CockersOnline Forum
Cocker Specific Discussion => Puppies => Topic started by: Digger on January 07, 2018, 06:37:53 PM
-
Hi all. I have a working Cocker who gets very bitey. I have done lots of reading on the subject and have followed the recommended advice from day 1. According to Dr Dunbar it is totally unacceptable for a 6 month old to mouth at a child's hand. Our puppy will happily go to bite our 1 year old granddaughter and still nips at visitors and clothes. She was 6 months yesterday and shows no sign of stopping. In some respects she seems even worse as she will 'argue' by biting. I am now getting worried as everyone says that this phase should be over by 5/6 months. I'm starting to think maybe we are missing something stupid! Any ideas would be gratefully received..
-
How are you managing the mouthing and play biting?
Unfortunately puppies haven’t read the rule books and each one is different! To say it’s “totally unacceptable for a puppy to mouth a child’s hand” is, to me, a little ridiculous. A puppy explores using its teeth, and at 6 months, they are still exploring!
There aren’t really any set guidelines or timeframes to work within, it just depends on how much work you put in to the pup and on the pup itself.
-
Hi - Thank you for your reply and I agree with you entirely, it is just that all biting issues seem to be referred to the Dr Dunbar article which states the 'inappropriate at 6 months' thing! There is no advice in that article for what to do if your pup hasn't read it (ours definitely hasn't!). We have been dealing with it in the recommended way so far-ie starting with the bite inhibition process and then moving on to the no bite at all process but the yelping never worked- just made her more excited so now we are saying no and if she doesn't stop, time out. It just doesn't seem to stop her doing it again and if we (have to) physically move her off e.g. the baby she swings her head round and bites us ( not hard I must add- she doesn't do any damage) but sometimes in the evening shell just start lunging and snapping at you out of the blue and if you tell her off, then she'll do it harder. She just seems like a really cocky, rude teenager.....but we didn't have this with our Springer so it's a bit depressing as there is always that lurking fear in the back of your mind that you have a snappy dog. Did yours grow out of it? And if so, at what age? I suppose I need to know how old is too old for this behaviour and time to get help? Dr Dunbar says 6 months but I'm hoping it's ok if it's a bit longer!! :005:
-
Hi,
I won't give a huge amount of advice here as I am still only just coming out of my own biting battle... but what I will say is that I was utterly horrified when my pup turned 6 months and didn't just learn not to bite anymore.. all these things went through my mind.. 'He's going to be put down by authorities' 'He's an aggressive dog!' 'He's going to bite forever!'
My pup is now 13 months ... I have put my life and soul into training Leo out of his biting, and from an early stage i realised I had to tackle underlying issues before I could tackle the biting... for example, his aversion to certain touch..
I had to look at biting as the behaviour, and dig deeper to look at the cause for this behaviour (the emotion).
As soon as I did that, I made progress.. My partner has been out of the country for 3 months now with the military, and in those 3 months, I have made more progress with him than I have in the whole time of having him.
Your pup is still super young, from my experience I would say don't panic but it may be worth getting a behaviourist in... however one thing to try and do is write down all triggers to the biting.. what makes her bite??
The word 'No', reaching round to take off his harness, and telling him to stop chewing the sofa all makes my pup bite or nip.. so now I tackle these incidences in a different way..
I was so worried that Leo would never learn his all important 'bite inhibition' but trust me, they will get it... Leo is... if he gets me he hurts but he never puts pressure behind his bite.. his teeth are just sharp puppy teeth. And trust me I have had a huge amount of bruises and cuts before getting to his point.
Your lovely little pup sounds exactly the way I would describe my pup, if you want an idea on what I have done to sort this issue, please feel free to message me or have a look at my previous posts. 'I need reassurance again..' has the most infornation on what is working for us.
I hope this forum helps you as much as it helps me :)
-
Hi Leo and thank you so much for your kind reply and brilliant advice. I will absolutely take more notice of possible triggers!! We have already noticed..that she seems worse in the tv room - wonder if she doesn't like the tv?! It probably is wierd for a dog when you think about it. I think these dogs are so much more complex than our bombproof springer was. It just does make you paranoid when you read things like that article that put a time limit on what is acceptable! And it makes me feel better to hear that those that were 'outside the guidelines' are still ok in the end! I think our little pooch is extra tricky to read because she is silent (I'm not complaining about that!) And reading some other stories on here I feel lucky - she's really good in lots of ways- you can touch her anywhere, put leads on and off, bath and dry her, pick her up, leave her on her own etc and I am very grateful that she doesn't have some of the very difficult other issues that people are coping with. I reckon cocker owners have the patience of saints and must be truly lovely people to work so hard with these little dogs-as you have- a breed of their own haha! Thank you so much. I'm off to get a notebook out for Inca.
