r/cockerspaniel

Hi,

I'm 30M and live in France.

We adopted our male cocker, Winnie, which is a 2 years old neutered male cocker.

We have him since he is 10 weeks.

It's our first dog, and I'm not a good owner. I raised him as spoiled kid and never really addressed the issues when he was a puppy. But now it's literally giving me medical depression, I love him, but I get extremely frustrated, sad, angry, powerless...

We have multiple issues with him but the biggest one is his behavior outside.

He is constantly sniffing the ground and trying to find anything to eat and pulling like a horse to go sniff new places and try to find new interesting stuff to eat:

It can be wild animals poop, human food, chips, nuts, bread, anything eatable, even if I can't see it, he will pull all time, sniff and find it.

I'm extremely tired of pulling him during walk and taking shit out of his mouth.

Now I plan to walk him with muzzle all the time because I can't anymore it literally makes me want to cry thinking about going outside with him.

He is always pulling, sniffing, eating.

I don't care that he is reactive to human/kids when they try to interact with him. I don't care that he is reactive 10% of male dog. I don't care that he is clingy and can only spend 4h alone at home after a long walk.

The only thing driving me INSANE is this behavior on walk.

The only solution I see is muzzle + front clip harness.

During all his life he was walking with back clip harness, never collar, because since he is small he is pulling and I was scared that it would collapse his throat.

I need help, because my little Winnie, even if I love him, is making me clinically depressed by his behavior outside.

PS: About working on "drop it" / "leave it" I have no idea how to work this. Because I can't see the bad stuff outside before he takes it in his mouth. During walk I'm watching him like a HAWK and it's extremely mentally taxing to do this 2h per day and I still miss some stuff that he manage to eat. Also he has huge allergy to a lot of food so it's hard to find hypoallergenic high value treat to train these commands.

PS2: Sometime he like to eat non-food material like wood sticks, but most of the time he destroy it and spit it out. Even if today I feel like he started to spitting the little bit out and eating it.

PS3: I walk him around 2h per day. 1h before food at 8 in the morning. 1h before food at 5 in the evening (+20 min before sleep at 10 to pee for the night)

Hello, I am planning to get an American cocker spaniel in a couple of years. Currently, I am saving to pay for the dog and have $1000 aside initially for vet visits in the beginnings of a vet emergency fund, and have at least 500 probably closer to 1000 so aside for training (so it’s ready to go immediately when we can start doing that), and an oh no, I didn’t realize I needed this small fund, so it’s going to be a while.

Would I genuinely want from everybody in this community more than anything right now is pictures of your cute little babies. It’s a sad thing having to wait so long, I would love to get to see some cute little puppies while I have to wait. TBH I’m probably gonna post this a couple times between now and adoption time.

Additionally, if you have any advice on things that you needed to get that you did not think about I am all ears (or eyes I suppose).

Please send pics❤️

—Looking for advice from experienced owners, thanks in advance!
Which do you recommend and why?
I’ve narrowed down my next bird dog between an English Springer and English Cocker. Field lines obviously with proven ability, though desire a more balanced dog who can live well in the home.
Context:
-This will be my first personal bird dog.
I’ve trained several dogs before and lightly hunted over them (well trained but not proper bird dogs, so no long term potential). I’m familiar with spaniels, labs, and pointers, and have landed on spaniels for size, enjoyment, and general preference.
-I will be primarily rough shooting—not hardcore, but decent, weekends or at the least every other while the season lasts. I live in south central Alaska and the main game bird is spruce grouse. Long season from September-March.
-I prioritize a good house dog, good with children, able to hunt well but turn it off indoors (when old enough at least). Wife is sensitive to the lab oily coat and I am not keen on waterfowl (bit brutal even for me in Alaska).
-I’ve heard anecdotal pros and cons for each, but I’m curious about energy level comparison, biddability, general personal experience people have. Some of the springers I’ve seen seem leggier, more intense, and all around bigger/rangier than the ones I grew up with, and it’s pushed me away a bit. I thought I’d go back to springers (grew up with a bench/field mix), but lately I’ve been considering cockers based on size and just what I’ve seen out of some of the springers I’ve run across, some of which look more like a Britany at first glance.
Anything welcome. Thanks again!

Hii. (Working cockerspaniel, 2 years old, girl) - ( not me my dog)

So basically few months ago we tried a new groomer who used clippers on my dog really lightly but she clipped her sides and legs and now she quite literally looks like a yeti. Its really upsetting because her coat was beautiful, light and red coloured before now its thick and white fluff.

I brushed her hair every 2 days before and she had a silky coat with no mattes or issues before do there was 0 need to clip her. The groomer was just inexperienced with how to manage double coated dogs.

I really need help with how I can fix her coat. I haven't brought her to a groomer in a few months aside for cutting her nails. Ive bought a kit of detanglers, deshedders, combs and thinning scissors and have been brushing her ( as much as she'll tolerate shes not really a fan of it) and have been using thinning scissors to slowly trim away the white fluff in hopes to let her normal coat grow back.

Basically. How do I hand strip or like get rid of this fluffy mess? Im really struggling and I feel terrible for her.i read online that you can handstrip dead coat off cockers but idk the best tool for that im really just stuck on how to fix this. Or is it even fixable.( please tell me it is)