Mom, I just don't see what the problem is. I looks bootiful.
Cora's new thing is excavation work. I've nick named her Denise the Menace. Not surprising, her dad's nick name is Dennis the Menace. I water, and she excavates. She got a bubble bath after the latest hole to China, which she hates, because it makes her smell like sunflowers, when her preferred parfume is clearly Swamp No. 5. When, I let her out to pee at 1 am, she decided it was the perfect time to go for a swim in the pond covered with scum. She lost her bed dog spot and and slept in a crate.
I've started her in beginner agility to give her overactive brain a focused activity, and she's fearlessly racing across the dog walk, making the teeter slap the ground and racing through the tunnel. She is too young for jumps, but hell, she may be ready for novice agility before Iceman! She just loves it. Guess all that early puppyhood stuff we did really stuck!
Now that most of the new recruits are 6 months old, I've started line steadying them, and I think if we can master that anything is possible. Everybody is land/water retrieving really well. I definitely have an outstanding group of high drive, natural retreivers, and all have soft, proper spaniel mouths. Both Cormac and Cora are definitely field trial quality puppies. Corm has a LOT of determination on water retrieves. I was impressed, really. He is a super high octane dog. Cora is deceptively quiet and calm while training. It's her recreational, born to be wild behavior that gets her in trouble. ;)
Meanwhile baby Bones is line steady at 4 months old. I would hold him by the collar, toss a bird, then let him go, and after a couple of weeks he line steadied himself. At this rate, he could be ready for Senior Hunter by fall and skip Junior entirely. He isn't the fastest guy, but he has gads of drive, determination, a kick ass NOSE, and his marking and retrieving are amazing. He has been the perfect puppy. He goes back to my "spaniels for dummies" philosophy. I include easy keepers like Annie, Cheetah, Spanky, Chica in this category. Minimal field training for maximum return. Dogs so easy to train that you only need one brain cell, one arm and one leg to train them. Okay, you might need two brain cells, and two arms as you'll need to toss birds and hold your dog, but you definitely only need one leg. ;)