-
Hi digger, No problem at all, I know all too well how difficult things can be bringing up a young cocker..
Leo, too, is amazing in so many ways, but the biting is one thing we always had an issue with.. and still do to a certain extent but it's far more manageable now.
Funnily enough Leo has always been the worst in our t.v. room, he seems to think it is a playroom and struggles to settle.. after many months of teaching him to settle he is a lot better but we are still in the stage now where sometimes he will need to be placed on his lead to tell him it's time to sleep or chill.
He seems to like watching the t.v. haha but he defeinately looks at me when I sit on the sofa and thinks 'she's chilling out, now is my time to create merry hell! '
I felt so paranoid a few months ago. I guess it's like having a human child, you feel the same if tour child dosnt walk, talk, eat solids etc at the 'recommended guidlines' but all pups and humans are differenet, it's finding out what works best for your pup.
I have had our trainer visit and support me with this, mainly because, as a military partner, I am dealing with it alone but she has helped massively In looking into his triggers with me and dealing with them.. to the extent that I don't actually really deal with the biting now, it's the trigger that I preempt and deal with. It's generally my failure if he gets to the point that he has nipped as I havnt picked up on his cues first off..
Another thing to remember is that working cockers are named 'working' for a reason, generally they come from a background of working dogs who are taught to hunt and use their mouth for a job, this is inherent and I finally found that by allowing Leo to use his mouth during certain games and activities, he felt less tempered to use his teeth on me!
Some dogs need a job. We do scentwork, for Leo this works wonders
-
There’s a really good Facebook group, called Dog training advice and support. They are really friendly and only offer positive training advice. You do have to join the group first. There are files on there about puppy biting but if you can’t find it, they will help you. Good luck with your pup x
-
Thank you for that wendall I am so techno phobic I don't have face book. This forum is my first 'post' of my life haha! But I might have a snoop at that through my daughter! What a nice bunch of.helpful people on here. :D
-
Thanks again Leo, and you are right about the working. Our Springer was from working stock and I like to think he satisfied his natural urges and was kept busy with what we did with him during his long happy life. We had him for 15 years and I only ever left him with someone else for 3 nights. I think Spaniels are particularly family orientated and if they are with you that is the main thing for them. I intend to do agility with Inca but she's not old enough yet, so for now, she has good rummages around in the fields and woodlands at the back of our house with intermittent recalls and directions with lots of interaction with other dogs too. She's pretty good and does as she's told (..sometimes with a slight delay..) but I haven't lost her yet-I think she knows which side her toast is marmited! Sadly I can see how so many of these dogs end up in rescue centres. Imagine if you'd never had a dog of any kind and thought that looks cute- I'll get one of those......I think this breed can be a challenge for anyone. It's heart warming to hear of your incredible dedication to your furry friend. You obviously have so much love for him- he is a very lucky boy and I'm sure will repay you many times over!
-
Hi! You‘ve had lots of great advice so far, so I don‘t have anything else to add except that WHATEVER your problems, stick with us here, you won‘t get better advice anywhere! ;) You‘ll probably notice that cockers rarely feature in doggy books or videos :005:, I imagine there‘s a good reason for that! :lol2: Humphrey is my first cocker and I agree, they are a breed unto themselves but I‘m finding that meeting the challenges has formed a much stronger bond than I‘ve ever had with any of my previous dogs and I‘m being rewarded thousandfold, I wouldn‘t swap him for the world! Plus the fact, if I hadn‘t had him, I wouldn‘t have made all these lovely online friends! Mine is a show model and I understand that workers are a little different but I think, at the end if the day, a good number of the little „problems“ can be aleviated by keeping them mentally as well as physically active,( which can cause them to get over excited and tired and make the problems worse)
Best of luck, keep us posted!
-
Hello and welcome to COL
We have four cockers, 3 workers and a confused show type. 3 were bitey as pups and the only reason the fourth wasn’t is because she came to us age 6 years old......they are known as cockerdiles for a reason!
As you have already discovered, Cockers are very different to springers - tho to be fair, all dogs are different and a great deal depends on the breeding of the dog and just how much “drive” they have.
My thoughts are a) ditch the book, you now have COL and a wealth of experience of all types of cocker spaniels from their owners (real life stories v generalist book content, which it has to be) and b) invest in wine and chocolate both help enormously with the coping strategy for the cocker pup owner.
