What made you get your first cocker???

[Poppypuppy09]

I was lucky enough to grow up with Dylan a goldie show cocker and as soon as I was done with Uni and got my own place etc along came my Lucy, a blue roan show cocker who was passed to me as the present owner couldnt keep her, she was only 6 months old  I lost my Lucy in 2009 and later that year came along Poppy and as you know we now have Bella the rescue cocker too... Cockers are special doglets and life without one is not something I want to contemplate 

[LurcherGirl]

I am not a gundog person - believe it or not - and never planned getting a gundog at all. However, I met an American cocker a few years ago, and totally fell in love with the breed. So Jesse, my American, arrived 5 years ago and I was hooked. I still didn't much like the English cockers and never planned to get one of those, and I certainly never wanted a working cocker. Somehow I ended up with Skye though when she was urgently looking for a home... The English still isn't a breed that I would go out buying, but I absolutely adore Skye regardless of her breed as it were... 

[Beezzzkneez]

Growing up in an area with lots of hunting I was only really familiar with working cockers, and they're still what I think of when I hear someone talking about Cocker Spaniels. We never had a dog growing up, didn't even have friends or family with dogs and having been bitten by an aggressive Husky as a young girl I was always just a wee bit afraid of dogs, but still really loved them. When my OH and I moved together we started thinking about having a dog but the situation just wasn't right before.

Thankfully things have changed now and after almost rescuing a Westie (spur of the moment decision, thankfully someone else gave him a good home!) I said, well, now that we've decided we are ready for a dog we might as well go ahead and get one. While we would've loved to rescue one of the many Border Collie crosses that end up in the pound here the fact that I was a bit wary of dogs made me leery of taking on a dog with 'baggage' that might have hidden problems, and we needed a cat-friendly doggie, so decided a puppy was really the only way to go ahead. It would be a lot of work in the beginning but we could train her and make her part of our family (and any problems would be entirely our own fault!  ).

My dad's stories of his aunt's cocker had been with me since I was a little girl - he obviously loved the dog a lot and spent a lot of time with him before he became severely allergic to dogs. Maiko felt like a family member I never had the chance to meet, and my dad's tales were full of his wilful, slightly insane behaviour.  So when it came to actually buying a 'proper' dog from a breeder with papers and stuff (not something I'd ever considered), working cockers were top of my list and Thomas liked them too as he had relatives that train cockers. Thus, Maike.

That got longwinded, sorry!

[Manster62]

 Apparently, when I was really little I used to scream whenever I saw a dog. Even the mention of a dog would set me off, so Mum and Dad started to spell the word D.O.G. instead of saying it - apparently I cottoned on to this and even screamed when they spelled it out! 
My Dad had always had dogs, including cockers, when he was growing up and my eldest brother desperately wanted a dog. They decided that it would be a good idea to get a puppy and hoped that it would cure my fear of dogs.
When I was about three and a half, I vaguely remember them bringing Jill, an eight week old, cocker/springer cross home. I was so frightened that I jumped up onto the dining table! When my Dad picked the puppy up and tried to get me to say hello, I jumped off the table and ran into the other room. After a lot of tears, and a lot of persuasion my Dad came and sat next to me on the sofa with Jill in his arms. Within half an hour, the puppy was on my lap and my love of cocker spaniels was firmly ingrained in my heart. Jill lived to 17 years and I was heartbroken when she went - although by then I had left home and was married! 
Due to work and financial circumstances, we couldn't get our own cocker until 1997, when we got Meggie, our beautiful black girl. Sadly we lost her at Christmas 2009.
We now have Dylan and Daisy who are mad, gorgeous and happily fill our lives. I cannot imagine ever getting a different breed. Not to say I don't love dogs generally, but the cockers will always hold strings of my heart 

[Sara_Clara]

Growing up we always had miniature daschunds who although I love all dogs I never really considered having myself.  Far too small, yappy and prone to back problems.  My first dog was from the RSPCA and was a labrador/collie cross, mainly labrador.  Absolutely mad with energy till he was about 3 and then calmed down and was a beautiful and faithful companion living till he was nearly 15.  Decided I wanted to have a smaller but still energetic dog and after much research decided on a cocker.  Harvey came to us at 10 months old from the cocker spaniel rescue, a blue roan boy who they told me had been rehomed no less than 3 times in his short life and whoever homed him then it would have to be the last one or he would be pts    Loved him the minute I saw him.  Unfortunately he had lots of health problems and some behaviourial ones too which we always put down to his bad start in life.  However, although we had to have him pts at only 10 years old he started our love for cockers.  Hubby was adamant no dogs though afterwards as we both work.  Took me over 7 years to persuade him that we could as I work part time and can take a dog with me.  He finally relented for my 50th Birthday pressie this July and for the first time ever we decided on a puppy so that we could, hopefully, train her ourselves and only have ourselves to blame for any future problems.  Along came Pebbles now just over 5 months - hard work at times but boy oh boy are we glad to have her.   

