Still mouthy - 1 year old working cocker spaniel

[ComeTalkToMe]

I’m really keen to hear from other more experienced owners if I have a problem on my hands or if my current experience is likely to improve if I keep being consistent!

I have a 1 year old female working cocker. There is lots to love about her - but one issue is becoming increasingly annoying.

She did the usual puppy biting, and this gradually subsided - we redirected and didn’t engage while biting, and used a pen to force sleep. However, she is now mouthing at us for two reasons - one is excitement, if she gets really excited through play or new people she will jump up and use her mouth. I wouldn’t call it bite as it’s never hard, more annoying. She also does it when she wants our attention - not always possible to give.

We ignore, and if it continues we put her in another room to calm down - but still she continues to do it. It’s been a few months now and I’m getting quite downheartened this hasn’t stopped.

She is walked, and trained, including hunting style exercises 2 to 3 times a day - with the longest walk being an hour, either at lunchtime or in the evening. She also gets chews, and brain training style exercises through the day.

Do I keep up this ignore, redirect and remove approach or do I need to engage a behaviouralist? I’d be grateful for any advice/ experience.

For reference, we have two older children, 11 and 14 and a busy household where she gets a fair amount of attention!

Does she have soft toys or something as innocuous as a tea towel that she might like to hold in her mouth?
working dogs often find comfort to have something in their mouths and feeling like they have a purpose, also great a self soothing.

our dog was mouthing until just over a year until we found he just liked having something in his mouth if he got too excited, stressed, anxious etc.

now we have more teddies in various states of mutilation than any home should have. But they are his babies and his coping mechanism. He uses them to regulate himself far more than my arm ever could

Mine is mouthy still. He’s almost 17 months! He’s definitely improved since being a year old and is only really mouthy now when he needs the toilet and wants our attention because of it (very annoying!) or if he wants to ‘play’ in that sort of way. Same as yours, it’s soft and not a bite per se.

I do think it’s quite usual for cocker spaniels so I wouldn’t worry too much about it. I remember when mine was about the same age as yours and I was so worried that he was actually aggressive, but he’s not 😄

It's incredible normal for gundogs to mouth not just whilst they are young, but potentially their entire lives. Spaniels and Retrievers are particularly bad for it.
It's not about attention, or exercise etc, its just a characteristic of generations of breeding.

The jumping up is a problem, and that does need to be nipped in the bud for your dogs safety as much as for people, but the mouthing is natural and there's not much you can do to change that. If you tried, you could end up with a dog that suddenly has bursts of losing control and mouthing too hard - I know people who have tried it with their Golden Retrievers and it never ends well.

Just be glad she's little!😀

When does she rest? I know she's a working cocker but that's a lot of focused activity. She needs to learn to just chill. I agree with others that gundogs like to hold things. I have two Labradors and when I walk in the door they grab something to present.

This is so interesting, and really helpful!

She actually has started sometimes to go and grab something to have in her mouth while she greets someone - like she knows she’s going to do it and that will stop her from doing it.

@LandSharksAnonymous we’re working on the jumping up, I ask everyone to ignore her until she stops, I find if I fold my arms she gets the message quicker.

@Lougle I don’t think she does chill enough, when it’s just me here and I’m working she will, but when house is full, she definitely struggles.

My working cocker bitch is 2.5 and she still mouths me when she’s overtired! When she was tiny she would savage me with her tiny teeth and it was horrible – but I know now that it meant she was tired. It still does: virtually the only time she does it now is if she’s overtired. It may not be that at all for your girl but it might be worth thinking about what she was like when she was little and what her nipping and biting of you meant then and what it might mean now. If my girl starts savaging me when I am, say, getting changed after supper and readying myself for an evening on the sofa, I know she’s trying to tell me to hurry up and get downstairs so she can pass out on my lap instantly. It is an absolute failsafe.

Like others I make sure she has something to hand (or rather, mouth) at all times. Spaniels are genetically predisposed to need to have something in their mouth and I never disabuse her of that idea and always let her have something, even if it’s the slipper I’m about to put on my foot. She greets me every single time with a toy or a shoe or a tea towel or whatever she can reach and that’s fine because it’s what she needs to do to regulate her very big emotions. The other day she brought me a giant IKEA bag but it helped her so that was fine!

Your girl is still quite little at a year old – she’s nowhere near mature in her head, even if she’s physically stopped growing. Personally I’d stick with what you’re doing and be firm with her about her undesirable behaviour. To me it doesn’t sound serious enough for a behaviouralist as it’s just her instincts rather than some kind of weird aversion to something or similar, if that makes sense.

(By the by, I have encouraged my girl to jump up on me – as it helped us a lot when she briefly got a bit silly about picking up game – but not on others and she definitely knows the difference. She does it to me for comfort and that’s OK. I agree that it’s a bad habit but it has been really useful for us.)

@ComeTalkToMe good! It is really hard when they're young - and well-meaning (but annoying) people do tend to encourage them to jump. Don't be afraid to be firm with them if they say nonsense like 'I don't mind' - because it's not them who have to live with it 😀

Do feel free to join us on the Beyond Adolescent or the Adolescent thread - we sometimes get off tangent and discuss cake and our desire to move to the Scottish Highlands, but there's a lot of experienced dog owners on that thread so it's a good place to find advice or even just sense-check what you're doing!

When our younger dog (working lab) was little she was really barky and mouthy. It took a lot of work but we taught her that barking and mouthing doesn't work. Now she 'uses her words'. She literally talks to us with really intonated yowls.

Definitely give her stuff that she can hold. Pets at Home sell plush burgers for £2 that are an excellent size, and their stuffed duck and their flappy banana are both favourite toys to present.

You're doing lots of ignoring which might feel like the right thing but is probably just adding to her frustration. Try more proactive training, look up four paws on the floor methods which treats the good behaviour rather than punishing her bad behaviour.

I am so glad I posted, helped me feel we’re not raising an aggresive dog! And she isn’t, she’s a ‘please come and rub my tummy’ type of dog 😂

Helpful advice though, which always spurs me on anew in my training.

I have been on that thread before @LandSharksAnonymous and think I will go back on as lovely to hear about others and their dogs and learn more!