Strange behaviour by my cocker

[DaveH]

I love my 9-month-old cocker she is such a smart lovable dog and it is the best dog I have ever had but she has strange behaviour which is not bad and quite handy actually as she exercises herself in many ways.
She loves playing ball and so I take her out and we play but after a while and not long she then runs around with her tail wagging with nose to the ground sniffing permanently. She doesn't stop. I can sit on a bench and just let her trot around all day sniffing the grass with her tail wagging at 100mph.
Occasionally she might come back to the ball run a little with it then drop it and then go on her sniffing rampage all over the field
People say 'what's she sniffing for she is obsessed' and I say I don't know she knows where the ball is so not that.
Any ideas

[bizzylizzy]

  She‘s a cocker! Sniffing ‚s what they do best and whatever has been on that bit if ground before hand, it‘ll be more interesting than the ball. Dogs experience their world primarily through their noses, and cockers in particular have been bred to make use of their particularly good ability. The best thing you can do is take advantage of it and choose games and training that involve sniffing, searching/retrieving, trailing etc, that way she‘ll learn to focus on the job in hand , with you in control and less likely, at some point, to find a scent that takes her fancy and disappear after it! You don‘t always need to throw a ball, its often more fun to hide it and let her find it (and then you can reward her by throwing it!  )

[Finvarra]

Dylan is completely uninterested in balls. He will run after a ball once on a walk, run off with it, drop it, and then it's nose down for the duration. I would love hi. To run around after a ball and retrieve, but he just doesn't see the point when there are wonderful smells to investigate. We play one or two other games, if I hold a feather (there are lots of seagull feathers where we live) out he will run and jump and take it from my hand, but that soon palls and it's back to sniffing. I did a bit of parkeour with him, but again, nothing compares to the 'hunt,. Just have to live with it 

Lesley and Dylan

[ips]

It's in bred into gundog breeds to hunt for scent, I won't add anything further as bizzylizzy has made an excellent post and analysis

[DaveH]

Yeah I king of got the scent thing but didn't think it would be so obsessive. She only does it on grass and there are cows in the field so plenty of the brown stuff about 

[caro]

I agree with what bizzylizzy has said to try and work on something that gets you back in control.  What she is doing now is what some refer to as self rewarding, and once she has her nose down she will be completely oblivious to you.  Some say not to let them do this of their own free will because they just want it more and more - they can't get enough of it, it is like a drug that nothing can beat.  Dogs that are used for working are taught to control this behaviour and when to hunt.  If they just went off on their own they would ruin the shoot.

I think I am finally getting somewhere with loose lead walking with my cocker, but if he comes across a scent he goes wild and is very hard to control!  He doesn't get let off the lead very often because I don't want him to run off (like he did once after deer)

[MIN]

Gemma has no interest in balls, sticks etc. Her main activity is to sniff and sniff. On a walk everything has to be inspected in the only way she knows. Her environment is her 'daily newspaper'. The bad news gets peed on 

[Finvarra]

The bad news gets peed on 
[/quote]
 
Lesley and Dylan

[bizzylizzy]

The bad news gets peed on 

Lesley and Dylan
[/quote]

That made me laugh too! 

[Lobo do Mar]

Salty will chase a ball and bring it back a couple of times, but then off he goes sniffing like a zigg-zagging train
He has never even moved after a stick - I pick one up and throw it, he looks at me as if to say, 'What?', then off he goes sniffing like a zigg-zagging train in the opposite direction
Funnily enough tho, he will spend all day running after and fetching rubber or fluffy chickens inside
He loves chasing and hiding as well
I must work on his recall .....
And his pulling on the lead
And his scoffing anything in his path
But he is an expert cuddler