I was wondering if you could give me some advice. I've been seriously thinking about getting a cocker spaniel for some years now but Im not entirely sure if my situation would be fair on the animal so before I rush out any buy one I thought I should get some expert advice.
I am a PhD student living in Edinburgh with my boyfriend (John)of many, many years. We have a large four bedroomed flat (One upstairs one downstairs, not a block of flats) and fairly big private and secure garden.
My boyfriend works full time and while I can easily work from home a few days a week I do have to make an appearance in the lab the rest of the time. My hours are flexible though so I can basically go into work anytime I want which usually means I leave at 11 and John
is home by 5. Weekends are completely free.
When I was ten years old my parents bought me a blue roan male cocker spaniel (Dillan) and I got completely hooked on the breed and loved him to bits. I did really well with the dog training, competing in many competitions most at the adult level and we never competed in a show in which we didn't get placed! I know all about the health care and grooming- I was so good at this I made some extra pocket money in my teenaged years grooming other people's cocker's!
Both my parents worked full time so my gran 'babysat' Dillan during the day which worked out extremely well as I trained Dillan
to 'assist' my gran. He also was a regular visitor to a special needs nursery where he helped kids with language problems and proved to be a massive hit! Walks were never a problem either, once Dillan was old and strong enough weekdays consisted of an hour walk
each morning and a 2 hour walk at night plus all day hikes at the weekend.
My problem now is that I live a bit too far for my family to babysit a dog during the day. As my previous dog was never left alone Im not really sure how long and often is an acceptable amount. Would 11 to 5 o'clock three times a week be too much? Would getting an older dog or two dogs be any better?
I will take any advice you have to offer. My dream would be to get a black, gold or black+tan dog just now that I can train in both obedience and agility but also I would like to attempt showing as well and maybe start breeding in five or ten years when I know
enough about the breed standards, the genetics of health and temperment and show rules and there arn't 'too many' puppies being breed!
I would prefer a young dog so that I could train to be gentle and calm with the children in the nursery and hopefully help in the education of children with Downs syndrom, Autisim and various language problems. However a confident yet calm older dog would work just as well.
If you think that my situation would be too cruel on a dog then of course I shall have to keep dog ownership on the back
burner until retirement, although Im only 24 so thats a long time to wait! John is also very keen on getting a dog as he has also owned dogs in the past.....although they were
jack russels-highly inferior to the spaniel in my eyes!hehehe
Life just isn't the same without a spaniel in it!!!
Sorry for the long post, I just want to be sure I am doing the absolute best that I can
for any dog I may (or may not) get.
Thanks for reading this,
Roslyn.