One subject I note you haven’t covered is how much sleep your pup gets? Cocker pups need around 18 hours rest/sleep a day which really took me by surprise with my first dog. She is the reason that I’m on COL and yes, it was (like so many other members) how to cope with the biting phase that brought me here! I forget who said about routine and sleep for pups but I owe them my sanity :lol:
Is your pup in a set routine of sleep, eat, going outside, wake for 30 mins or so and maybe a short walk (recommended 5 minutes walk for every month of age up to 3 times a day) then back to their bed/crate for a sleep? Pearl (#1 dog) would become fractious as the day wore on and although slept during the day all week, while I was at work, by Sunday night she was a whirling dervish of teeth....my own fault for not being savvy enough that her sleep pattern was disrupted :shades:
The other consideration is that at 6 months your pup will be teething. This will make the play biting, nippiness worse as frankly your pup has sore gums and like babies, will want to relieve the gums - frozen carrot sticks work a treat. Teething can also cause a very upset tum so expect this if it is teething.
Hopefully this has started to cheer you up a bit but be aware......the teenage phase is yet to start. 8-10 months old your lovely pup who has a good recall (?) will very likely suddenly develop selective deafness :lol: there is a good reason for this, their hearing develops last and only really forms age 10 months on and if you have a headstrong, hard hunting dog (#2 dog) I would suggest you may want to programme those brakes now!
Good luck with your pup,
Jayne
X
-
Ah thanks bizzylizzy, Yeah now you mention it, the cocker spaniel does seem rather conspicuous by its abscence :lol2: I wonder why! ...How funny. Yeah, those books are just sent to scare us aren't they? I think I will ask any (probably lots) of future questions on here. I think it is the cocker owners who are a breed unto themselves too- The stories I have read so far prove enormous resilience and determination of character!!! So glad I found this site and all you helpful people. :D
-
Ah thanks bizzylizzy, Yeah now you mention it, the cocker spaniel does seem rather conspicuous by its abscence :lol2: I wonder why! ...How funny. Yeah, those books are just sent to scare us aren't they? I think I will ask any (probably lots) of future questions on here. I think it is the cocker owners who are a breed unto themselves too- The stories I have read so far prove enormous resilience and determination of character!!! So glad I found this site and all you helpful people. :D
It’s a mine of useful information and often a lot of fun too! One thing to consider is that Gundogs are being increasing bred to be sensitive but harder hunting driven dogs compared to even 5 years ago (which isn’t always a great combination) training techniques that worked then may not be the best for pups now - worth going to a trainer for a couple of sessions to help get a better appreciation of the nature of your dog. I thought Coral was a submissive dog........er no, that would be a dog who learned very quickly how to fool its owner :lol: and I’m still learning almost 3 years on!
Jayne
-
. Imagine if you'd never had a dog of any kind and thought that looks cute- I'll get one of those......I think this breed can be a challenge for anyone. It's heart warming to hear of your incredible dedication to your furry friend. You obviously have so much love for him- he is a very lucky boy and I'm sure will repay you many times over!
Digger, this quote from you literally had me crying with laughter.. ... this we EXACTLY my thought process. Leo is my first baby... I've looked after my uncle's working cocker for years. He is a working game dog and me and my partner used to say 'kippers so cute and he's so well behaved! We can do that'........ WELL wernt we in for a shock :005: I wouldn't be without him now though. He has tested me to my last strand of patience but with all the bad times, for the past 10 months he's made me laugh every single day, I can't stay mad at him for anything... it's so worth the effort. And I echo what everyone says on here, this forum is a true godsend.. I would never have given Leo up (I'm too stubborn to be defeated) but I would have certainly felt far more lonely going through what we have gone through if it wasn't for the lovely people on here.
Stick with us !
-
Oh and with what pearly said, fully agree....
There I was thinking 'well if a dog is tired he will just go to sleep '... again how wrong was i... as soon as I told myself that I actually need to enforce naps in Leo things instantly got better.. he still dosnt sleep enough and still needs to be encouraged to sleep, but he is so much nicer to be around when he has had a decent sleep!
