Tell me about cocker spaniels

[Loverofoxbowlakes]

I'm a cat person, had several negative experiences with dogs but am happy to pet the non-bite-your-face-off-types, think I could fall in love with the right pup and have plenty of time, space and patience for another body in the house.

Dp is a dog person, always had dogs, brought up with them, had several before we met, mostly spaniels plus a heinz.

Dp very keen to get a ddog, confident to train, has researched puppy training sessions, fully able to fund/insure ddog, plenty of time at home (both wfh but plenty of options if we want to nip away for a few days away), lots of garden space and walking routes nearby. Adult kids at home.

What am I missing?

We have a sprocker (springer/cocker) and he is, for us, the perfect family dog. He's 7 now but we have had him since a pup, best friends with our 10 year old son and always has been. Was a bit crackers as a pup but is very good at chilling and lazing around and equally happy to go for long long walks. He's very clever, gentle, very friendly with humans and other dogs alike. He doesn't bark and is happy to be left alone. Very affectionate. He's absolutely delightful.

We have a show cocker who has just turned 2 she is my second. My first cocker died years ago when the kids were little so after retiring decided to get another and are even considering another one from Many Tears Rescue. I have never experienced
any real problems with them - I took my current CS to puppy training classes and her recall is brilliant. She really is a Velcro dog so friendly and as long you have time for walks, brain stimulating games and continue your research you should have a lovely family pet. Good luck

In-laws have a WCS who is wonderful and affectionate, but hard work. We have a Border Collie so it is mayhem when they get together 🤣

Their dog HATES being away from them, even with us who she sees very regularly. She will not drop things that she has in her mouth and has an insane prey drive, particularly with birds. She also runs off on walks, her recall is completely selective and will eat anything she can find. She however doesn’t resource guard, is great with people and happy to sit in cafes/pub gardens etc. Our BC is ridiculously obedient and will herd her back when she runs off, but is wary of strangers/other dogs and doesn’t enjoy socialising with new people. We often say if we had our dog’s obedience and the spaniel’s friendliness, we would have the perfect dog!

Wow, so many responses, thanks!

So I should have put 'working' in the op, that's very much the direction we're heading. Dp has experience of spaniels since he was born, but didn't own a spaniel since moving out of his parents at 25, has owned heinz only himself. Fully aware of their additional training needs which need to continue to stimulate into adulthood.

No dgc on the cards for a good few years, hopefully long enough to train/contain 'bonkers' which could be an issue with small dc.

Plenty of time to commit to walking and training, and happy for dp to take the lead with this as I need to learn how to manage any dog we get too. Live near lots of open space so really do have the best of both worlds regarding proximity to accessible countryside.

We obviously need to do a bit more research into breeding lines etc, I'd not thought of if it was possible to find a more chilled WC this way. We're up for a bit of bonkers but not completely mental. Had thought about pups nipping and are considering furniture longevity already!

Still a lot to think about. It's not going to be a quick impulse thing, dp has longed for a new ddog since his last dog was PTS before we met, I'm just concerned that the commitment is going to be a huge shock to me (well, greater than I imagine it will, anyway. We're not the drop everything and bugger off for a week types and know how tying pets can be)

Cocker spaniels are lovely family friendly dogs 😍

AwkwardPup is nearly 3 and finally calmed down a bit.

He's a joy on a walk, a bit of a pain at home (he has resource guarding tendencies so we have to be very careful that he a) doesn't steal stuff and b) that we handle it carefully when he does. It's improving but I think we'll always have treats to hand to facilitate a positive "drop".

Very much a velcro dog, but will snooze on the sofa/ at your feet provided he's had a good walk. He's incredibly nosey so I've pretty much given up crafting as he nicks stuff / sticks his face in my knitting, & he will pop up for a cameo during a zoom meeting.

Training is as much about training all the people in the house as much as the dog

Definitely get good insurance. He got very ill at 9 months old, with IMPA, he's fully recovered now but the bill was almost £9k (I paid about £150 of it, the insurance covered the rest).

I meet a few cocker spaniels on walks that have miserable owners and the dogs are unhappy too. The aren't allowed off lead as they won't come back, apparently. (Eye roll).

Wrong breed choice for the owners needs. They fell in love with the looks but didn't understand the mental and physical stimulation that the breed needs.

