Welsh Springer Spaniels are highly intelligent and love nothing more than to please. As such in the right hands and environment, they are very easy to train. They are renowned for being excellent working gundogs and always do well when taking part in obedience trials. Their training has to begin early and it has to be consistent and always fair throughout a dog’s life so they understand what's expected of them. Welsh Springer Spaniels are never happier than when they are given something to do which is why they are so amenable to learning new things.
They excel at many canine sports which includes activities like flyball, agility and obedience because they thrive on the attention they are given during their training and the one-to-one contact when competing with their handlers. The key to successfully training a Welshie is to make their training as interesting as possible and to avoid too much repetition. It's also a good idea to keep training sessions short which helps dogs stay more focussed on what it’s being asked of them, bearing in mind that the more intelligent a dog is, the faster they get bored, bearing in mind that Welshies are exceptionally smart dogs.
They do not answer well to harsh correction or any sort of heavy handed training methods, but they do respond extremely well to positive reinforcement which always brings the best out of these intelligent and quick witted dogs, especially when there are high value rewards involved taking care not to over-do food rewards because Welshies are prone to put on too much weight far too easily.
They are known to have a bit of a stubborn streak which means they need to be trained with a firm, fair and gentle hand showing a dog lots of patience and understanding. It's also important to pay particular attention to the "recall command" because Welshies are known to wander off if they think there is something more interesting in the distance.
