In life with your Cavalier, there are many things you can do together. The Cavalier is happy just being with you; it is not demanding in any way, but it gladly joins in on exciting adventures and is eager to learn new things.
Obedience
With Zalma, we’ve been practicing some obedience exercises from obedience class and working dog obedience, which includes tracking with retrieves. Both she and I enjoy going to courses and learning new things. It’s wonderful when we understand each other, and that feeling when we come home and she curls up on the couch with me, tired and content, is indescribable. For those of you with children, it can be compared to when they’ve fallen asleep happily and peacefully after an exciting day full of adventures.
There are several different types of obedience you can train: working dog obedience, obedience class, and rally obedience. Rally obedience is a fun form of obedience where you perform different exercises based on signs, and at rally obedience courses and events, you often see Cavaliers and their owners participating.
Chantarelle tracking
Together with Wio and Zalma, we’ve taken a course in chanterelle tracking. It’s amazing how quickly the dogs learn what to do to get a reward. It’s not the chanterelles themselves that are interesting, but the treats they get when they place their nose on the mushroom. It takes lots of practice to keep what they’ve learned fresh, but the dogs find it incredibly fun. Plus, it’s lovely to do something together as a family (since we have several dogs, we can each bring one along). Opperfjäll is surrounded by forests, so we just head out and pick the forest’s gold.
Go skiing or join in on a run.
The Cavalier loves to run and will happily join you out in the snow, often on longer outings than you might expect, considering its smaller size. As long as it’s not sticky snow that clumps into large balls on its coat, it’s happy to be by your side on skis. In the summer, it gladly comes along on long walks or a short jog. However, they’re not so fond of rain…