Show Cocker Puppy help

[DuckTales1234]

I’m getting a girl show cocker puppy soon.
Please tell me all I need to know about it!
I already have 2 adult cats, they’re very sweet in nature and I’m sure they’ll get along well with the puppy. Puppy will come to us about 5 weeks old which I think - and hope - is perfect for them to get used to each other.
I live in a terrace house, with my 2 kids, 14 and 12 (boys). They’re both animal lovers and very excited for the puppy arrival.
I work from home and also have a small garden for outdoor space when not outside the house in walks.
Please give me your best tips from introduction to older pets to training!
TIA!!

Will I be the first to say, ‘God, I hope you don’t actually mean 5 weeks …’

If you do mean 5 weeks, you need to report the seller to Trading Standards. It's illegal and cruel.

I can assure you no reputable breeder will give you a puppy at 5 weeks old. I hope to god you mean you are getting it in 5 weeks when it’s old enough to leave mum.

Sorry! I read it wrong, it says 5 weeks for visiting! 9
10 weeks old when coming to us!!

Echoing the poster above - anyone who lets a puppy go before 8 weeks old is not a good breeder/person. In England, Wales and Scotland it is illegal for a puppy to be sold under 8 weeks old.

I’m hoping it will be microchipped but if it’s being let home at 5 weeks, I’m assuming not. Will it have had the first vaccinations? If not, make sure you’re booked in at your chosen vet to get them as soon as you’re able to.

On a practical level, make sure everything is puppy proofed and that they (and your cats) have an area that is just for them that the children and other animals are not allowed into so they can decompress.

The best advice we had was to treat the puppy as the adult dog you want it to be (leniency with toilet training etc.). E.g. If you don’t want your puppy to jump up at people as an adult dog, don’t let it do it as a puppy. If you don’t want your dog to approach every dog they see, don’t let them do that as a puppy.

Socialisation does not mean letting your puppy go up to, and play with, every dog they see. A well socialised dog is one that doesn’t approach every dog they see.

We also booked our puppy into weekly introductory grooming sessions from 12-ish weeks old so they were desensitised and calm when it came to being fully groomed. Would highly recommend.

We didn’t bother with pee pads and just tracked our puppies toilet cues to take them straight outside so they were fully toilet trained within two weeks.

At 5 weeks your puppy won’t be fully weaned so talk to vets about how you manage their milk/diet safely.

I had a show cocker. Lovely dog but they need gentle, consistent handling. They often form particularly close bonds with one person in the family and that person was me. I didn’t go to the loo alone for almost 13 years!

Mine was prone to resource guarding which needed careful management and I did stupidly get bitten a few times trying to take something off him without thinking about it. The cats bullied him, he’d often wait on the landing for someone to escort him up the stairs in case of an ambush.

Very, very bitey as a puppy. Be prepared to wear ragged clothes for a while. But once past that stage, he wasn’t at all destructive, very easy to housetrain, could easily be left for a few hours after gradually building up the time.

Mine was very food obsessed so training was fairly easy. We did puppy parties at the vets and went to training classes as a family. Make sure everyone is onboard with the training methods otherwise pup will get confused if one member of the family lets him do something the others don’t.

Grooming is essential, I took mine from very young and he still hated it. But the groomers loved him.

He was a lovely little dog, didn’t really have a bad bone in his body and thought everyone wanted to be his best friend. I miss the old boy.

As other posters have said, it's illegal to let the puppy leave its mother until it's eight weeks old.

Sorry just read you got the dates wrong.

Get a puppy pen so you can shower etc knowing the dog is safe.

lots of chew type toys to save your hands. Good insurance, lifetime policy.

remember when a puppy is being a bitey twat they’re often acting that way due to being tired and need to rest.

Don’t under estimate the time a new puppy will take. They will take over your life, for twenty four hours, seven days a week, for at least two weeks, until a routine is established.

Puppy proof your house. You can’t blame a puppy for chewing a remote control if you leave the remote on a table.

Forgot to say, where’s the puppy tax? Ie. Photo.

Sit-Wait-Break. Sit-Wait-Break. Sit-Wait-Break. Sit-Wait-Break. Sit-Wait-Break. Sit-Wait-Break. Repeat ad infinitum.....

Do for food. Do it for garden. Do it when being let off the lead. Do it for treats. Do it for thr damn hell of it for no bloody good reason.

