When did you first fall in love with cockers?

[padfoot]

I was thinking about this yesterday. As a teenager I went away camping with my friend's family to Wales. In the tent next to ours there was a young family and a gorgeous blue roan puppy called Abby. She used to dart into our tent in the morning and climb into my sleeping bag (of course I encouraged it   ). I went home and asked my parents for a cocker and they said no. We already had two big dogs.
I haven't thought much about it since, but I do wonder if that's what got me into cockers. My husband wasn't sure about them until Toby arrived and now he is addicted too                      

[*Jay*]

It was definitely when we got Brook  I was 13 years old when we got him and I had never even heard of one before him. He was wanted to go out in the country as a gun dog but my cousin put a toy gun to his head when he was about 4 months old and he became gun shy :wink:  He can be grumpy and bad tempered but he is also very lovable...well, with me anyway  So, even a bad example of the breed didn't put me off - they are certainly a very special breed                    

[lizzy]

My friend had a springer spaniel when i was at junior school called Simon, he was gorgeous  but very mad! I always loved the spaniel ears and how cuddly they are, thats when I started my love affair with spaniels ,they are just the best    

Lizzy Molly Evie                    

[Andrea L]

It must have been about 13 or 14 years ago.I used to be a veterinary nurse and one of our clients was a black cocker bitch called Liquorice.She was an absolute darling. She is only one of a handful of dogs that really stick out in my memory.                    

[shonajoy]

My mum's friend got a golden cocker called Muffin, and I used to love to stroke her ears. She was adorable, very laid back, and placid. Of course, I get Indie who's utterly bonkers!

Shona  :wink:                    

[Shirley]

Up until a few years ago there was only one garden centre here so that's where everyone went - no choice.  The couple who owned it always had two cockers, sometimes three and every time my parents took me there I wanted to stay - I'd actually beg them to leave me there and pick me up later in the day     .  The ears, the eyes, the size, fairly manageable coat - everything was perfect.  How I ended up at 10 years old with an Old English Sheepdog, I will never know  :roll:  .   We didn't have the time or knowledge to take care of that coat and Freeway ended up clipped really short most of his life.  He was a fantastic dog and was so loyal to me that I will never forget him, but I'd never go there again.

I did look into a few different breeds before I made the final decision - boxer was second favourite.  Thankfully this time I put a bit more thought into it and the cocker is the perfect breed (for me anyway    )                    

[Loraine]

I fell in love with the breed after reading Enid Blyton books - can't remember which group of mystery solvers it was but one of the groups had a cocker spaniel or at least there was a cocker in one of the stories.   I was determined to have one after that.  Think I was about 8 years old at the time.

Loraine                      

[Gilly]

I fell in love with them when I was about 7 I think, we lived down in Purley then and neighbours and good friends of my parents had a black cocker spaniel called Jeanie....she was adorable    I used to take her for walks    and Joan (the owner) used to peg her ears in top of her head when she ate her dinner      (not recommended by the way  :wink: )                    

[bluesmum]

When my children were at primary school I would sit in my car waiting for them to finish school and would always sit and admire these two blue roan cockers Bryne and Bramble, I'd only ever seen solid cockers before and thought they were gorgeous, when I visited my vet on advise about the right dog for us he mentioned that he knew of a family that had a litter of blue roan cockers :shock:  - well before he even told me where they where I was jumping up and down for one!!! From the moment we saw Blue we knew that he was meant for us and also knew that we wern't going to stop at one!!! :wink:                    

[TOPAZ BILLY]

I was about 4 when I went to visit one of my mums posh aunties in Derbysire, she was always very strict with everybody except her cocker spaniel X Bramble, she was very dumpy with long ears and a tail and a strange dirty golden colour but she had a lovely temperment and put up with me and my sister dressing her up in baby clothes and playing hide and seek with her.  

