I'm sorry that I have given the impression that Salty is aggressive. I fullt understand that she is insecure, in the space of 2 weeks she has left her lovely home, gone into a housefull of 15 dogs, 5 of which were terriers and gave her a hard time, then been brought to us.
We took on board the advice about not fussing either of them, but in practice it was very difficult. We tend to all sit on the sofa when we want to watch tv for instance, and Buddy is allowed up for cuddles which we all love. When Salty arrived we allowed them both up and were careful to have a hand on each dog or neither dog, if you see what I mean. But I think that was still wrong. However trying to get them both off the sofa was a full-time job and destroyed any quality of life for all of us.
So today, humans are banned from the sofa and we have improvised various chairs from around the house for us. They are now welcome to the sofa together, and are totally banned from the chairs (which has always been the case). For the few minutes we have had to sit in the lounge this morning, it worked pretty well.
The two dogs have been playing in the house this morning, which is great. But you should hear the screeching noises from her! She does this whenever she is excited, so we aren't worried about it apart from our tolerant neighbours who might be pushed to the edge over this. It's VERY loud.
Today, we have to decide whether we are in fact capable of settling to own two dogs at all. In our research we noticed that some COLers found it easy, some found it hard. And I suspect the issue has more to do with family/human dynamics than the particular dogs. We have real doubts over this for us. If this is so, then I deeply regret messing with Salty's head in this way, and if she is returned to the shelter we will not continue looking for a companion dog for Buddy.
I am so upset by all this, that my sense of guilt is threatening to affect our decision. I have to keep in mind that this is why this was arranged as a trial. Just so that we wouldn't struggle on for months, then end up re-re-homing her.
For any of you following this thread with an interest in taking on another cocker please believe me that I think she will make a perfect pet for someone. There is very little wrong with this dog, she is fantastic. A few behavioural issues, but I think they are all relatively minor. Her recall is improving (I think that goes with the clinginess, but you see there's a good thing coming out of even that), and we have been trying to teach her some basic commands. Today's feeding frenzy was much better too,
All of the negatives here have been to do with the mix of Salty and Buddy (which might resolve in future, who knows?) and this major issue of whether we should be a two dog family at all. I wish there had been some way to know that before we took her on this trial. I suppose she will be better able to handle it than an ex-breeding bitch that we were originally looking for.
We need to do some serious talking and thinking here. Thank you for all your input. And I'm really sorry.
