Our Cooper is an English Springer Spaniel, he was born June 23rd 2009 and his parents were working gun dogs hence his little docked tail (this was done “properly” at the vets) It seems he failed his puppy tests for becoming a working gun dog himself as he is scared of almost everything. He hates loud bangs and fireworks so gunshot would be out of the question. He is also quite worried about umbrellas, pushchairs, wheely bins.. you see where we’re going here.
When we first saw Coop he was chewing on a radiator valve whilst stinking the whole lounge out with eggy farts, we fell for him immediately. He slept on Johns lap on the ride home and after a brief hello and sniff around his new house we began crate training him straight away – I know crate training has it’s lovers and haters but for Coop it was perfect! We had his schedule stuck up all around the house so we all knew what was happening when and he kept that crate as his safe house for almost 2 years. We couldn’t believe how big the kitchen was when we moved it.
When he was about 5 months old we decided that we needed some puppy classes – and by “we” I mean John and I – haha.. Coop was living up to his breed as a Springer as he wouldn’t stop jumping up at us which became a costly affair in ripped t-shirts and jumpers, all our favourite ones of course! On his course we were advised to give him a trigger word for when we wanted him to wee and poo – we chose “toilet” and “other toilet” (so if you ever see us walking on a small grass verge saying toilet over and over it means we need Coop to wee and he’s sniffing instead) it is a cracking thing to do though, i think we’d choose a different word now though.. something like “quickly” maybe to disguise it a little. Coop met a lovely little black lab called Molly in his training and they became firm friends so much so that they both almost failed the class and both for not walking with a slack lead – a very obedient Rhosedian Ridgeback called Charlie took the top spot.
In each of the vans we’ve had we’ve given Coop a bit of a choice for where he would like to travel and sleep in the hope that he would feel comfortable there and not stress so much, I think this might help a little but he still absolutely hates when we are driving in the van, don’t get me wrong, he LOVES the van, especially this one and he loves going to all the new places and meeting people and paddling and walking lots – he’s definitely not about the journey and all about the destination.
Over the years we’ve come to the conclusion that Coop is a delicate soul and finding the right food for his belly (and that awful smell that comes from dog butts) and we think we’ve finally found the right combination. We used to feed him Arden Grange but that has been increasingly difficult to find so at the moment Cooper is fed the following foods, his dry food is currently : Harringtons Lamb & Rice and we mix 1/6 of a pack of meat so his kibble is nicely coated and we use Naturo for that as you can actually see the potatos, rice and veg in there. To help his little joints as he’s had a few issues with them we give him the following supplements, Jointsure & Yumove and add Organic, unfiltered apple cider vinegar with “the mother” along with a good squirt of honey to it too – he must like it (and vanlife I should think) as 95% of the time he wolfs his food down when we used to have to coddle him all the way through eating. We did used to have the standard Spaniel bowls, you know the ones that taper in at the top so his ears don’t go in his food but he used to struggle getting mouthfuls of food so we treated him to a bigger bowl with straight sides and that has been a life saver too – I know I can be particular for having a favourite plate but we had to go through a few to find the right one and they all had to be metal. So we chose this one: Dog Food Bowl and his water bowl – best thing we’ve had in the van as it even puts up with Johns driving around Welsh mountain roads this Non Spill water bowl is amazing..
When we are driving Coop has chosen to travel under the table by the dinette and the front which is nice and handy as the seatbelt clips are right there so we didn’t have to fit an anchor point. He travels and sleeps on this dog bed which is brilliant for his joint issues too and we have noticed a difference since we swapped it as it’s lovely and thick memory foam with a washable cover. We use this harness with this seatbelt clip to make sure he stays on his bed (he can move around to get comfortable) as his favourite thing to do if we don’t clip him in is to try and hide under Johns legs when he’s sat in the drivers seat so yeah, clipped in all the way for Mr Cooper!
Trying to keep a spaniel out of water, be it rain, rivers, lakes or the sea – is hard!! So hard that I almost get upset when we arrive at a beach to find it’s only dog friendly out of season so he can’t go on it – he gets so excited as soon as he smells it and i’m sure he thinks we’re being mean instead. When he does get to go into the water we have the dry bag. Now at first we put of letting him go in the water unless we were staying somewhere long enough for him to dry out outside the van, then we realised that we were being to particular about wet dog in the van hence the dry bag! Sometimes it barely gets dry before he’s in it again but at least the van stays mostly dry and wet fur and sand free. It’s become indispensable. We’ve always kept a stash of microfiber towels too for all the times the dry bag won’t do, they dry so quickly and don’t seem to retain any doggy smells either.
On the hotter days, Coop is like John and really doesn’t like them at all. We usually try to keep his fur shorter when it’s warm, especially his ears, around the back to let some air flow around under his ear flap (it was a hint from the lady that used to groom him) so his ears don’t get super sweaty and sticky. We add ice to his water bowl, make sure theres a low level fan that he can choose to lie near if he’s inside and for everything else theres his cooling jacket. I was a little sceptical at first as i thought i’d be dousing it in water every 5 mins and that it might be uncomfortable but then I saw one cheaper that any others and thought i’s take a punt on that – turns out to be a decent bit of cooling kit (to go along with his cooling mat that Coop doesn’t really like even though it’s brilliant! So most of the time it’s under Johns bottom – haha..) All you do is soak the jacket in water, loosely wring it out and wrestle Coop into it – the one we have is a little on the small side so we don’t fasten the velcro if it’s snug at all, he will literally fall asleep with this thing on when it’s sweltering it cools him down that well.
