Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum and new to being a Cocker Spaniel owner and just looking for a bit of friendly advice please!
I should probably start by saying I am obsessed with dogs (aren't we all). I have had dogs in my family all my life (3 black labs, 1 border terrier and 1 wirehaired miniature dachshund) and when me and my partner decided that we were ready to get a dog of our own I was over the moon and began my research.
I also have horses and we plan on having a family in years to come so we wanted a family dog that could also quite easily come to the stables too. Anyway to cut a long story short, we ended up bringing Pepper home two weeks ago. She is 13 weeks old, a mix of red and golden in colour and just absolutely adorable and so unbelievably smart - our perfect girl.
I also want to say that I want to do the best by her, I want her to be happy and I also want to keep her (and us) safe.
We started her training from day one and she knows a variety of 'commands' already as I want to make sure I keep her both mentally and physically stimulated. She is semi-crate trained. At night, we put a pen round her crate and she sleeps downstairs but still wakes us twice in the night for the toilet and then usually at 6am she wakes us up for cuddles. So I go down let her out and we have a nap on the sofa until about 7am. She will go in her crate throughout the day to play with her toys and nap. She hasn't toileted indoors for a while now although I know we cannot yet say she is house trained.
Anyway, I had been looking into some online training for her and came across a video that said Cockers are notorious resource guarders. I had never read this whilst researching the breed so I started looking into it further and I'm now worried that she is starting to show some traits of this and that I have been too soft and given her too much freedom from the get go. When we play or whilst trying to teach her fetch, she will take the toy and either run into her crate or outside, she doesn't show a lot of interest in playing with us. She steals socks or slippers (it doesn't really bother us to be honest) but occasionally we have taken them off of her if she has stolen shoes that we have accidentally left where she can reach. However, I'm sure most puppies do this.
I have started teaching her 'leave it' which she has picked up really well but 'drop' isn't going so well as she doesn't really like giving things up. She is happy for me to touch her toys but isn't so happy to let me actually have it. We had been allowing her on the sofa with us however, she told my partner off last night when he tried to get her down to go to the toilet and bed but we are putting this down to her being over-tired. She isn't allowed on the sofa for the time being though.
She really is the most loving little thing, she absolutely loves people her whole body wags when she sees people on the street and goes mad when she sees me or my partner. She does nip occasionally (I think by mistake) but we yelp 'ouch' and then leave the room for a minute and go back in and resume playing.
We had been taking her upstairs but this is usually when she likes to steal bathroom mats or shoes and then we end up chasing her to get them back. So I will be taking her upstairs on a lead and practicing 'leave it' for a while. I have read that you should take their toys away and only allow them to play with toys when they are with you but then I have also read that you shouldn't challenge them if they have something either ask them to 'leave it' or distract them with something else.
Sorry, I've waffled but I just need some advice - am I worrying over nothing, am I being too soft? Any other tips and advice welcome.
Thanks so much!