[elaine.e]

I was scared of dogs when I was very young. I lived on a big council estate in Southampton where everyone let their dogs run loose and one of the local pack was a Dachsund that used to lurk behind hedges and under cars and then rush out barking and snapping . Eventually it disappeared, don't know why, and as the remaining local dogs, mostly Heinz 57 varieties, were much calmer I became more confident.

When I was about 10 or so one of our neighbours bought a golden Cocker Spaniel puppy, Cindy. She was affectionate, friendly and fun to play with. Sadly, she was also a car chaser and didn't live long on the local streets . At about the same time I saw Disney's The Lady & The Tramp. I think Lady may have been an American Cocker, but she was pretty much the same colour as Cindy and from then on I wanted a Cocker.

I had to wait until I'd been married for a few years, then OH and I looked at several breeds and visited breeders. OH wanted a Clumber but the breeder we visited didn't think they were an ideal breed as a first dog and I was worried that if ever I needed to pick up and carry a sick or elderly Clumber it would simply be too heavy.

So eventually, via the Kennel Club and The London Cocker Spaniel Society, we visited a breeder of show Cockers in 1987, met all her crazy Cockers, and a couple of months later collected golden boy Josh , otherwise known as Bidston Be My Valentine because of his birthdate.

[Lily Freya]

I had never had a dog in my life before I got my first cocker Lily.

We had a cat who died at 19.   When he died, we were in the process of moving from the south back to the north again.  As I was leaving my full time job, I asked if we could have a dog instead of a cat as our next little friend.

We talked to the vet who had dealt with the death of Henry..................and he said, get a cocker.  He obviously had a thing for them.

I contacted Michele (COLer), and the rest is history.  We had 9 wonderful years with our girl.

Now................thanks to Lily's influence with have 3 of them in the house.  She has a lot to answer for that girl. 

[Carol09]

Our son was petrified of dogs, a number of things made him this way, my mums dogs and a greyhound to name a couple but as time went on his fear got worse and worse.  My OH took my son to the usual barbers and they had a baby teacup chiuaua(sp?) and it was no bigger than a pepsi can, my son started crying and put his feet up on the chair, he then started shaking and they had to come home.  He couldn't go round friends houses because some had dogs and he couldn't cope.

Anyway, we thought about it and decided to get a dog, it had worked with my OH's brother as he was scared of dogs too.   I wanted a GSD but we thought they were too big too quick for my son to cope with, then I said what about a spaniel, I was brought up with a springer and he was fab.  We decided on a Cocker because they are small as puppies.

Well, we have never looked back, Jay is my son's soulmate now and his fear of dogs has gone, although he can be a little too confident now.

[Ninasmum]

My Nan had a black cocker back in the 1930's    although it was before my time i remember seeing a photo of her & thinking how beautiful she was  & sad that i had never met her    Growing up we weren't allowed to have a dog    But my Nan's cocker Betsy always stayed in my memory.    So when i met the OH i was delighted that he owned a GR Pupster & after we had got married we decided to find a friend for our Goldie    of course the only dog i wanted was a cocker so we found this lovely elderly lady that had bred cockers most of her life....although tbh we didn't do any research or go the 'proper' route, we found Sam a gorgeous 8 wk old blue roan & the rest is history    This was 21 yrs ago now & it would be frowned upon now but we took him home immediately, even though we didn't have a bed/food etc for him.    That evening he slept in a cardboard box with a blanket in it, by our bed.    He matured into the most loving, happy dog.    Its because of Sam that i now have a life long love for this breed. 

[Loudon]

I lost my Lucy in 2009 and later that year came along Poppy

 

I have a Lucy (mum) and a Poppy (daughter) just now. Lucy is such a lady but Poppy, well she is MAD. In a typical cocker way. 