-
Hi Pearly, Thank you very much for your reply-it's so nice to have some input from people who know what you're talking about, as, like you say, all dogs are different anyway, but having a cocker now, I can see how comparing a cocker to another breed would be pointless! In reply to your questions, yep- I think the books are sent to scare us and I'll be querying on here in future, as all you guys are specialists by ownership! Wine and chocolate? Let's just say, I made a batch of home brew just before Xmas and its nearly all gone. We didn't have that many visitors.. Sleep/ routine: We do have quite a set routine, off lead walk across fields/ woods in the morning , then she is washed off, dried and put in her pen in the kitchen for an hour and a half. Usually she will have a sleep at this time. Then she comes out and mills about/ lounging around in front of the woodBurner/ playing with her toys ( occasionally chasing the cat :P). If I go out in the afternoon, I leave her loose in the kitchen. She has a dog flap so can let herself in and out for the loo. So far, every time I have left her she has been good as gold- no mess, no damage. I think if I'm not there she just shuts down and sleeps. I am sure she is just naughty for attention. My husband and I have both caught her on 2 separate occasions when we have snuck back in the house and looked through the window to see her snoozing on the sofa and the cat on the other one!!!! In the afternoon I might take her out in the car or a short walk or up the garden or a game or two in the house. Always one or the other. She does sleep on and off throughout the afternoon- it's the evening when she's most bitey so it could be she's over tired or it could be getting rid of that last bit of energy-hard to tell. Don't think she likes the telly.Last night she had 2 walks and was much less bitey but the day before was terrible. It varies and I'm going to start making a note of what I'm doing to see if there is a link. She has lots of teethers so that's all ok. Recall. Was amazing. Now slipping a little- I've never lost her and she does listen when I say which way we're going and I can always get her back but she's getting a little bit cheeky when she's playing with another dog- I usually walk off if she doesn't come 1st time. I hid from her the other day and that was funny to watch- she obviously does know where she's best off! I am going to get a whistle as I have noticed that she is very tuned in to them. Inca is currently snoozing on the sofa as I write this and stinking the room out! Omg! What has she eaten???!!!! Are they all terrible thieves as well? You literally can't put anything down..This and other minor issues I am trying to not to sweat for now haha. I watch with interest... :D
-
I haven't read all the replies, but I would like to say that Henry was a very bitey puppy indeed!
We too had the same Ian Dunbar book, and thought Henry was going to turn into an aggressive dog.
I was horrified. Anyhow, Henry stopped mouthing and biting in his own time, and it was gradual over his teanage months. Do not panic, and carry on with your training in a sensible consistent manner. And don't worry too much......some dogs take longer. Henry has a working father, and was very hyperactive.
Now he is fabulous and is NOT aggressive.....every dog develops differently and they don't come with exact manuals!
-
Dawn-Thank you so much for commenting on my thread.
It is just what I needed to hear, as after a brief lull, Inca has been terrible again,( since hitting 6 months -Dr Dunbar's stop time!) Last night was pretty good, but the night before, she was trying to murder me!. I had to put her out of the room 4 times before she got the message. (She is definitely worse if we try to watch tv for some reason- maybe it worries her..). My friend has a puppy the same age and they are 'all done' with the biting. As is everyone else with a puppy it seems!..It does worry me because she does it out of mischief as well as the evening witching hour. >:D and those 'attacks' are bonkers! Anyone watching would be alarmed I'm sure, and yet I am totally convinced that she is not aggressive, as a) she could probably really cause us damage if she meant to, but rarely leaves any kind of mark and b) her default setting is really affectionate and I can do what I like to her- touch her anywhere, wash and dry her, pick her up, etc and she is great with strangers- let's them make a fuss of her no probs- and other dogs- it just seems to be a certain mood she gets in/ if she gets over excited (which doesn't take much). I am standing in the hall way now because she just thought she'd give me a quick bite while I was typing!
I do appreciate your input and we will,like you say, just keep on keeping on and hopefully she will one day understand that we don't want to play her rough games! NB ours is also from a very strong working line where the dogs were all kept outside and I do think that makes a difference. She is great when she's out and does listen to me and recall is good, so I think she knows where she's well off! I just need to learn how to get her to be a bit more respectful that I am not her litter mate! It does test your patience to the last shred sometimes, but I live in hope that she will be a nice adult dog eventually. As yours is :D
How old was yours when the penny eventually dropped? I'd be interested to know how much more wine I need to get in. :005: Thank you again for your supportive info. X
-
It sounds as though you are making some progress :D
The “going nuts while the TV is on” is a classic cocker trick ;). She wants attention and any attention will do, even if it means she is told off - that’s still attention.
Have you taught her a Settle command? Or try some brain training before sitting down to watch TV - it may only need to be a few minutes but if you exhaust her mentally she should prefer sleep to mischief :lol:
Coral and I used to do most of our steadiness training after work and before I settled for the evening. This can be as effective indoors as outside.
