Getting a Cocker Spaniel puppy this week

[ConsternationStation]

After months of research, searching for the right breeder and finding a pup we finally get to bring our 8 week old Cocker Spaniel home this week. I'm so excited but I also feel like I've forgotten absolutely everything I've read!

Tell me the most important things about having a pup (and WCS) in that first week when you bring them home.

1. bring them home, but take them straight to the garden after the car journey. .... also if they do a no2 leave it for a day or 2. The scent will help with toilet training.
2. puppy will naturally follow you for the first week or so. Take it for walks around the house & garden - no lead required!. I usually tap my leg and say walkies/ heel. You are setting the foundation for off lead/ loose lead walking!
3. religiously give a treat every time you call puppy. It doesn't matter if it's for feeding, because you wat a to take it outside or a little training session. You are setting the foundations for recall! ... and remember, tiny puppies sleep- toilet- play / feed - toilet- sleep and repeat!

Enjoy!

@Ylvamoon great tips on how to begin recall training! I absolutely plan on taking pup straight into the garden when we get home. How often should I be taking pup into the garden at first to establish toileting outside?

https://spanielaid.co.uk/guides/training-your-spaniel/

Every twenty minutes to the toilet. After every meal. Every drink of water. Every nap. Every play time. But they're smart little dogs - they pick up on things quickly (just means you need to train them before they train you!)

@Killingoffmyflowersonebyone I thought it was every 20-30 minutes and after every drink, meal, play, nap but I couldn't remember which of the places I'd read it! Thanks for the really helpful link.

I wrote down the time and what he 'did ' in a little notebook (pee and poo log!).
They need so much sleep - more than you would expect.
Don't let him do anything that you will later not want - begging at the table, getting on the furniture, jumping up for example.

Working or show line?
If working, consider how you plan to fulfil the strong inbuilt drives that your puppy is likely to have. You don't have to work your dog, but it will need the chance to hunt and retrieve, even if only tennis balls in long grass at the park. Plenty of gundog trainers are very happy to teach a pet-owner the basics.

A happy, well-rounded cocker is an absolute delight; a frustrated one, not so much.

In the meantime, enjoy your puppy, work on recall, and enjoy playtimes.

Cockers are absolutely fantastic dogs but watch out for some of their not so desired traits, and nip them in the bud early - mainly resource guarding!

Don't just rely on walks, do lots of mental games as well and training at home. They love to sniff, so lots of hide and seek/scavenging games.

They can have perfect recall - IF you train them early and keep it up.

My cocker is an absolute delight, but the amount of cockers I see around that pull on the lead and run off from their owners is terrible. My dog has only run off once (he saw a deer). After that I became very vigilant with recall training!

Ah cockers are fab, but find yourself a gundog training class quickly. You don't need to shoot but you do need to stimulate and train for the natural instincts your working dog has - if you don't give him a job he'll find one himself and it may not be what you want 😂!
Have him off the lead as much as possible while he is still tiny and wants to be with you. Never too young to teach bits of sit/stay/heel in very very short increments and our start playing with retrieves as pups - balled up socks rolled across the floor! Oh and make sure to take him out in the car etc.
Play with him, love him and he'll do anything for you. They really are the very best dogs. Congratulations!!!

Our working cocker pup came home in August. It was tough going but he's currently in a delightful stage at almost 6 months (until adolescence kicks in!).

I wrote about this on another thread recently but I was naive about how long toilet training would take. I did a tonne of research but barely came across any people talking about the pups taking longer than a couple of weeks. Lots of 'my dog is so clever and was fully clean in 3 days.' We did everything right and it was a slog, but it eventually clicked with him at around 4.5-5 months and now he's great. I was so stressed at one point that he would never understand to pee outside! So just to make you aware that it may take a lot longer than you expect. Every dog is different.

Also agree with @EdithStourton re working them in some sense. This is so important and is the difference between a happy dog and a frustrated destructive dog. There's so many poor WCS who are relinquished because their needs can't be met. We are going to start gundog classes next year, so we can gain the skills to keep him happy and his brain stimulated. We have just completed a basic puppy skills class with a gundog trainer, and even though it wasn't gundog specific as it was for pups, she did talk a lot about harnessing that natural ability and working with them. I'd recommend trying to find a trainer like this who fully understands the breed.

There was a lot of skills I had already taught him by the time he started the classes, such as sit/stay, recall to whistle, leave/drop, basic retrieves but the course taught me how to do things in a slightly different way to suit my dog. She also taught us how to teach him to settle which has been brilliant as he's now so chilled in the house.

Agree with pp who said about getting them off lead as early as possible. I was terrified about it but had him off in the woods from the first day we could walk him and it's paid off massively now. He is brilliant and stays close and its a joy to see him dashing around doing what spaniels do,

Your pup will be super clever, trainable and eager to please. Mine definitely is a classic spaniel Velcro dog and loves to be attached to me at all times!

