As a dog lover, February means The Westminster Dog Show! Every year I am excited to watch and cheer for the English Springer Spaniel who won best of breed and is competing with the rest of the Sporting Group to hopefully win the Best in Group award. Then on to the Best in Show!

Westminster’s first dog show was in 1907. Westminster has given out an award for Best in Show every year except in 1923. English Springer Spaniels were first entered at Westminster in 1916. As per Westminster web site the Norfolk Spaniel, which later became the English Springer Spaniel were first entered in 1916 and 1917 in the Miscellaneous Class. Then in 1921 an English Springer Spaniel is entered in the Miscellaneous Class. In 1923 a category is set up for Springer Spaniels and later becomes the English Springer Spaniel in 1930.

English Springer Spaniels have a record of fifteen Best in Group wins, the most of any breed. English Springer Spaniels also have a record of six Best in Show awards. That is quite an accomplishment! Only two other breeds exceed that record. The Scottish Terriers have seven Best in Show awards and the Wire Haired Fox Terriers have thirteen Best in Show awards.

In 1963, Ch Wakefield’s Black Knight was the first Springer to receive the coveted award!
In 1971, Ch Chinoe’s Adamant James won with handler, Clint Harris!
Then in 1972 Ch Chinoe’s Adamant James (handler Clint Harris again) was picked by a different judge for the second year in a row for Best in Show! He must have been quite handsome!

There are only seven dogs who won Best in Show twice at Westminster. Only one other dog, a Smooth Fox Terrier (Ch Warren Remedy) has won a Best in Show award three times (1907, 1908, and 1909).

In 1993 Ch Salilyn’s Condor (call name Robert, who is my dog’s great-grandfather) was the Best in Show winner!
In 2000, Ch Salilyn ‘N Erin’s Shameless (who is the daughter of Salilyn’s Condor) was the Best in Show!
Then in 2007, Ch Felicity’s Diamond Jim was the Best in Show! Both Ch Salilyn ‘N Erin’s Shameless and Ch Felicity’s Diamond Jim had the same handler, Kellie L. Fitzgerald to take them to the Best in Show!

Will there be an English Springer Spaniel who wins Best in Show next year? I hope so, I will be cheering for them!

Eliot is a travelin’ dog. Ever since he was young, we have taken him with us on weekend getaways as well as vacations. Eliot has been as far northeast as Maine and as far southeast as Florida. He has been as far northwest as Indiana and as far southwest as Texas and a lot of states in between.

When he was a pup I started to use a seat belt or car safety harness. This item is great and prevents him from jumping over the seats and adds protection in case of an accident. It also cuts back on your cleaning time. Nose prints are confined to one window and dog hair is kept to a minimum. Check your local pet store or www.drsfostersmith.com for this item. Car Safety Harness Economy Size: Medium Eliot also knows that if he does not have his seat belt harness on that he is to sit on the seat where I put him in or lie on the floor, which is his preference.

I carry a collapsible dog bowl in my truck for water. I also keep one or two plastic grocery bags (ones without holes) for emergency pickups. So when we stop at rest stops for restrooms, drinks and leg stretching, I have everything I need for Eliot to do the same. When we stop for lunch, we always get our lunch to go and take it back to the truck and drop the tail gate. We use that for our table and we share our lunches with Eliot. Then it is back in the truck and on the road again. He is well accustomed to the routine and even seems to enjoy travelin’!

My Springer, Eliot was raised with a television left on at all times for his companionship. I hoped that while everyone was away he would hear the voices on television and think someone was around. However, Eliot is very intelligent and he knows the voices of all the family members as well as friends that come to visit. I guess as a dog owner I found comfort in this theory, even though a puppy only needs several days to learn all the voices in the household.

But one day I was quite shocked when a commercial for Meow Mix came on the television and Eliot went racing to sit in front of the television and began singing along with the commercial. It was if while he was alone with the television, he made friends with the Meow Mix’s cats. Eliot continued this sing-a-long for quite some time until the advertisers changed the commercial.

When friends and family members found out about this, they would sing the Meow Mix song to encourage Eliot to sing along. It would not take him long to join in the sing-a-long with them. Of course, this made everyone laugh and being a clown, Eliot would keep singing until he needed a drink! It is so true that dogs aim to please, even for a good laugh!

All Springer owners know the breed is very intelligent. But when Eliot and I play fetch I wonder what he is thinking! First let me tell you that Eliot has a fenced in area that covers our side yard from the front of our house to the back. So it has two gates, and also contains two window wells.

Eliot was trained to fetch the ball and return it to me. While he was young, we played fetch that way for several years. But as he grew older, he invented a new game. A game of fetch where not only does he get exercise, but I get exercise too!

When I throw the ball, he chases the ball and then puts his paw on the ball. He purposely pushes it out one of the gates, and barks as the ball rolls out of his reach. This is where I get my exercise fetching the ball. He also likes to drop the ball in one of the window wells and then barks for me to fetch the ball. Eliot thinks this is great fun and loves if I play fetch too! The old way is just too boring!

In March of this year, my husband, Jim and I decided to get away from the cold, dreary weather. So we loaded our fifth wheel and off we went with our Springer, Eliot for nine days in the warm sun in Charleston, South Carolina. This was not our first trip there, so we stayed at same campground we had stayed in previously. Upon arrival at Oak Plantation Campground, the person who checked us in warned us of a storm coming that evening. The storm was soon upon us, but it was just proved to be thundershower that evening.