Jayne
-
Hi Jayne, thank you for your post. Yeah I do try to do a bit of brain work with her in the evenings and she is ok to a point but gets bored really quickly and starts playing up and getting all bitey, so you have to spot a relatively positive place to stop and leave it there or it ends up being a time out situation. It's very frustrating because training is normally your 'go to' move for a bored dog Isn't it?! My springer was amazing at her age and could do all sorts and would learn stuff all night long if you wanted to but I always feel with Inca that it's a fine line between training and winding her up! It's a real tricky one. She can do stuff- sit, down, leave it (leaving treats)-although will she leave my granddaughter? / visitors clothes?/anything anyone puts down? Not a hope. She is getting the hang of a 'close' command to try to avoid pulling on the lead and will correct her position by my heel when I tell her but then pulls again after a few seconds and if there are distractions-forget it- no interest in treats at that point. I am attaching a whistle to the recall command and that has gone down really well, although, this morning I recalled her off 2 massive growly German shepherds and she came flying back to me at 100 mph for a treat..Fab you think..then as soon as she 'd got it- straight back to the other dogs again. Totally Fearless and totally cheeky!!!!She does come with me though- I haven't lost her yet. I know that they are all different and I have been trying to just pick my moments to brain train and do what I can when I can and accept that maybe she's just not ready to digest some things yet. I think the settle command is a great one but I don't think there's any hope of that at the moment. She will settle all the time you're feeding her treats and as soon as they've all gone, she'll be straight back to finding something naughty to do! And any kind of discouragement- like lifting her off the sofa because she's digging it results in her swinging round with her teeth. Not hard, but still very unacceptable. It irks me that she thinks thats an ok thing to do, and I am at a loss as to what I did to allow that situation to even arise! Thank goodness there are other cocker parents on here who seem to understand. I was crying with laughter at the picture of the torn up ikea catalogue on the post about teething earlier. There is definite comfort in the old trouble shared us a trouble halved! :D Thanks for helping. X
-
A book I found was an interesting read is Jean Donaldson’s The Culture Clash. It’s an insight into why dogs behave in a certain way, and surprisingly it’s not usually the way we humans do.
I’ve had cockers for over 30 years and they have all had different personalities and traits and developed at different rates. One thing I have learnt is that they are reactive and don’t set out to annoy us or be vindictive, but they do like attention and like children when they get tired they can be tetchy. She is only a baby still and learning and testing boundaries, much again like children. You have to set the boundaries, ignoring the behaviour you don’t want and praising the behaviour you do. When she starts to bite, walk away, don’t say or do anything, just turn and walk away. When she comes and doesn’t bite, give her lots of praise and again if that turns to biting walk away.
I always think they can train us much quicker than we can train them. Cockers are very intelligent dogs and soon learn, but they are stubborn so you have to be consistent in their training.
Good luck, with your guidance she will become a true friend.
-
A book I found was an interesting read is Jean Donaldson’s The Culture Clash. It’s an insight into why dogs behave in a certain way, and surprisingly it’s not usually the way we humans do.
I’ve had cockers for over 30 years and they have all had different personalities and traits and developed at different rates. One thing I have learnt is that they are reactive and don’t set out to annoy us or be vindictive, but they do like attention and like children when they get tired they can be tetchy. She is only a baby still and learning and testing boundaries, much again like children. You have to set the boundaries, ignoring the behaviour you don’t want and praising the behaviour you do. When she starts to bite, walk away, don’t say or do anything, just turn and walk away. When she comes and doesn’t bite, give her lots of praise and again if that turns to biting walk away.
I always think they can train us much quicker than we can train them. Cockers are very intelligent dogs and soon learn, but they are stubborn so you have to be consistent in their training.
Good luck, with your guidance she will become a true friend.
I can also recommend The Culture Clash. Another interesting book was The Other End of the Leash by Patricia McConnell. Both helped me to try and work out MY dog rather than just try and follow set training schemes which rarely seemed to work for us. I also found, that once I accepted that Humphrey wasn‘t actually doing naughty things to annoy me,( that‘s a human trait :lol2:, ), I became a LOT more relaxed about the whole thing. I actually started giggling at training classes instead of bursting into tears when he wouldn‘t couldn‘t cooperate and what happened? We started getting somewhere at last! I‘m not the most patient of people usually but once I changed my perspective on Humphrey, I found things much easier to deal with. You‘ll be absolutely fine!
-
Dear Holly Berry and Bizzie Lizzie,
Thank you very much. I will order that book-it sounds possibly more appropriate to cockers than other generic dog books. I have already learned that they are not like any other dogs!
I have been walking away or putting her out but your very clear instructions are great as I realise that until now there has probably always been a few moments of ' no' and 'off' and other things that don't work first before she gets put out/ I walk off, so - fresh start today with no discussions first!
With the jumping and nipping at visitors clothes, I assume I am right in thinking I will have to just pop her out of the room for a minute..unless you have a better idea- I am all ears!
Thanks again for your help and encouragement. I'm sure she will be ok in the end. She is a sweet dog too. I am in no doubt that it is me that needs educating to the ways of cockers. I thought I was quite good at training dogs. How wrong I was! :005:
-
Hi digger
Leo used to literally maul visitors out of excitement when they came through the door. We decided to put him behind the stair gate, everytime someone came through the door they were told not to make a single bit of eye contact or physical contact with him. He would be jumping at the gate, crying etc and initially the minute it stopped crying I would chuck him a treat while I chat away to my visitor.. then when he sat down I would chuck a treat... then when he seemed visibilly calmer and ready to come out I would allow the visitor to approach the gate and give him a stroke, eventually I would then let him out to say hi..
