Best Dog Toys for Your English Springer Spaniel

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The best dog toys for your English Springer Spaniel are those that are safe for your dog and yet interesting to him or her. Some toys are inexpensive and simple, and some dog toys are more expensive. There are plenty of choices, however, to suit every budget and need.

English Springer Spaniels have boundless energy and need at least one energetic playtime a day. Therefore, one of the best dog toys for English Springer Spaniels would be a simple ball or a Frisbee. Teach your dog early on to fetch by throwing the ball or Frisbee and directing him or her to bring it back to you. He will catch on readily, given English Springer Spaniels’ love of exercise and play.

Many English Springer Spaniels love to get into water and/or mud. Save your home as well as your sanity by buying a small wading pool for your dog to play in during the hot summer months. It may seem odd, but this simple plastic pool is one of the best dog toys for your English Springer Spaniel.

One of the quirks of this breed is their clinginess and/or separation anxiety sometimes exhibited when the dog must spend time alone. It’s never a good thing when you come home and find your house chewed up and destroyed by a nervous pup. Therefore, when looking for the best dog toys for your English Springer Spaniel, consider dog toys that your dog can spend lots of time chewing. A large rubber Kong is ideal for your dog, especially if you put a dog treat or a smear of peanut butter inside. Your pet will be so engrossed trying to get at the goodies that she will barely notice you were gone at all.

As you have probably discovered, your Spaniel loves to spend time with other dogs. If your particular pet craves canine companionship, then perhaps a simple large cotton rope knotted on both ends would be one of the best dog toys for your English Springer Spaniel. He or she could have an impromptu tug of war competition with his or her best dog buddy. Make sure you share your balls or Frisbees too.

This breed thrives on social activities. English Springer Spaniels are really great dogs, perfect for families. The best dog toys for English Springer Spaniels are those that play upon their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. With the right dog toy, your dog will be both healthy and happy.

Feeding Your English Springer Spaniel

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If you select an English Springer Spaniel as your family pet, it will be a dog of medium size that has a strong build, energetic, and very friendly. It makes a good watchdog, being protective of its master, and family members. These are intelligent dogs, which is usually easy to train but one must be firm and caring at the same time,while training the pet.

The training of the dog should actually begin when it is a puppy and this factor is to be kept in mind when you are visiting breeders and for buying your pet. That person and you can set the foundation for a happy, well-behaved dog.

One must also inquire about the feeding of the english springer spaniel.

Be sure to ask your breeder for tips on the best methods and methods of feeding since more unique systems work well with this breed.

In feeding your english springer spaniel, most owners have had good experience with fresh, lean meats, fruits, and vegetables. You should avoid feeding grapes and raisins because of a unique toxicity with many purebred dogs. In addition, many dogs are allergic to the corn, wheat, and soy in low-grade commercial foods, causing skin irritation and other problems because of these allergies.

That being said, it is a general consensus that there is no breed of dog which has a nutritional requirement for corn or wheat. Springers are known to have issues with ear infections and allergies. Both of these conditions have proven links to grains and a diet high in wheat and corn is quite possibly going to result in a dog that does have these issues. Dogs simply do not manufacture the digestive enzymes required to digest grains in sufficient quantities to be able to do it day after day year after year without overtaxing the pancreas and digestive tract and eventually resulting in skin, allergy, and ear problems.

Thousands of years of breeding has changed our domestic dogs from their original state, but for most dogs (Springers included), a diet of at least 75% meat and bone, with the rest made up of organ meat and vegetables in a digestible format is ideal. At four months of age, you could feed your dog dirt and he wouldn’t show any visible signs of deficiency. It can take years to see the adverse signs of a poor diet, but a healthy diet not only improves overall health, but prevents many of the age-related diseases that we see in our dogs now that were not present before commercial dog food became so prevalent.

Vitamin C supplementation is certainly not essential and can be harmful. Vitamin C from a natural source (vegetables, fruits) is not a problem. Dogs will use what they need and excrete the rest. Providing a high level of supplementation is what you want to avoid. Most of the premium dog foods I’ve looked at contain a small amount of vitamin C from natural vegetable sources. This should not pose any problem for your Springer, and can, in fact, guard against the formation of urinary stones, which is a common ailment in dogs fed a dry dog food. Some people are an avid raw feeder, because they believe it saved their dog’s life. Some have spent thousands of dollars at the vet for every ailment from stones to ear infections, to bad teeth, to digestive and skin issues. When they started the raw diet, they have not had to so much as clean the dog’s ears.

Not everyone is prepared to feed a raw diet, though, so if you are going to feed a dry dog food, you are far better off with the premium, grain-free brands than anything else on the market. Since most of these foods get their Vitamin C from the vegetable ingredients, you should not worry about the low levels. If you want to support the liver and kidneys, the use of herbs such as milk thistle for the liver.

Kidney health is maintained with good hydration. Dry food is the hardest on the kidneys and you can minimize the strain by moistening it with spring water or sodium-free broth. A poor quality food will harm the liver and kidneys far more over time than a good quality (premium) food.

When considering a premium dog food, it is important to look at the first 5 ingredients and a protein should be listed first and there should not be any corn or wheat by-product listed.

How to Groom Your English Springer Spaniel

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The gentle, friendly, affectionate English Springer Spaniels are sturdy medium-sized dogs that are good to have as pets. However, whoever has this breed of dog, should certainly know how to groom your english springer spaniel.

They have a double coat, the under coat is very soft and thick. It is absolutely essential for them to be groomed every six to eight weeks. If you have not groomed your dog before, here are a few helpful steps that will tell you how to groom your english springer spaniel.

Using long strokes with a pin brush, brush the coat with long strokes in the direction of hair growth. The outer coat should have a nice sheen and should be soft and wavy. This breed of dog sheds hair constantly and the best thing to do would be to get rid of the shedding hair before you bathe the dog. Therefore, while you are brushing, get rid of shedding hair from the undercoat. Check behind the ears to make sure the hair is not matted. Remove any knots that are behind the ears. While you’re at it check the inside of the ears for signs of infection. Because the ears of these dogs are long and irregularly shaped, it is easy for them to have infections that go unnoticed.

You could use clippers or blending shears to clip the body hair. It is always best to go with the grain rather than against it or across the body. If you are not too sure how to do this ask someone who has some experience as it takes a little bit of practice to get it done expertly because the hair has to be clipped correctly.

After this, you could bathe the dog using any appropriate dog shampoo. Once you have finished giving the dog a bath, fluff the dog dry with the help of a blow dryer and gently brush out the coat in long strokes from the skin as you blow dry the hair of the dog. Now that you know how to groom your english springer spaniel, you will have a dog that is admired by all and its coat will shine and the dog will look beautiful and clean.