I have a show cocker I rescued her when she was 3. She's a lovely and gentle but omg if I sit down she's on me, she follows me around and is always under my feet. She's a prolific sock stealer and will eat them before I can get to her so I'm constantly on the look out for socks to pick up before she gets to them first. We are a family of 6 and I'm her person she will not entertain anyone if I'm there and has no idea of personal space. She will walk for hours and hours she is never tired. I love her but I don't think I'd ever get another spaniel tbh. They are very much Velcro dogs

We have a nearly 2 yr old WCS - she is our first family dog. Kids are all teens now so it felt like a good time and she has been great. Yes she regularly had the zoomies in her first year but she is calmer now. She loves everyone including the cats. She is still excitable especially when visitors come to the house. They do need your time. She has the run of the garden and she has a couple of walks a day - one long sniffy walk and one at a nearby field where she can run off lead - and we live in a city. I would research breeders but also consider spaniel aid-they have great advice and support to would be adopters

'A sniffy walk'.

Wonderful to read that. People do not realise the important of sniffing!

In extremely bad weather we still go out even if physical activity is shortened because getting the 'sniffs' in is their mental stimulation and is so important.

I dropped a long standing friend over this as she thought it was adequate to take her Bedlington Terrier on the two on the lead walks around the block, the same route twice a day!

Poor creature had gone insane and went from a happy go lucky puppy to a snappy and agitated dog one minute and a miserable and sad dog the next.

Unforgivable to get a dog of that breed and treat it like that.

It might be worth looking at some of the dogs that come into rescue at SpanielAid - not to put you off as such, but just to prepare you for the reality of owning a working spaniel. Lots of people struggle with them and many end up in rescue for the same reasons - resource guarding, reactivity, food aggression and owners just being unable to give them what they need.

A well-bred cocker spaniel in the right home is a joy - but if you don't (or can't) give them what they need, they can very quickly go "rogue" and make their own entertainment. And once they learn how fun it is to do that, it can be pretty tricky to persuade them to stop

We have a trial line working cocker, who doesn't work, is a pet. I do respect the opinion of others who've said you shouldn't have a working line dog unless you're going to work them, and it is a consideration - some dogs will be fine but it's down to individual dog and you need to prepare for a wide variety of outcomes.
Ours is happy not being worked but we did a lot of research before getting her and decided to not fall into the trap of walking her for hours a day to tire her out as a pup/teen, as i do believe the theory that you set yourself up to have a strong dog who needs hours of walking! She gets 1 - 1.5 hours a day and a day at doggy daycare where she runs and plays until she is exhausted and that suits her fine. We did do brain games and a course on scent training which she loves.
I would say its area dependent - working cockers are made to sniff things out, so if their daily walk is going to be somewhere with lots of trees, bushes, wildlife - that gives them the stimulation they need, the people I see who struggle with their working line cockers might have lovely big playing fields or parks nearby to walk them in, but its all grass and not much wildlife. Or, its pavement walks every day and then a longer walk at the weekend - which may be fine for some cockers but others might be very bored.
They are also off-lead dogs - working cockers are bred to zig zag all over the place and investigate, and they can't do that on a lead. You have to put in an ENORMOUS amount of work to train recall from day 1 - I would liken it to trying to drink more water throughout the day - that's how frequently you should be aiming to practice recall. A lot of people don't practise it in a variety of situations enough, or have exciting enough treats as a reward - you need to be more appealing than a squirrel and a dry dog treat doesn't really do that! Pate, meat - make it worth their while!
They are also arseholes when they are young - every spaniel owner I know wanted to chuck theirs out of the window at 6 months. However, it's rare I meet a spaniel owner who doesn't say something like 'I'll never have another breed of dog' - once you have one, it's hard to imagine not having one!

They are giant cuddle monsters and can be velcro dogs - we practised her being away from us every day in small increments from when she was very young, so she's fine being left, but if you are with them, they want to be WITH YOU - they can be proper velcro dogs so if you like cooking with a dog sat on your feet, perfect.

What I will say is - a lot of people think our dog is 'bonkers' because she's fast and playful and silly and is always on alert when we're out, but I think she sees outside as her 'job' in a way, at home she can still be silly and playful but is generally very calm - just wants to follow you around and nap.

I know what you mean about going rogue - friends of ours have a springer, they 'missed the window' for training 🤔and theirs is out of control, zero recall and dangerous to take out, mostly lives in a crate indoors. Sad to see, we're keen to do as much as possible to avoid this and give our new friend a stimulating happy companiable life.

I had a look at spaniel aid, saw lots with guarding problems, will have to look into that, thanks. Also the link given about the other rescue in Wales, most of their dogs come from breeders?!? Are they mostly females who have 'finished' breeding? Hadn't considered the puppy farming aspect - need to research family home breeders if we don't get a rescue.

They're not just based in Wales, and a lot of their dogs do seem to be ex-breeders but not all. There's Princess Bell for example - a gorgeous 1 year old Cocker who came to the rescue due to ill health in the family: https://www.manytearsrescue.org/displaymtarr_dog.php?id=38744

She is, I grant you, in Wales. But she can also be an only dog, which a lot of their's can't.

