Life has been a little crazy for me lately. I started working a new job that has me working long hours, and although I still find time to train the dogs, I don’t always find time to write about it. On top of that, I added a new addition to the family today. No, it’s not another ECS. This one is of the homo sapien variety. He came this morning and is doing great! Rocky has taken it upon himself to be the personal guardian of the baby (Bret), and at least for today he could usually be found somewhere close to the vicinity of Bret (as was the case for this picture).
In spite of all of the “hoopla” surrounding this weekend, I still found time to read The Working Cocker by P E Jones. When I arrived home from work Friday evening, I found it stuffed in my mailbox. I’d all but given up hope on seeing it because I’d been informed that it had been shipped at the end of December, but I had yet to see it. I figured that it must have got stuck in customs or lost in transit seeing that it had already been almost two months since shipping. It was certainly a pleasant surprise to find it in the box, and seemed to be perfect timing having arrived at the start of a weekend!
Let me sum up my impression of the book very succinctly for you: I had a very busy weekend. I still managed to finish reading the book early this afternoon. I liked the book a lot.
Now for the details. P E Jones does not know me from Adam, but I have been a “secret admirer” of his for the last couple of years. I have tried to find out anything I can about him over the internet, and have followed his success in field trails fairly closely. He has an extremely popular kennel name (Maesydderwen), and his dogs show up in a large number of ECS pedigrees. When I read the description of this book, I was excited because I thought that it would give me a glimpse into Jones’ kennel. The book did not disappoint in the least.
Jones has a very personable style of writing. After reading the book, I almost felt that I knew him personally. He has a dry sense of humor that is prevalent throughout the book, and this makes for a very easy read. I had waited so long for this book that I wanted to make it last, so I found myself imposing mandatory breaks in order to draw it out a little longer! I would love to someday purchase a dog from Jones, and after reading his book, I feel that I wouldn’t hesitate to call him up on the phone as he seems like a very decent person.
Now, for the content more specifically. Here is what stood out to me:
1) I thoroughly enjoyed his material on the history of the breed. I have read a lot of material on the ECS breed, but a lot of what Jones wrote was completely new to me. It helped clarify some of the questions that I had, and was very informative. A number of times I found myself reading something to my wife that I thought interesting. She feigned interest, but really I think she was secretly making plans to wake me up in the middle of the night to go have a baby! Either way, I learned more about the ECS breed as a result of this book, and that’s saying a lot.
2) Generally, the training methods for Spaniels are fairly similar across the board. Most trainers follow the same general principals and then add their own little nuances. P E Jones is no different. Most of the training material in the book I had already learned from other sources. However, there were several things that were unique and that I will definitely implement into my training. One of these is a method that I have not seen anywhere else for improving a pup’s ability to track a runner. It makes sense, and will be a help for both hunting and competing. Throughout the training portion of the book Jones reminded me over and over again to not give an inch to my dogs. This served as an excellent reminder to me, and I know it had an impact on how I treated my dogs even today. He states at the start of the book that the training material in the book is more directed at the novice than at an experienced trainer, and I believe that is an accurate statement for the most part. The novice will find a lot of good material to implement in their training. On the other hand, I would think that even an advanced trainer would do well to at least read Jones’ material.
3) My undoubtedly favorite part of this book was the insight that it gave me into so many different Cockers, of whom previously I had only known as names on a page. Jones seems to know something about every single dog that I have ever tried to research on the internet. There were a number of dogs whose names I have researched, but was unable to acquire any information, that unbeknownst to me Jones had trialed, and provided a description of in the book. He also had pictures for a large number of these dogs, which made it even more interesting. Many of the dogs that he competed with in the past are the foundation stock for the dogs that we own today, and I at least found it fascinating to read about these dogs that contributed to the dogs that are currently curled up at my feet!
So, who would I recommend this book to? Anyone who is truly an enthusiast of English Cockers will benefit from this book. I have this extremely strong addiction for the breed that creates a strong appetite to learn everything I can about these great dogs. This appetite is not easily satiated, but Jones’ book did more than any material that I have ever read to at least curb the hunger pains. I found it extremely interesting to learn about the breed from someone “on that side of the pond”, and it was clear that he knows more about the history and the founding dogs of the breed than most, if not all writers here in the US. I feel strongly that if you are a fan of the ECS breed, then you owe it to yourself to purchase this book. It will provide you with an excellent read, and will make an excellent resource to have in your collection. Not only for training material, but also to reference a particular dog that might be in a pedigree you’re interested in.
I can’t say enough good things about this book, and would heartily recommend it to my fellow Cocker enthusiasts.
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