We did this for 2 weeks and he has never nipped a visitor again!
He does get excited when they come through the door but usually now he says hi and then runs up and down the stairs and shows off.
-
Hi Digger
When Ben was a pup he was incredibly bitey and just craved attention all the time but also was worse in the evenings. He needed to be entertained, played with and trained he could never go off and just settle down. I fed him three small meals a day and often his evening meal of dry biscuits was hidden round the house and he had to search for it which kept him busy and tired him out mentally. Other doggy friends (not spaniel owners) thought I was mad but Ben never had an off switch and just needed to be busy. The 'find it' game got progressively harder and harder until we were putting biscuits in the most bizarre places but he always found them and it was a joy watching him work to find it. He would usually sleep soundly for a while after this.
For a while we had a house line attached to Ben to give him time out behind a baby gate when he got really bitey without us having to touch him, but like others have said we soon found that even saying no was clearly attention so we just ignored him, took the house line and put him in the kitchen.
To be honest he was about 1 before he stopped mouthing and being bitey (sorry), it was just his personality he had mad moments, cocker zoomies and was completely bonkers but turned into a complete cuddle monster who just wanted to be on our lap snuggled up.
We did Good Citizen training but he was board by it and learnt very quickly. doing bronze, silver and gold quite quickly. He came alive when we introduced him to agility at 1 :luv:
I liked Jean Donaldson books as well, but to be honest I got more help on here because cockers are just completely in a league of their own!!
In some ways I think cockers bond really closely with their owners because there is so much work when they are pups and you spend a lot of time and effort with them it gives you a fantastic relationship :luv:
-
Hi again Leo! And hello Ben's mum and thank you both for your advice.
Leo-I will definitely try that. I find the biggest problem is the visitors themselves-half the time they can't be bothered to help you train your dog because they just don't understand and can't see why your dog isn't behaving itself! I think as a cocker parent our patience outstrips anyone's!
Ben's mum- Love your food idea! Inca just had her dinner scattered around the house haha! Didn't take her long to find it all but she definitely enjoyed the search :D
Despite thinking that you have horrified me with your news that actually Ben was nearer 1 by the time he was out of the bitey stage, you have actually made me feel much better- to know that it can take ages and still result in a gentle dog- phew! (and it kind of gives us a bit of time to work on it haha!). Come the longer days when we can get out in the evenings as well I'm sure things will be better, and I fully intend to also do agility when she's old enough.
I had never thought of the positives of having such a high maintenance puppy but what you say about it forging a stronger relationship makes perfect sense and I'm sure it will..She is in serious debt at the moment so by the time she's about 15 we should be square! :lol: :lol: :lol:
-
Hi our Harry is also 6 months and yes he’s bitey too -mainly me and when he’s in a stressful situation. For Harry it’s when our old girl Missi gets out of bed the wrong side and doesn’t want to play >:( . I’m finding this thread really helpful and Harry also had his dinner hidden around the house tonight -he had great fun finding it and is now sparko 😊. He does try my patience sometimes but when he’s curled up next to me it’s the best feeling :luv: :luv: . Thanks for the advice about visitors I’m going to try that in future - when we’re out for a walk I do ask complete strangers to ignore him so should have thought of asking visitors too.
I don’t know what I would have done without this forum for the last 4 months and don’t even read my books anymore as the advice on here is so true to cockers.
-
I find the biggest problem is the visitors themselves-half the time they can't be bothered to help you train your dog because they just don't understand and can't see why your dog isn't behaving itself! I think as a cocker parent our patience outstrips anyone's!