Sit.
Wait.
Break.

The most basic form impulse control. And the dog controlling impulses is the basis of all training.

Show cocker spaniel here!
I'm guessing you don't mean they are coming home at 5 weeks old?
My girl is 13 months old, so far she's been fantastic.
She is a cocker spaniel even if she is a show type so we make sure she has plenty of exercise both on and off lead and lots of mental stimulation. When we are out walking she loves nothing more than playing games like find it where we hide her ball and she goes off to find it, to be fair that's one of her fave games in the house too. She is absolutely addicted to water, swamps, muddy puddles it doesn't really matter but again I knew and expected this and as crazy as this sounds, watching her do these things makes me so happy.
She has very good recall, really quick to house train and picks up bits of training fairly quickly.
We were constantly told as a puppy gosh she's going to have so much energy etc etc and yes she's zooming when we are out walking but honestly in the house she's relaxed and happy. Loves the garden too.
She adores us all so much and is excellent with the children, she wants to be involved in everything they are doing.
She can be wary of strangers and this is something we are constantly working on.
Please please don't underestimate how much grooming is required for them, our girl is hand stripped with the groomer but I spend a lot of time in between trimming, brushing, bathing etc their fur really does pick up all sorts - grass seeds in summer and then all the mud/leaves and twigs in the autumn winter.
You seem to have chosen your breeder already but this is so important too in my opinion.
Good luck!

Thank you, everyone!! Amazing tips! 😊
One thing I forgot to ask: how do you make it through the night with the puppy? Do you take it to sleep with you in the bedroom?

I have puppies in the bedroom from day one. Mine usually sleep through the night, which means I do as well. Nothing worse than sleeping badly because puppy is crying or you’re in the sofa…raising a puppy requires you to have a good sleep!

Training starts from day 1. Sit, down, wait, impulse control around food, recall etc. too many people wait until puppy classes to really start bothering and by that point you’ve missed a key window.

Buy a sling or holder so you can take the puppy out pre-vaccine. Don’t have her/him in your arms - they will wiggle out and it’s a bad fall.

Socialisation is a myth. Acclimation is key. You want a dog that can walk past people and other dogs and even cats it sees out and about, without even looking. People will pester you to say hi, don’t let them unless you do it in moderation. Otherwise your puppy will learn bad behaviour such as harassing people or even jumping up - cute when it’s a puppy, not when it’s an adult. And once your dog is an adult doing those things…people will judge and not be accepting, so better not to let it get to that stage. Advocate for your puppy - don’t let people force you into saying hi! And if they don’t like it and keep pushing, a well timed ‘fuck off’ works wonders (and yes, I have done this in the past. Random people on the street have no right to bother my puppy or to teach it bad behaviour like jumping up). It’s a lot easier to train good behaviour than correct bad behaviour behaviour.

And main thing; your kids are older so hopefully they will understand this (although for some reason puppies make children lose their common sense)…puppies are not toys. Taking things from them without an exchange, bothering them when they’re sleeping etc…all bad ideas! Cockers at every sensitive so a gentle approach and softness will always work better than harsh words.

99% of time, if either of these two phrases are uttered…walk away;

‘I don’t mind,’ - usually said in response to you trying to correct your puppies poor behaviour (jumping up for attention, barking etc). They don’t mind because they don’t have to live with it. You do.

‘Don’t worry, he’s friendly,’ - usually not a friendly dog. And don’t put your puppy in the path of unfriendly dogs. Unless your puppy is bomb proof, you don’t want to take that risk. Too many puppies end up fearful because of negative interactions with other dogs (usually adults on leads) when they are young as owners either didn’t read the signs properly or didn’t feel they could say no.

So I guess the main advice: advocate for your puppy. No one else will.

You've had lots of good advice already. I won't repeat that, but other things to consider.

If puppy will be 9 or 10 weeks old, ask about vaccinations when you visit at 5 weeks. Will they have had the first one? If so, find out what vaccine they will have and if your vet's vaccine is compatible. Book an appointment for the second half before you get the puppy. It needs to be given exactly 4 weeks later. If puppy isn't going to be vaccinated by that age, I'd probably walk away and look for a better breeder.

Put stair gates in place to ensure your cats have a safe space to escape to away from the annoying puppy. Make sure puppy can't get to the cats' food and litter tray, if you have one.

