some advice please

[maxcliffordslovechild]

New in here as have just got a beautiful cocker 1 yr old bitch. Came to me as an ex working gun dog but was rubbish at it apparently so the owner had no use for her. She is a lovely little thing, a bit nervous very scared of cars, has spent the last year in a shed in a field in a rural location. She is friendly enough, probably too friendly (all over everyone). Anyway I think she has the potential to be a wonderful family pet but has no idea how to live in a house, i never wanted to have an outside dog( kennel and pen) but do you think i'm confusing her by keeping her inside. She seems afraid of the tv, radio etc and has no house training ( although we are working on that one).

This is something that will take time and patience. Take your new dog everywhere with you, for a coffee, to get the newspaper, to drop/collect kids from school. Socialisinglike this will get her used to outside noises - but it will take time. Dont make a fuss if she gets scared, try to ignore it as much as you can.
You can buy a CD of 'household noises' which have tv, hoover, washing machine etc noises to get dogs used to them.

House training is something that will come in time. I would suggest starting as if she was a puppy, when she wakes, after sleeping, after eating, drinking take her out to go to the toilet and give a command. Praise if she goes outside, ignore if she does it inside.

hth.

Only a couple of days she is really adorable and good as gold with kids and other animals ( i already had a cat).
Time and patience then, someone advised me to take her to a busy town but to be honest i think she'd have a heart attack! thanks for the advice, and i will look for that CD.

There is one locally, I'll look into it, thanks. I just want her to have a happy life after a bit of a crappy start.

I would suggest a busy town - maybe a small market type, which is where I live and it is ideal for young dogs to just watch the world go by while I have a coffee outside.

jesus! *would NOT suggest a busy town.

I have a cocker as well.But he arrived as a 12 week puppy.They are really intelligent dogs and catch on to everything fast [especially if you reward with food!].Mines a male and he still ocasionally pees inside -but i think that a male thing.I have rehomed an 2 year old cavalier before that wasn't trained at all.I taught her to go in and out of a already existing cat flap by using a trail of chocolate drops.She caught on in 3-4 days.Its probably not the approved method but it did work quite quickly.I was working at the time so i didn't want her to be bursting for a wee during the day.I agree with the other posters.Get your dog used to sounds and smells an lots of people.If she won't walk on the lead drive into town and carry her round [this is what i did with my puppy in a sling].Sit down in a wall and get her used to people passing first,reward with food [ i use James wellbeloved fish-shaped snacks] upon good behaviour.Beware of feeding her certain dog-foods as they can make cockers manic.

Look into a lot of the stuff about retired greyhounds - they've had a similar adjustment to make from kennel life to house life and adapt to hogging the sofa very very quickly although mine still gets a bit confused about dogs on the TV and looks round the back of it to try to sniff their butts.

Hi everyone, here's an update. The house training has been a breeze, she's picked it up really quickly ( good girl). The noise issue within the house is getting better still quite jumpy but not as bad as she was, were booked in for dog training on Thursday evening so fingers crossed that'll help the nerves. The Cars issue is a bit harder, she's terrified, so we've been taking her out on to the driveway and playing with her, she cowers everytime a car goes past but we ignore it and carry on chucking her rope toy around until she rejoins us. We'll get there i'm sure, but all good so far. Teta she's 13mnths and far too big to carry. Thankyou all for your help. Will update after Thursday.

I had a springer like your dog. He was terrified of everything having been shut in an outside kennel with nervous dogs for his first few weeks.

It took me about 3 weeks I reckon to get him to walk to the end of the drive and another 3 weeks to get about 200 yards down the road!

When I first took him to agility classes and another dog walked over to sniff him he screamed in terror and tried to run back to the car.

He turned out to be the loveliest friendliest, loopiest dog ever. He would bounce up and down off the ground whenever he spotted another dog or person. I took him to training classes and he passed his silver Good Citizens award.
He was never overly brave around household noises. He always ran away from the vacuum cleaner and hairdrier. But learnt to ignore the washing machine, tumble drier and tv.

I took him everywhere with me and just slowly built up his confidence with everyday things. I was fortunate to have other dogs and he did get some confidence off them.

Unfotunately he died at a very young age but had already achieved his silver good citizens award and I was in the process of registering him as a PAT dog.
With patience and a lot of love your dog will soon get used to all the 'normal' everyday stuff.