The next day was sunny and warm and we had places we wanted to visit. However, that evening as we were watching television, it started to rain, and then began to pour! Then at 8:30 pm, the news came on television! The weatherman was saying that if you lived in a mobile home on John’s Island, that you should evacuate now! Well, that is exactly where we were! Jim said that he was going to the bath house, which was the nearest block building. The first thing I could think of was that I could not leave Eliot here! So as a tornado was headed directly towards us, I put on Eliot’s raincoat and then mine and we all raced to the bath house. We waited for an hour inside and then the rain had slowed down and we could stand outside under the roof overhang. We could see the storm leaving the area. After another half hour, we went back to our fifth wheel, which was still there just like we left it. Of course, we were soaked everywhere our raincoats did not cover us.

The next morning, we learned that a tornado did touch down both north and south of us. But we were fortunate, and there was no damage in the campground. In case of emergency you have to be prepared!

My husband, Jim and I love to camp! Our Springer, Eliot also loves to camp! However, the first trip we took with him proved interesting. Eliot was one year old when we bought our first camper. Jim and I both camped as children so camping was not new to either one of us. We decided to camp for a weekend to find out what we had overlooked.

We soon found out there were a few items that we could not live without when we were camping. And there were also a few items that Eliot could not live without when he was camping. Treats were first on the list! Every good dog needs rewards! Second was extra food, because a dog can sure work up an appetite while camping, exploring and meeting new playmates! Third was a place to sleep! Eliot was crate trained and by the time he was six months old he usually slept in his crate, but the door was never shut and locked. So the first night in the camper we went to bed and Eliot began to cry. He did not know where to sleep! Nine years and another camper later, I still keep a rug in the camper just for him to sleep on.

Previous to our first camping trip, I had trained Eliot to only relieve himself in his own yard. It was great to walk him, but camping for the first time was a rather uncomfortable situation. Needless to say, we no longer worry about that training.

I always keep several leashes in the camper. One retractable for walking, one short leash for traveling, and one soft long leash for tying him while we are outside. (A soft leash will not harm a tree.) I always take bowls, food, Kong (to fill with peanut butter), toys, brush, and raincoat, pooper scooper and plenty of plastic bags. While most campgrounds are pet friendly, some have restrictions on size of dogs and number of dogs. I have even seen campgrounds that do not allow certain breeds, so check with every reservation. Every campground requires you to clean up after your pet and for them be on a leash, so be prepared. Camping is great fun and I think that Eliot loves it just as much as we do!

When I had my first Springer, I did very little training with him, other than housebreaking. Because he was a sick dog, he was very calm and very little more was needed. With my second Springer, Spencer, I trained him the same as my first dog. While he was easy to housebreak, I did not win the other battles.

Battles such as when company came, the first thing Spencer needed to do was jump up on them to kiss their face. While some dog lovers did not mind, most people did! Next, was to show off his aerobic skills, by running circles in the living room and using the back of the sofa as a spring board! Then he would race up and down the hallway, to show off his speeding abilities! Other battles I lost included pulling on a leash, stealing food if no one was watching, chewing on furniture, chewing on toys, and clawing a wooden door. After he got older and matured some of these bad habits stopped, and the rest became not so dramatic.

When I got my third Springer, Eliot, he has by far the most dominant personality of the three dogs. I had decided soon after he came to live with us that he was going to dog school. Little did I know that the dog school was not for him but for me! Dog schools are about training you how to control your dog! I also used one of the Dogs for Dummies books (Amazon.com) on training and tricks.

So, if you come to visit, Eliot will not jump up. But if you enjoy food with us, he will beg (that is my husband’s fault). When I walk him, he does not pull, and he will heal when told. He can wave, shake, high five, double high five, wait and stay.

I am not bragging, because he is not perfect. As a pup he only chewed one thing that was not his. That thing was a red pen on my tan carpet, but I did manage to clean the ink stain before it set in. I highly recommend dog school and using dog training books. A well behaved dog is worth the time spent! Just last week, someone said to my husband, “That is the most well behaved dog I have ever seen.” It made me proud!

It is funny, we all have our routines and we tend to find comfort in our everyday routines. When my daughter, Denise, was young, she had a bedtime routine. You know the usual, bathe, brush teeth and listen to a bedtime story. Every night, Denise would crawl into my bed for a bedtime story, before being tucked in her own bed at night. I read her so many books, starting with the golden books then moved on to the classics like Tom Sawyer and the Little House on the Prairie series. As soon as Denise was preparing for bed, my second Springer, Spencer, would hunt for his yellow squeaker ball. It was his favorite and he always remembered where he had it last.

As she crawled into my bed, Spencer would crawl under the bed with his favorite ball in his mouth. As soon as I would begin to read, he would begin to chew on his ball, make it squeak. As long as I continued to read, he continued squeaking his ball. If I stopped for any reason, he would stop as well. If Denise fell asleep, and I stopped reading, Spencer would stop squeaking his ball, and crawl out from under the bed to “help me” put her to bed. Not only did Denise find comfort and security and also a love of books from her routine, I think that Spencer found the security under the bed and comfort from my voice and chewing his squeaker ball. Dogs are a lot like children and they like routine too!

As any English Springer Spaniel owner knows, the breed tends to have ear problems. Ear infections plagued my Springer “Spencer”. Then a veterinarian showed me how to clean his ears and what to use to help keep them clean. He said any ear cleaner for dogs that can be purchased at a pet store is suitable.

Well, Spencer has since gone to doggie heaven. But my new baby, “Eliot” is 10 years old and has never had an ear issue. He has allergies, and the vet continues to check his ears, and they are always clear. The reason is ever since he was a pup I have cleaned his ears weekly and continue to do so.

I use Doctors Foster & Smith Ear Clens Solution. Simply squirt several drops into each ear and message the ear canal upward and then wipe out the debris with a cotton ball. I am very happy with the results and I know if I forget to clean them, for Eliot starts to scratch them and wants his ears rubbed. I cannot guarantee that this will work for you, but your Springer will be happier and his ears will be clean.