I love your point about outside is their work - our WCS is a loon when he's out, running around, sniffing everything, chasing squirrels - but generally pretty chilled on or under the sofa when he's home!

Cocker spaniels and springer spaniels, especially working line, have high prey drive and have an inbuilt instinct to flush, which means you will absolutely lose them in every single hedgerow and area of tall grass. @Dombasle is absolutely right that a lot of the owners end up miserable, with miserable dogs, because they didn’t take into account, realistically, their ability to train around and in line with the breed instincts of the dog, and are either unwilling to put in the extra work to build a solid enough recall (which can be done) or refuse to pay money to hire a field for an hour so the dog gets some time to run and play.
No one is advocating for untrained dogs to be off lead when they are known to not come back, but there are other options than just dragging the dog around by the neck everywhere you go.

Working line dogs are a massive leap in intensity from show line, and are prone to anxiety and depression when their needs aren’t being met. If you’re not getting the dog to actually work it as a gun dog, you’d be better off with a show line cocker spaniel, or a field spaniel, both are more than capable of taking part in advanced training, and dog sports, but aren’t going to go utterly mad over not having enough to do.

With respect, just because your husband’s parents had spaniels, doesn’t mean he’s actually any more an expert on spaniels than anyone else, especially considering he hasn’t actually explicitly owned and trained one of his own.

There’s become a problem in recent years of people who grew up with dogs as kids getting dogs themselves, thinking they’re not first time dog owners, or first time owners of a particular breed that requires specialist training. If it wasn’t your border collie, but your parents, and you’ve had a lapdog in between, that was your own, you ARE a first time border collie owner, and no one who knows specialist breeds would dispute that.

My dad has a 7 year old show cocker. He’s lovely, soft and friendly but he’s like a bull in a china shop! He’s so clumsy and not very bright. I guess he’s just a bit special. Our neighbour has a working cocker and it fell out of a tree a few weeks back. Thankfully it was okay.. I love them.

Can I ask in what way?

I have a 8 year old cocker/springer "sprocker" and he is my best friend. Easy trained, off lead, great recall, fully toilet trained within 4 weeks of picking him up at 9 weeks. He is so gentle with kids, loves our DD to bits, I've never heard a growl from him. He is high energy, even at 8 years old he needs at least an hour off lead a day but he is loving, cuddly, great natured and very intelligent.

We have a spanner. Show cocker, but he did not get that memo. He’s batsh8t crazy and the most hyper one out of his litter. We love him to bits and did loads of research before we got him but it was still a huge learning curve. He was a fluffy velociraptor for a long time. I’ve studied and studied him and his wiley ways and body language to better understand how to foster the best relationship with him and he’s brilliant but drives me mad on a daily basis. The spaniel brain is a wonderful thing and it needs to work - he lights up when he’s sent off to do a job. We had the beginnings of some resource guarding but play ‘tidy up’ every day with socks / recycling toilet rolls / whatever contraband he’s got his chops on and he’s learned that the value is in bringing and tidying stuff and not naffing off with it. We do scentwork and canicross and he loves both. He lives to hunt above everything else and so recall training is every walk, every day or he’d be self employed 4 miles away chasing god knows what. He’s a prolific fox poo roller but I definitely couldn’t have a boring lapdog!

Ha, love your post @Pheckwittageisms!

I know we'd end up with a similar 'spanner', I'm not sure whether by nature or nurture (we had the oddest un-cat-like cat).

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts. Definitely a lot to think about - adult dc/potential dgc in the future/guarding/behaviour. Getting a dog is a huge commitment and we are certainly not going to dash out on a whim, it's already been months of discussion and research.

My friend recently got a working cocker puppy and its her first dog. NOT a good idea and would not recommend. I've nothing against them at all but they are a LOT to cope with as a first time dog owner and I very much doubt she will be working him in any way.

We have a WCS. She's 10 now but we've had her since a puppy and have had cockers previously. She's incredibly loving, biddable, very busy, a terrible thief when it comes to socks, shoes, pants and tea towels, can be quite nervy (despite her pedigree I don't think she'd have made it as a gundog!), has to be involved in everything, great recall and off the lead, a total pickle on the lead, great in the house, never destroyed anything, loves people and company.

They are not dogs for people who want a dog who will lie on the sofa all day or a dog that won't change their lifestyle much. Cockers are very busy, active, involved little dogs and some can be quite highly strung or nervous/prone to certain types of behaviour.

I met a really nice one but they had behavioural issues and stubbornness. Got my own one and they also had behavioural issues and stubbornness. would only do something if they got a treat every single time, if there’s no treat they wouldn’t do it. They destroyed my belongings and ran away as I told them to stop. She also regularly bullied the other dog out of their food even though she was fed more than enough herself. For many reasons she was a full time job and a nightmare