How it all began...

Obi and his two brothers and three sisters were born on the 11th July 2007 to mum Pearl and dad Merlin.

As I live in the 'Granny flat' belonging to Pearl's owners Peter and Hayley, and I work nights, I spent my days looking after Pearlie and her little family.

Very quickly I fell in love with one particular puppy :o)

The day that Peter and Hayley gave him to me was one of the happiest days of my life so far!

It quickly became obvious that Obi was a very clever pup, he was nearly 100% housetrained by ten weeks old.

We started clicker training, and he soaked up everything I could teach him like a sponge. He learned the usual things, and also fun tricks like 'right spin', 'left spin', weaving through my legs, walking backwards and things like that. I had a vague idea we would learn 'doggy dancing' but as it turns out-I can't dance-what a surprise!

I think all the early training we did together helped us to build a really great bond, and taught us how to focus and problem solve together.

A few times, when we'd hit a bit of a brick wall on a particular issue, I'd sit there thinking of a fresh way to show him what I wanted when he'd suddenly offer a tentative approximation of what I'd been after. Obviously he'd been sitting there thinking through the problem too-and come to a conclusion faster than me :o)

Here is Obi practising 'hide' at about 6 months old-

So there he was, an intelligent, lively, eager to please young Springer Spaniel-it was time he had a job! :o)