[Lilred]

Only thing I got to add would be to welcome jon to the board...and also to disagree with 1 thing...obedience is not the key to all training. You can beat em, shock em, starve em, trick em and even cry like a baby at em...none of it does ya no good iffin the dog dont trust and respect ya.

well...you could beat, shock, starve and all that good stuff..the dog would mind. But only cause he had to..not cause he felt as though he should. Hence causin disrespect again sometimes causing the occasional bitin, snappin, non-listenin dog.

I agree trainin a dog is much easier when he is obedient...that's fer sure. But while a dog can be obedient..it's crucial that the dog be willin to hunt fer ya till his feet turn into lil nubs. That comes from good blood and a good heart. The rest will fall into place.
You caint read yer dog's mind...but there is nobody on this earth that will come as close as the owner can. That is the person that the dog has spent the most time with..and has bonded with. Owner and dog usually wind up workin out their own lil language so to speak. That is not to say obedience training from a trainer dont work...but IMHO..it aint werth a hill of beans if the owner is not constantly present and workin with the dog just as much er even more so than the trainer.

TSadlers dog was given to a trainer..the pup came back bitin growlin and so forth.I chalk it up to alot of things..it could have been that the dog was paired w/ another dog and was bullied. He could've got half beaten to death..(not likely) and/or..to put it plain..he had no respect fer his owner. Fer in truth, he didnt really know her all that well cause he was gone fer so long.

Springer, I see you talk of you and your dog alot..and it seems that none of the above applied. Treat your situation different than all others..think real hard as to what could have caused this..and try to fix it. Throwin parts at a broke-down vehicle aint likely to fix it unless you know what the problem is first.
Take into account Dog Yeller's advice about springers in general and see what you can make of it.
Then take it from there..but do not assume the dog will "grow out of it" er whatever. Hit the problen head on and take care of it...esp when there is kids involved.