According to Dr Ian Dunbar...

[Digger]

  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?!    x

[Leo0106]

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 

[Digger]

Aww he loves his mummy!  They are so sweet as well as monsters  
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 x

[Ben's mum]

I did get worried that Ben had a significantly higher IQ than me 
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   

[Digger]

'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!  x

[Leo0106]

How are you getting on digger??

[Digger]

Hiya Leo
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 ) 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 )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!

[Leo0106]

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!

[bizzylizzy]

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 !!!! 

[Leo0106]

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 !!!! 

Will certainly be videoing it haha will make sure I upload 

[Jaysmumagain]

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

[Leo0106]

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 

[Digger]

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... ) Never a dull moment is there?! X

[Leo0106]

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 
You certainly sound like you're getting there:) hard work pays off

[Darwin]

They never forget their human best friend.  For Darwin it's my 18yr old son, they would do anything for each other . 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