Initial Assessment of Rocco (Working Cocker Spaniel)

This video shows a typical initial assessment we carry out at B.W.Y Canine with new potential detection dogs.
There are a number of assessments and tests carried out with new potential detection dogs, but we generally start with an assessment like this. Rocco is an 11 month old Working cocker Spaniel who has been raised in a home environment and has had no detection dog training, he has just been a pet with a family.
In this short video we test Rocco to see if he will retrieve and if he will search for the target object, which is a toy. We use a number of toys for this exercise, but will end up using the toy he favours most. We want Rocco to retrieve the objects and to search for them in long grass. Rocco receives no help from Stu Phillips during this assessment.
This assessment took around 20 minutes and Rocco did really well. He loves to play and fetch the toys and when a toy is thrown into the long grass he will not give up looking for that toy, which is what we want.
As previously mentioned, this is just the first assessment in a series of tests and assessments, but it will give us a really good idea about the kind of dog Rocco is.
B.W.Y Canine Ltd is a multi-award winning company, supporting law enforcement operations in the UK.

[@johnburns5424]

Thought he did really well for first time. Hopefully one day will see Rocco, the others and you back in Haverhill with the Suffolk TS team.

[@oeil_sauvage--Parole_auPeuple]

My cocker spaniel doesn't know how to play. He keeps looking at me with a disgusted look when I send a ball. I've triés scented balls but he would just look at them with a look of awe and disgust...
He's very picky and won't bé intéressted in artificiel bones or kibbles.
Real bones he would take away and eat only if on his own, If not, he'll discard them.
He's been trained on "let go" and would drop znything in his mouth when asked, but he is not interested in many things but some french brand of biscuits and raw meat ans some real bones