It has been a long time since I last had a dog, but, with changes to my job, I have decided that it is time to get one.
I work as an IT consultant and used to be travelling a lot for work, but since 2020 clients have realised that much work can be accomplished remotely with meetings and collaboration through tools like Microsoft Teams, Jira and Confluence. Therefore I only have to travel a handful of days a year.
I decided that I would get a Springer Spaniel, as I like walking and live in a rural Northumberland village, with both the National Park and Kielder Forest nearby, giving ample places for us to walk. I also decided that I would prefer a female dog.
However, as I started looking at litters I reconsidered both of my decisions regarding the type and sex. As well as looking at Springers, I also started looking at Cocker Spaniels (which are similar to, but smaller than, Springer Spaniels) and also that rather than looking for a particular sex of puppy I would view litters and see if any puppy stood out.
After a short time and viewing some litters, I have found such a puppy; a male Cocker Spaniel, whom I shall call Hodi.
Why call him Hodi? Well, I am a big fan of German Folk Rock and Medieval Metal, with one of my favourite bands being Feuerschwanz. This band was founded by people who thought the genre was taking itself too seriously and wanted to inject some fun; each band member took a stage name, with one of the two singers taking the name Prinz Richard Hodenherz III, or “Hodi” for short.
This is not a picture of Hodi, but he is a predominantly black Cocker Spaniel like the one shown; Hodi is currently a four week old puppy still with his mam. I won’t be able to bring him home for another four weeks.
As I say, I am not an experienced dog owner, as my last dog was some time ago, but I am doing a lot of research and will be using this site to document my experiences with Hodi. I’m happy if people want to (constructively) comment on my efforts, as I am happy to learn from those who have experience I currently lack.
I’ve called the site the “Saga of Hodi”, not in any pejorative sense, but simply because it will be a long running story of my life with a Cocker Spaniel.