[grracee]

We had never had a dog before I got my labrador nearly 9 years ago, I had always wanted an 'andrex puppy' when I was younger and he was all I wanted then just randomly one day when I was picking my younger sister up from playgroup there was someone waiting outside the gate with a youngish spaniel, I really liked the look of it - just the right size etc so asked and was told it was a cocker spaniel so looked them up, did all the research etc and then found Charlie and then Toby joined us 16 months later. Definitely my favourite breed now and would choose them all the time

[Neon]

As a little girl I always wanted a poodle but my parents said no.  A few years later I was watching a commercial for dog food and I remember different dogs jumping over a fence.  One of them was a golden colour with a shiny coat, gorgeous feathering and long ears.  I thought what a lovely looking breed - what is it?  I did a bit of research and discovered it was a cocker spaniel.  I wasn't in a position to have a dog then so forgot about it.  A few years later, sitting by a Cornish beach with my then "new" OH, a cocker ran up to us and we fussed it.  My OH asked what breed it was and I told him and said "they're nice aren't they" and he agreed.  I thought to myself oh great, he likes cockers.  I was working full time then so we never thought about getting one.  Sometime later, I was looking through a dog magazine when I saw this gorgeous, blue roan puppy staring at me. I showed it to OH and we could resist no longer.  Before long we became the proud owners of our first cocker, Charlie, a blue.  I don't think we could ever have any other breed now.

[Emilyoliver]

We had GSD's and Rottweilers as family dogs when I was a child.  I was born dog mad and used to walk the neighbours' dogs as ours were too big!  All I really wanted was a dog of my own.  I read all the books I could about dogs and different breeds and the one I always wanted most of all was a cocker.  I thought they were beautiful.  When one of our Rotties went to the bridge, I took a chance and pleaded with my parents to let me have my own dog - a cocker spaniel.  I was 11.  She was a light blue roan and her name was Tessa  .  Such a special little dog who came everywhere with me, and as well as cementing my love for these little wigglers, she stole my parents' hearts too and inspired them to get their first cocker - a golden called Jenna  .  I will always have a cocker (or two) in my life - they are fantastic, clever, sweet, merry, game little dogs put on earth to steal hearts (and food and beds and shoes) 

[Toni-UK]

Laurence Llewellyn Bowen made me get my first cocker 

We had got two bengalese cats,one died from an unknown virus at 5months and the other was killed on the road at 1yr old.It was so upsetting i decided there was no way i could ever go through losing a cat in that way again so we decided to get a dog.

I couldn't make my mind up which breed to get,i first thought lab then i wanted a bichon but OH said he wouldn't walk it i was confused as i had only ever had mongrels growing up.
I happened to be watching LLB's reality programme and he had a couple of dogs,one of which trotted around with it's tail wagging CONSTANTLY and wherever the family were being filmed in the house or grounds there it was,always with them following them around (sounds familiar  ) I knew it was a type of spaniel but was unsure as i had never seen a dog with this lovely colouring before.
I made OH watch the programme,he started researching Cockers,and i watched the rest of LLBs' series,his little cocker was so funny and sweet.While OH was doing research he found COL which was invaluable and some months later we got Ruby 

So thankyou to the Llewellyn Bowens 

[Goggins]

I was never allowed a dog whilst I was a child and had a cat instead who was just fab!!

I always wanted a cavalier kc spaniel or a gsd. After work experience at a vets whilst at school I fell in love with the vets border collie Dusty. Once I left school and got a job I bought home Jess (b.collie) who taught me so much (not sure many rescue centres would rehome a collie to 1st time dog owners but hey it happened!)...I then looked after a boxer called Nobby who had pancreatitis and I fell in love with the boxer breed and have owned 4 of them. I sadly lost all of them at young ages and losing Paige broke my heart forever and having Thor who is very poorly I knew I had to look into a different breed.

It took me ages looking at different breeds. I wanted a French bulldog but paying about £2000 for a pup in my eyes is just ridiculous. I looked down the K.Club list of breeds and remembered a gorgeous chocolate coloured working cocker called Flynn who did his good citizen scheme with Paige. He was a gorgeous boy and was just fantastic...so I looked deeper into the breed with books and online articles and of course COL.

So, Freya came into my life. I like to think Paige sent her to me as Im still so sad she isnt here...Freya is just beautiful, very petite but full of fun and is turning into a lovely womble!! I cant imagine life without her and know I will have another cocker spaniel in my life (at some point) but for now we are living life to the full...thanks to all you COL's who have travelled the journey so far with us...