Is it in today's edition of the paper?
I didn't know very much about cocker rage when I got Honey - but then people every where started to say to me about the golden cocker thing. I was really worried. The vet said that some solids were a bit more difficult than others, but on the whole she found it was down to the individual training and so on. She said in general cockers needed a firm hand as they were a bit "bossy" and she would recommend puppy training. But then she said she would recommend puppy training for any dog 
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When I mentioned the cocker rage thing to our puppy trainer, her reply was "What cocker rage thing?" - she was deliberatley making the point that she did not feel it was a cocker thing, but that any dog, poorly managed could have problems.
Everything poor Honey did - I thought about cocker rage. However this site was a godsend, because I soon discovered that if Honey had it tehn so did every other dog on here, at some time or other. Because everyone was discussing similsr problems. I then decided that actually every cocker did not have it, but that Honey's behaviour was normal puppy behaviour. But I had been miserable because of ideas that those who did not know had put in my head 
i see now I had nothing to worry about - she is still strong willed and sometimes needs a frim hand - but what dog doesn't . I have to say though I am still often relieved though when I hear of another breed doing something naughty 
I do feel a little but sad though that i let the rumours of cocker rage cast a shadow of my enjoyment of her as a pup sometimes 
kb I couldn't agree more.
From the moment I told people I was getting a red cocker I was hit with a barrage of comments about at best he would be snappy and at worst he would have rage.
Then someone, who knew a cocker breeder, had told my mum that reds were awful and snappy but blacks were wonderful.
I actually posted on here about this just before getting Barney as it threw me into a blind panic.
Like you, everything Barney has done I have worried endlessly about and I still do. Far, far more than things my other two did as pups.
I get on very well with my vet and when I took Barney in for his first vaccinations I'd told her what had been said. She said that she had alot of solid cockers as patients and all of them were lovely. She believed that alot of behaviour is determined by how they are treated and trained. I'd said how worried I was, and the analagy she used was that if 99 people told you that you were beautiful and 1 person told you that you were ugly, you immediately think that you are ugly. And she is right.
While researching cockers, of course Rage came up. I spoke with my trainer about it, who had very much the reactions of yours kb. She'd looked into the so called evidence that Roger Mungford had written about, as part of her degree in Animal Behaviour Science. Apparently alot of his research isn't carried out in a scientifical way. My trainers view was very much like yours, behavioural problems can affect any breed and alot of problems occur because owners of small dogs very often don't continue training as they would a larger dog. I've paid particular attention to this in our classes and alot of the time Barney is the only smaller dog, all the smaller dogs that did puppy class have never been seen again. Her advice was to buy from a reputable breeder and train as I had my others.
I would say that Barney has thrown up more issues than my other two, but I also think part of that is because I am so sensitive to anything he does too. But he is a very loving, soppy dog. I've commented on another thread recently about a sudden change in snapping at few dogs which started 3 weeks ago and I'm working on, apart from that other things have all been resolved very easily.
In the park this week with Nicola and Alfie a lady stopped us ask why Barney was docked and Alfie wasn't. After that she asked what the red one was like as they are often nasty.
Its articles like this that people who don't own dogs, like all of my family, will read and will now say "well we told you he'd be snappy and nasty". So when my neice hurt him and he snapped, he's now labelled as a nasty dog by them.
Any dog, of any breed or cross breed can have problems. I think it wholly irresponsable for him to perpetuate his sweeping comments about two colours of one breed.