We always had really big dogs when we where growing up, GSD, Doberman but when I was able to have a dog for my family I wanted something smaller, with a good temperment and endless energy bit of reasearch on the net and within a couple of weeks we found Billy, now we are getting ready for Abby and already discussing the chance of getting number 3 next year when Abby turns 1 :roll:

Michelle                    

[cindere528]

I had been married for a couple of years & OH & I had decided to get our first dog.  I'd had labradors before & OH had had a yorkie, neither of these breeds appealed to us.  We throught about getting a Sheltie as I had some friends who had Shelties. Also, I'd always loved Boxers but OH wasn't keen. I went to the library to do some research on what kinds of dogs would best suit our lifestyle.  (This was in about 1972 - so before the internet!!).  I came across the book "The Merry Cocker" & from then on I was hooked.  We saw an ad in the local paper for a golden cocker bitch who was about 3 years old & I rang up about her.  It was an elderly couple who owned her & they bred cockers.  They needed to find a home for her as she had not been successful in breeding, she'd had a caesarian section followed by a hysterectomy & they couldn't afford to keep her on just as a pet.  We drove to Derbyshire to see her & were asked loads of questions about our lifestyle etc, then she was brought in to see us but she was very timid & hid so we couldn't see her properly.  As I said, the couple bred cockers & a very heavily pregnant blue roan bitch burst into the room & made friends with us, she was really beautiful & was a very loved member of the family even though she was a breeding bitch (they didn't breed on a large scale).  We asked about her puppies & were told that they had already sold as many bitches as she gave birth to & 1 dog (obviously they had no way of knowing how many or what sexes they were at this stage).  We asked if she gave birth to more than 1 dog if we could have one.  They said yes but didn't hold out a lot of hope.  A few days later we had a phone call to say that there were 6 bitches & 2 dogs & did we still want one.  We went to see them when they were about 5 days old & chose Teddy. We then visited him regularly until he was 8 weeks old & able to come & live with us. That was the beginning of my love affair with this wonderful breed. I later gave birth to my son when Teddy was 7 years old & he acted as the baby's security guard, he would have protected him to the death.  I then got divorced when Teddy was about 12 years old & I got custody of him (as well as my son).  Despite becoming epileptic at the age of about 8, he lived to 14 years of age.                    

[Pipers Mummy]

I have always loved Cockers     We had a Cocker x when I was little called Tammy and she was so loving (and quite mad  :roll: ) but I always wanted a 'real' Cocker  

Later on we had Springer Spaniels but I still wanted a 'real' Cocker!  Finally got my way in July of last year when we became the very proud parents of our first 'Real Cocker'  :wink:

Hubby was not raised with dogs and did not particularly want one if the truth be known    so it took a bit of persuasion  :wink:  :wink:  

Now though he is a total convert and just loves and adores Piper - who loves him right back of course  

I want another.........but with three cats and Piper  :shock:  I think that is enough to be going on with for the time being                        

[Maria]

Well, I have to admit to not having much contact with cockers before we got Boysie. At home, we had a cavalier king charles (the beautiful Sammy, sadly departed), and Chris had a 'bitsa' dog called George(also sadly departed).His sister had a Springer. When I stopped working we decided it was a good time to get a dog, and went to the RSPCA. There we found Boysie, and now we are hooked!  Love him and his kind to bits!                    

[Magic Star]

As an adult the only dogs I have owned previous to Indie are german shepherds, lovely breed, very loyal   But, once we had the kids, I didn't fancy having such a big breed again, nothing to do with agression, just practical reasons really.   I had always had a soft spot for westies and had my mind set on one of those, then one day whilst on the net, I stumbled across a site about cockers  and I was just smitten, when I mentioned to my brother, I wanted one, he said they have major health problems :?  so I delved deeper and found that pretty much any breed can be "prone" to certain conditions!  So with that I started my search and came across this site in the process   Then by sheer coincidence Maria (Bluesmum) who is a neighbour of my mum, turned up with Blue :shock:  well that just confirmed to me 110% that I had to have a cocker

After a shakie start due to my allergies (some of you will remember :wink: )  I got Indie, I have never looked back, shes everything and more I could have wanted, shes just perfect and we all adore her soo much   I really can't remember our life without her now, shes completed our family