There's a book called Total Recall by Pippa Mattinson that is perfect for spaniel owners. Ours picked up toilet training by 17 weeks so that part was easy - I had an alarm on my phone for every 45 minutes during the day/evening. He had a crate for enforced resting (spaniels get overstimulated very easily), and he slept in that for a year with the door shut, then had it so he could let himself in and out. They need a safe space away from noise/stimulation. And get lots of chew toys - deer antlers, yak chews and very robust toys. Truthfully, 12 months to 24 months was the hardest work and he had a LOT of time on a long training lead until his ears took over from his inbuilt prey drive.

I'd also give the breeder a blanket for Mum to lie on/have in her bed so it's a familiar smell when you bring the puppy home. It made a huge difference with ours.

@snoopysnoooper house training varies so much from dog to dog. One of my puppies was so food-motivated that she clocked within a couple of days that a wee meant a treat. The next puppy was an absolute nightmare (I was getting up at night for months, gradually moving the time later and later) and even into adulthood had to be sent into the garden last thing every evening just in case (there is a dog door...) Ultimately though, if you keep at it, they will eventually twig - as you and I have both found!

Enjoy your gundog classes. You never know, you might get so into it that you end up in the beating line (happened to me!)

Edited for typo.

From day one, the best way to avoid resource guarding is to sit on the floor while puppy eats, touch the bowl, add a bit of food while they eat, take a bit of food out. If you do this in the first days and weeks it can make a difference

🤦🏻‍♀️
This is number one for what NOT to do. It will have the opposite effect and is likely to encourage resource guarding, not prevent it!

You should never 'play' with your dogs food. Never get up in their space when they're eating and absolutely number one is DO NOT stick your hand in their bowl and NEVER remove food.

Your dog needs good associations of people being near them when they eat and they need to learn that people are NOT a risk to their food source. Sit close by whilst they eat but not right next to them. No attention whilst they eat and occasionally get a bit closer and place MORE food next to their bowl, then wander away.

Never, ever take food out of their bowl. They will simply learn you are a risk to their food source, they will become wary over time as they learn that x person takes food away and in breeds with a natural tendency to guard it can end very badly indeed.

Please don't much about with your puppies food - just let it eat! If there is never any risk to losing their food, they won't develop resource guarding. For working breeds one of the best ways of avoiding it is Gundog training - if you teach them to retrieve properly they get the idea that giving you something of value results in good things (namely you paying them lots of attention!).

Ours is show lines rather than WCS, but has a "lot of drive" according to our trainer. We don't do gundog training, but scentwork/tracking has been a godsend for us and bliss for the pup.

Okay.

It's what we've done with nine giant guarding breed puppies and will continue to do. We have no resource guarding of food, toys or treats.

@WatchOutForBabyHaggis @OrlandointheWilderness

I have requested deletion of my post since you both took exception to what I said.

Clearly gundogs are far more prone to resource guarding and owner aggression than my own giant guarding breed is. I will continue to handle their food and toys as I have never had so much as a growl out of any of them in 47 years.

It’s old advice based on the idea of dominance and pack theory. Now debunked. Add food but don’t take it away.
OP the FB group dog training advice and support is great.

I do not believe in pack theory or dominance. I work on trust with my giant guarding breed. No force.

I've got nothing ese to say so you can all stop kicking me now.

I do the same thing with my dogs (spaniels, retrievers) @PyreneanAubrie and have never had any issues either! I fed all my dogs by hand from 8-20 weeks and they know that if I am touching their bowl or moving their toy that they will get something back. The idea of not touching a dogs food bowl is a really bad one - sometimes you have no choice and it's better they know that it can happen and they are suitable rewarded for it than you try to do it out of nowhere and get bitten.

My dogs also know to recall from their food if I call them (which I will sometimes do to test their reactions) - which, given their proclivity for eating literal shit, I've found to be invaluable in stopping them from picking up things they shouldn't on walks.

When I have fosters with resource guarding, I adopt different tactics. But with puppies? Blank slate.

I’m not saying you do. I am saying that’s where the idea you should take food away comes from. That theory has been debunked. Now it’s seen as more likely to cause resource guarding if you take food away. For obvious reasons.

Thanks @Killingoffmyflowersonebyone
Never had any aggression issues and I thought it was something I was getting right.

I've also done the same with my cocker as @PyreneanAubrie and @killingoffmyflowersonebyone since he was tiny. It has also helped us build a stronger bond I think.

Get pup used to having teeth done daily.
Nails- Be extremely careful not to “quick “the pup as he or she will remember for ever.
( easier to quick a dark nailed pup)

They do indeed follow like little lambs to heel naturally when little pups, off lead.

Discourage jumping up.

Play is crucial- they thrive on it.