My puppies have slept in my bedroom. Then if they woke in the night for a wee, I heard them and took them outside. If you don't want dogs in your bedroom, be prepared to sleep downstairs with them for a while, until they are happy and settled.

I've always let my puppies off lead on walks from day one. They usually want to stay close to you at that age. And it gives you the opportunity to work on recall before they are brave enough to wander further a field.

Toilet training - take them outside every 30 minutes. After they wake, eat, drink, play. Every time their nose goes to the floor, sniffing out a spot to wee. Praise and treat for going outside. Some people add a cue word, so pup learns to wee on command.

Posted twice. 🤦‍♀️

We have an 8 year old show cocker and love her to bits. All the advice above is spot on. I would say 'drop' or 'leave' is a massively important command. We did not master this and ended up having to use a muzzle when out as our girl eats EVERYTHING.

Our DCs were 14 and 11 when we got her and she has been such an important part of our family since. If I were you I'd consider your grooming schedule. While they look adorable when long and curly it's so impractical - we keep DDog short other than her ears and tail. It's an expense but well worth it as when she's due a groom she gets burrs and all sorts stuck in her fur and it's a pain to keep her clean.

Just thought I would add that we had our puppy in a crate in our room too, I really didn't want to leave her downstairs alone and neither of us wanted to sleep on the sofa. She slept well but did wake in the night for a few weeks for a wee, we made sure we made no fuss when we got her out of the crate and we put her lead on in the garden at night so she didn't think she had free run and could go off and play. She does still sleep upstairs with us - this doesn't bother us but it is something to consider if you think it will bother you. We also had down time in the evening where we would get to a certain point when we wouldn't do much playing/training etc because we knew as cute as puppy cockers are we would get to a stage where we would want her relaxing on an evening while we can also relax watch tele etc.
We took her everywhere we possibly could when she was tiny, did a lot of neutral standing around and watching - she's still wary of strangers so some things are down to personality.
One thing I wish soooo much I had concentrated on more was on lead walking, she does pull, we are getting there but she's much better off her lead than on, again something to consider looking at your walks.

Naps! These are so important. In the early weeks 1 hour up and 1 hour sleep. We used a crate and she slept so much better in there than left in the room. A rested puppy is a much calmer one. When they get over excited and bitey it's either needing the loo or sleep, usually both.

I slept downstairs with Rosie (7 month old) for about 2 weeks as she was up every hour / hour and a half through the night. We then moved her into a crate in our bedroom and then into the spare room. She is currently in our room again due to renovations but hope to have her back in the spare room again when thats done.

Before pup is vaccinated you can still take them out, just carry them (we had a puppy sling) so they can get used to the sounds and smells out and about.

Training can start as soon as you bring them home. Positive reinforcement is the best way to go with a cocker spaniel. Praise the behaviour you want and not punish the behaviour you don't.

On top of all that, just enjoy them. And take lots of photos and videos. They grow so very quickly.

Absolutely bloody this! Best commands I ever taught my lab

Also absolutely all of this, especially the part about walking away when the phrases ‘he’s friendly’ or ‘I don’t mind’ are uttered. I didn’t do this when mine was young and I had to deal with the consequences when he was a bigger, much stronger dog!

Also, get used to ‘reading’ other dog owners and put a lot of space between you and the ones that, for example, are wandering along, phone in hand and not paying attention to what’s around them. They’re not going to control their dog and other people’s badly trained dogs will absolutely negatively affect your training.

Absolutely this.

Don't be shy with managing other people's dogs. I don't let other dogs get all up in my dog's face and space. I leash my dog when I see another and if it approaches mine I am not shy in taking it by the collar and holding it off my dog. Most of the time they are friendly but it's not the point.

I wanted my dog to learn that she is safe with me and she doesnt have to take matters into her own hands.

When I started doing this our bond increased ten fold. ❤️ ETA - she is a happy playful little thing but now if there is anything she is unsure of, rather than running off or freezing, she now runs back to me to stand behind my legs. 🥹 She has learned

Also if when people want to say hello he is hiding behind your legs, dont step aside to "reveal" your beautiful puppy to the onlookers. That's you letting him down when he wanted protection from something he found intimidating/scary. I didn't realise I was doing this until someone pointed it out.

It took me about a year to realise these things and advocate for my dog with my body language!

Sorry ,but I read the thread title as 'slow cooker puppy' Was just about to ring the RSPCA !