Since we’ve had vans to travel in we seem to have started a bit of a habit when it comes to stopping – for lunch, a break or for the night – or letting Coop out first and foremost so we have all his things right by the door to make it easier – if we can get to the door mind you, he gets so excited that his head is practically in the cupboard before you can grab his lead. We use a short denim lead and a retractable extending lead, I think my shoes would be worn out if I had to walk as far as Coop does with all his zigging and zagging in front of us – he’s almost taken peoples legs out from under them with his swift change of direction – makes me laugh all the time. We use biodegradable poo bags with handles on a roll (which is actually a difficult combination to find as usually you can get them on a roll but with no handles or not biodegradable so we stock up on these as they are brilliant!) John is a funny one though and needs to have one of those plastic scoopy things that you put in the bag so you don’t have to touch poop through the bag – he does make me chuckle. I must say though, if i’ve had to clear up where we are staying and need to scoop a random dog (with terrible owners!) poop then i use it too.. Clearing up after your own dog is so much easier.
Since Coop was a puppy he’s loved playing with balls of many kinds – the first ever one was found in our backgarden. We had neighbours with young kids so all sorts of things ended up in there including this tiny thomas the tank engine ball. As soon as we saw Coop with it we took it from him and went to hand it over to the neighbour, who after seeing how excited teeny tiny cooper was, refused to take it back so that became his favourite until he outgrew it. We’ve always taken him to Pets at Home on his birthday and let him choose something when we’re there which I now sounds a bit crazy dog lady but he loves it there and always went mad over something which made it easier to choose. He does love his Kong ball though, that’s the one we have to keep buying over and over, he did have a kong frisbee too but we sent it to a dog charity after Coop started to struggle after playing with it. We should have kept hold of that one though as the meds have made a massive difference so he can play with frisbees again – we bought another kind for now and we have to be the voice of reason that tells him when to stop as he’ll just keep going and going until he can barely stand up at all! We also bought a rubber stick for him as there are times where we’ll be walking and he’ll grab a stick and swagger around with it for ages, then of course he’ll want you to throw it for him which i’ll be having mini heart attacks over as you hear all the bad stories about dogs landing funny on the stick or getting splinters right down their throat so the rubber stick takes care of all of that – the fact it looks a bit like a big bendy sex toy means it’s not John’s favourite to use if there are too many people around – haha.
It’s almost that time again for my buddy (Cooper of course) and I to have a pamper day, i’d love to know when I get my turn although John advises me that my Spa day is when he gets over excited and licks my face. I have the clippers at the ready and his little rotary nail file so I can hopefully make him feel a lot cooler and more comfortable. I must say though, I now have a new respect for Jan who used to clip Coop.. she must have sorted his nails too as we’ve never had to do anything with them as it seemed walking on pavements kept them nice and short but maybe lockdown affected that and lots of sandy beaches or forest park ups with soft floors made a bigger difference. At least he doesn’t seem to mind me doing them so I don’t have to fight to convince him it’s OK.
Thank you to anyone who asked questions about Coop – I hope we’ve covered all the bits that were needed and links to everything we use are down below. Of course these are just the things that work for us, things like the cider vinegar and honey however – providing there are no underlying alergies I can’t see why you shouldn’t do that anyway – Coops coat is much softer than it used to be!
Take care everyone and we’ll catch you on the next one.
Coopers dry food is currently Harringtons Lamb – https://amzn.to/2PH3CaE
Coopers wet food is Naturo – https://amzn.to/3fMvk0b
Jointsure – https://amzn.to/33GK7XQ
Organic Honey – https://amzn.to/3ahadlA
Organic unfiltered Apple Cider vinegar with THE MOTHER – https://amzn.to/2XL99kG
Yumove – https://amzn.to/3fMx21B
Non Spill water bowl – https://amzn.to/3iqq3wY
Dog Food Bowl – https://amzn.to/2XN7qeE
Dog bed – https://amzn.to/2DxLbTk
Travel harness – https://amzn.to/3gFJGAF
with this seatbelt clip – https://amzn.to/3fIrOUA
Dry bag – https://amzn.to/3ir9LUp
Cooling Jacket – https://amzn.to/33LKQqP
Cooling Mat – https://amzn.to/2XOL0cZ
Microfiber Towel – https://amzn.to/33MUfhx
Best Ball – https://amzn.to/3abQ3cu
Frisbee – https://amzn.to/3iEO2sz
Extender Lead – https://amzn.to/2PH02Nu
Short Lead – https://amzn.to/30K0qkI
Poo Bags – https://amzn.to/2CelPcf
Nail sander – https://amzn.to/3ivuyGK
Fur Trimmer/Clippers – https://amzn.to/3abxyFf