Totally get this... I used to be really embarrassed about telling people 'please don't let him mouth you' 'please don't play so rough with him' 'DON'T LOOK AT HIM!!' :005: but when things got really bad for us I lost all empathy for the people that said 'Oh he's fine. He's just a baby! Don't worry ' and I took it into my own hands and put them straight. Telling them that this was the way I would train my dog and this was the way they would have to do things. From then things got a lot easier. Unfortunately you'll always have the people that think raising a dog is an easy task... So be confident in telling them it's Not! If I had done that earlier then I feel our job would have been far easier
-
Thanks again Leo. It is hard, and we're a bit off the beaten track too so we don't get very many visitors to practice on. Often my daughter will pop in briefly but she has a baby so sort of has to push the dog to arms length so she oesn't bite the baby which of course just makes things worse. Funnily enough, she is fine with my grandson who is petrified of dogs because he automatically does the turning away and not giving her any attention thing ( because actually he would prefer it if she wasn't there). Ironically, this has developed into a situation where she leaves him alone for the most part and yesterday he was happily giving her a cuddle! How is Leo getting on now? X
Robin Red - Nice to meet someone at exactly the same stage! Yes, this thread has thrown up lots of great ideas advice and comforting words which quite frankly you need sometimes!! Is your other dog also a cocker? In addition to the biting, Inca has now added a new horror...After 4 months of being totally non destructive, over the course of a week she has decided she is is going to eat the entire house. Anything made of wood is game on. I now have chunks out of all my furniture, stair gates and all. While I have been typing, she has come through the dog flap with 3 flower pots that were put out of reach in the garden and shredded them. She also likes to steal coal from the bunker and bring it in to play with- but only on the light coloured sofa of course...That and the new penchant for digging holes in the lawn, are just a few of the new additions to her repertoire in the last 2 weeks. I am hanging on to the massive positive that she has, in that she is silent. But I am not smug - I realise that too may disappear....Off to the woods in a minute to find her a massive lump of something indestructible! .. :005:
-
She also likes to steal coal from the bunker and bring it in to play with
that brought back memories :005: Ben at about the same age started bringing in undesirable things from the garden, stones, plant pots anything he could carry. I read all the books that said you should teach your dog to 'swop' anything you didn't want them to have for a treat, clearly Ben had not read the same books as his clever cocker brain translated that as he needed to go out and find as much rubbish as he could to bring to get given food in exchange. He brought me a steady stream of rubbish and I gave him a treat each time, it soon became a game of nerves as sometimes I would try to ignore the fact he had a stone in his mouth in the hopes he would get board and drop it, but if I didn't come up with goods straight away he would stare at me and rattle the stone round his teeth till I was a bag of nerves thinking of blockages and vets bills and inevitably crumbled and swopped his stone for something nice. I swear he used to grin at me when I gave in :D
cockers should come with a health warning... :luv:
-
:lol2: Crying with laughter! This kind of brain confusion happens to me all the time....Am I: a) making sure my dog doesn't mind giving things up to me.
b) Training my dog to go and get stuff from the garden.
I haven't a clue.
It's like Billy Connoly talking about thermos flasks- 'They keep things hot. They keep things cold. How does it know!???' Lol.
I know some people recommend shaking a bottle of stones at a dog to stop it doing something. We have a coal fire. I shake a massive ' bottle of stone's' into it every morning while the dog looks on. And how is clapping your hands or stamping your foot in front of your dog going to have any effect if you have followed the recommended socialization procedures and stood next to a train pulling away/ noisy roads/ children etc. These and other dog training inconsistencies baffle me on a daily basis. My little pooch is now sleeping soundly after being out for only a little bit more than the 5 mins per month, yet having met two dogs she loves and chasing around like nutters, probably covering about forty miles...What can you do?! :005: x
-
Your grandson sounds likes he's got it exactly right haha. Good lad.
If only everyone would ignore them like he does haha
Leo is getting on ok... we don't have a perfect day yet but he's certainly getting there. He's getting better about chilling in the evnings. He often decides to try and push his luck and then I do the 'park it' routine where he goes on his lead and I ask him to settle. Sometimes just showing him his lead now is enough to make him settle down now...
During the day he is sleeping more but will not tolerate me working with my laptop on my lap if he decides to wants a cuddle. It's landed on the floor twice today :005:
-
Aww he loves his mummy! ;) They are so sweet as well as monsters >:D
If I put a lead on Inca in the house she would just pull her own head off.
I found that the subtle difference between saying no/ having a bit of a tiff and then putting her out of the room to just silently putting her out at the first sign of trouble worked quite well last night. We did have chewed up wood all over the room but that's another story. At least it wasn't my hands! Will try again tonight and see if it was a flook or not :lol2: x
-
I did get worried that Ben had a significantly higher IQ than me ph34r
When we went out he was a terrible scavenger and used to find all sorts of discarded chips, fast food and other unmentionable stuff. Once he had got the hang of a firm 'leave it' if he came away e got a reward he suddenly turned into a womble, it was so embarrassing he used to actively seek out dropped food in the park and stand next to it, he would look at me, then look at the food look at me and wait for the reward from me.
The other one where he soon learned how to play me was when he got the whistle recall he was brilliant and 99% reliable, but it didn't take long before he did mock runs, where he would be walking happily across the fields and suddenly take off really fast as if he had seen a bird or something and was chasing it. Obviously my reaction was to whistle him back and he would stop immediately and come back.... and you guessed he got a treat :lol2:
-
'He suddenly turned into a womble' ...Oh Hahahahahaaa!!!! I'm crying again! He sounds fabulous. What noone tells you ( and non doggy people are oblivious to) is how much they make you laugh. We paid £150 for our Springer Spaniel who we had for 15 years. When he died last year we were reminiscing about how much we would have paid for him had we known what he would give to our family. We reckoned the laughs alone were worth more than the house! :lol2: :luv: x
-
How are you getting on digger??
