My last cocker, Sophie, was 12 months old when she had her first season. She went into kennels towards the end of it and they were happy to have her there, they just kept a close eye on her to make sure she didn't come into contact with any boy dogs. Before she went into kennels it was a bit difficult. I did still take her walks because I didn't think it was fair on her to garden bound for so long, but kept her close to me on a lead and didn't have too much trouble, I just picked her up when a dog took too much interest. Have to say though that I had dogs I had never seen before sitting outside our garden gate.
Ellie's first season, on the other hand, was totally different. She was 10 months old when she came into season and we were on holiday in a holiday cottage in the Lake District at the worst part of her season. The only problem we had was that the cottage had beige carpets but I bought her doggy pants for when she was in the cottage so that solved the problem of her marking the carpets. As far as boy dogs were concerned, not one of them bothered with her. Obviously, being on holiday, we carried on going out everywhere but even when we were chatting to people with boy dogs not one of them bothered in the slightest with her, not even giving her a sniff around her rear end. I was a bit miffed actually, I think she is really pretty and could not understand what they didn't see in her !!
