Working cocker and just cocker.. Differences.

[Kazb876]

Hi all.
My Molly will be 6 months old early January. She seems to have shorter hair than a lot of the pups on here. Just starting to get long hair on backs of her legs. Straight body hair and cute curly ears. She is amazingly clever. Recall is fab so is retrieve. Walking to heel is good until my other dog breaks the walk.
We didn't buy from a breeder we got her from a girl who had her one week and couldn't cope. Sold as normal cocker.. I'm used to westies and Labradors so first spaniel for me. Are there noticeable differences in the dogs. Size etc.
Thanks for the info.

[MIN]

the main difference between show and worker is.
 Show cockers have a domed head with ears low down. workers have flat head with ears more or less level with the top of the head



gemma  worker

[JackieT]

My puppy is a worker. If you look at the photos of Ziggy on the puppy photo board you'll see him. He's pretty standard I think in terms of coat and appearance for a worker. He's coming up to 5 months.

[Ernies mum]

Ernie is a working cocker puppy . He's now 8 months and his feathering around the back of his legs and the rest of his coat didn't really start to develop til the last couple of months , although working cockers don't tend to have such long coats anyway.Maybe it's going to be the same for your pup .

[its.sme]

Bea is a Show Cocker, hopefully these photo's will help, not sure she's "normal though" 

[Murphys Law]

And Murphy is a bit of both, show worker cross.



There do seem to be a few of them about at the moment.

[BobnDot]

Apart from the physical differences, a show cocker will often dash about like a banshee. A worker will dash about like a banshee…On Steroids 

This site has a page which shows and describes the differences…

Bob.

[sodpot2000]

An interesting observation on the site mentioned above is that the worker wants to be out regardless of the weather. This chimed with me as on Saturday night I was out in the pitch dark, howling gale and pouring rain with Buster (working cocker x cavalier) for a quick road walk. He was very put out that we were not crossing the road to climb up through the fields and on to the moor, to the point that he sat down at the crossing point opposite the stile and had to be pursuaded to carry on! It required an IOU repayable next morning.

[Jane57]

I think too another difference , well with Riley anyway is that he can gladly run, chase, sniff and gallop like a horse around after his ball for an hour but will be no less tired later than if he had a 20 min walk around the street.
A worker "needs" the excercise , a show can "take" the excercise

[BobnDot]

A worker "needs" the excercise , a show can "take" the excercise

That's so true…. Milly (Show) and Chaz (Worker) get a morning walk and run, mostly off lead in some nice secure fields just up the road from us. Both of them have a run about for an hour as well as walking along the paths through the fields for about two miles. We're usually out for about two hours or so and when we get back home they both get a towelling down and Milly heads to her bed for a well deserved snooze. Chaz, on the other hand, is fit for some more exercise which he usually takes by running about the garden chasing balls and other toys chucked by yours truly.
In the afternoon we head up to the fields again with Chaz showing as much enthusiasm as he did for the morning walk while Milly plods along just to keep us company while watching Chaz dash all over the fields again. We take a slightly shorter route in the afternoon and are usually out for about an hour and a half before heading home. Milly's quite content to get fed and take it easy on the settee for the evening but Chaz usually benefits from a short half hour on lead walk around the houses later on while Milly stays at home with Dot.

They both get their walks in wind, rain and snow but Milly definitely lets us know when she's had enough and wants home, whereas Chaz revels in bad weather and just keeps going looking for wetter grass, bigger puddles or deeper snow. We sometimes split up on the winter walks with Dot heading home with Milly while Chaz delights in pushing my inclement weather tolerance to the limit……That's my limit    he could keep going for much longer   

Bob.

[sodpot2000]

That's one hell of a personal trainer you have there Bob! Just think what the bill at the gym would be for all that exercise. 

[Jane S]

An interesting observation on the site mentioned above is that the worker wants to be out regardless of the weather.

Don't think my show dogs have read that article - they really don't care what the weather is like (with the exception of our oldest girl who doesn't like wet weather now) and will quite happily stay out in all weathers, even when it's teeming down