-
Hiya Leo :D
Nice to hear from you. Yep - we are making progress. The biting 'attacks' are definitely much less now and general biting is diminishing too. Well get a few days with hardly anything and then you might get an evening where you feel like you are back to square one but like my husband says- you need to try not to feel disappointed and remember that that used to be EVERY evening! So yeah- we are definitely heading in the right direction - it is just happening quite slowly. Inca is now nearly 7 months so it is less ' acceptable' when she does do it! I read something the other day that said cockers mature much more slowly than springers and I would definitely go along with that!
Our Springer was..you fed him, you took him for a walk, would do obedience training all night long if you had a biscuit, he was fine. This little monster is so much more complicated. She doesn't like obedience training. Sometimes in the evening I think maybe she's bored- I'll try and do some sit stays etc and sometimes she'll actually hide!!! I think she thinks I'm telling her off! And yet, she has learned some useful stuff like waiting while I go through gates and doors but you have to pick your moment to teach it! She is a funny little thing. Anyway, she is good when we're out and recall is still good so that's the most important thing- the other things can wait if she's not ready!
We took her to the beach last weekend which she loved, (even though she leaped up and smacked into the concrete sea wall while chasing the shadow of a seagull :o) She is fine.
Life with a cocker is definitely an education. I suspect the person on here was right who said that because they are such high maintenance puppies you are forced to give them so much attention that you end up with a very close bond with them. I already can't imagine (peaceful :005:)life without her.
How is your little Leo getting on? What is he like when your husband comes home from being away? Is he ok or does he see him as an intruder? I hope you have a kennel available for your husband just in case! Hahahahahahahahaha!
-
So glad to hear you're making progress and it sounds like you are in the right direction!
Leo is my first dog, even thought I have always been around dogs before I don't think you realise how much work goes into them when you have your own!
He's 15 months now and finally getting to the point where he is calming down. He's generally an angel until he gets tired. Then he goes on a mission to eat everything he shouldnt!
She will get there with the obedience. Just remember to save high value treats for training sessions. That way she will be more inspired to work for it! Greatest thing I ever found was that Leo loves vegetables.(carrots, peas, green beans) so I stopped using calorific, e-number treats with him and used veg instead, he loved it! And I didn't worry about weight gain as much.
This is actually Leo's first experience on my partner being away! He left for tour 4 months ago and he is due back in 2.5 weeks so I have no idea how he is going to react when he sees him!
OH thinks he will be grumpy with him, I think he will be beside himself with excitement. He certainly hasn't forgotten him, last night a loud car exhaust pulled up outside and he went mad thinking it was his daddy's car!
We have a long 4am drive to pick him up from Oxfordshire on the 21st where we will greet him off the plane... I can't wait to see his reaction... Then it will be a case of retraining my partner everything I have been doing over the last 4 months!
-
We have a long 4am drive to pick him up from Oxfordshire on the 21st where we will greet him off the plane... I can't wait to see his reaction..
Videos please !!!! :lol2:
-
We have a long 4am drive to pick him up from Oxfordshire on the 21st where we will greet him off the plane... I can't wait to see his reaction..
Videos please !!!! :lol2:
Will certainly be videoing it haha will make sure I upload :005:
-
Leo hasn't the time flown....maybe not for you and dogie - bet he will have a cocker zoomie when he see his master home. Bet you are counting the days....is it Brize Norton
-
Time has flown! When hes been away in the past it has seemed like a lifetime. Clearly having Leo in my life has made it whiz by!
Yes brize norton aiming to get there an hour early so we can go for a walk and wee break somewhere.. He still excited wees sometimes so hoping I can empty his bladder and hope he dosnt wee everywhere when he sees him :005:
-
Aw that is going to be such a lovely moment! Would love to see to see that! :S Hope the journey goes well and your little pooch is happy to see his daddy home again.
Thanks for the tips - we are getting there gradually. (Despite two failed recalls today due to her thinking it would be a great idea to go and play with the swans... :005:) Never a dull moment is there?! X
-
Ohhh that takes me back!! Leo must have been about Inca's age when he decided to play with a swan haha. Never a dull moment. Leo's a sponge at the moment. I taught him to play dead in an hour today. Now he keeps sitting infront of me while I'm watching tv and dropping dead hoping for a treat :005:
You certainly sound like you're getting there:) hard work pays off
-
They never forget their human best friend. For Darwin it's my 18yr old son, they would do anything for each other :luv:. My son is now at Uni ( not even popping home for a weekend mid term). You should have seen Darwin, when he first saw my son after 10 weeks. We're now 1/2 way into the 2nd term and Darwin still thinks my son in upstairs and as Darwin can't climb stairs, he sits at the bottom of the stairs and looks longingly up the stairs