walk, perhaps it was simply because she had one to one time with you and then got all happy and excited about it.

I mean it reminds me a bit on Fippy that when you do something that makes her excited or gets her adrenalin going she becomes a loony. Well not now so much anymore, but Jess is a puppy and I think it doesn't take much at all to get them wound up. I just thought that kind of strange enviroment, dogs, cyclists etc would have wound her up because she is not so used to it. And back in the save home enviroment she let it all out. Recently i was away from Mon-Thu for five weeks in a row and when I took Fippas out on fridays she was all jumpy, puppy-ish, nearly loonatic kind of thing. I thought if she could talk she would say to me "where were you all week, everything has changed, the dog walker took me out everyday, haven't been on our usual walk all week" in an excited voice, but since she can't talk she lets it out in her behaviour...rather sweet I thought

Wherever we take Dexter we take his tennis ball and launcher (cos I throw like a girlie and he looks at the ball which lands six feet in front of me, looks at me, all but raises his eyes to heaven and sits and stares until I have another go - I can't stand the humiliation!) and he either retrieves it (after much victory dancing) or if we're in the woods and rivers, we lob it into the undergrowth and let him search.

If we haven't all gone on the walk he loons around and steeplechases over all the furniture and spaniel-sings at whoever was left at home. Then he has a bite to eat, a quick drink and will settle on the sofa with us (particularly if Top Gear is on as he seems to like boys' TV).

If he has a short walk he tats about and won't settle and pinches things for entertainment and gets very bossy and usually ends up having a time out.

I take M & M into the fields or woods by our house. Were very lucky that we have these right on our doorstep. I suppose the only disadvantage is they very rarely see any other dogs on these walks so they see these places as their territory. Whenever they do come across another dog they can be a bit territorial!

If we go somewhere (ie Hope Mountain) where they expect to see other dogs they are always fine!

I have never had to plod round a park. I cannot imagine that these 2 would get much out of it. They love to root around in the hedgerows and roll in the cow poo!