What is normal?

[russ-g]

Hiya,

Newbie here with a 15 wk old Cocker. I seem to spend most of my time wondering 'is this normal?'. I've worked out many answers myself as time has gone on, but I have some unanswered ones so I figured I'd ask!

Here goes:

- He won't go to the toilet anywhere that isn't our garden (other than accidents in the house)
- He won't be outside without me. Waits by back door. I expected him to want to go and explore, but I have to be there come rain or shine.
- He follows me everywhere! Always at my feet, sometimes literally underneath them!
- He behaves differently (better) with me than with other members of the family (wife + 2 children).
- It's practically impossible to get his attention (let alone recall him) when he's smelling something.
- He jumps up and paws at the faces of other dogs he meets, nothing aggressive, just play I think, but I worry it will generate a negative reaction from other dogs.

And then, a question:

- Sometimes he'll completely ignore my command, which I suspect is normal, but what is the best thing to do in this circumstance? This happens indoors and outdoors at different times, usually when he's found something he's interested in or has something he shouldn't. I've noticed sometimes it's a game, other times he seems scared, other times he'll just ignore me entirely. But I want to make sure I'm not making things worse. What's the best way to approach these situations where he ignores a command or refuses to do what he's told? I'm conscious of not repeating commands, but I still need to move forward in these situations, somehow!

Cheers
Russ

[bizzylizzy]

hi and welcome to you and Stanley! (Love the name! )
First and foremost, yes, everything you describe is normal  , - all puppies are little individuals and whereas some will head off out and want to explore everything on their own, others are more hesitant and need a bit more encouragement, the fact that Stanley has obviously bonded with you so well is great, I personally think its more reassuring for a pup to have one handler showing him the ropes at first anyway, we all send out different signals even if we think we‘re giving the same commands which, for him, can be confusing so its understandable that he‘ll react differently to different members of the family.
He still is very much a baby and a lot of these things will sort themselves eventually as he gains more confidence, he toilets where he feels safe, in the garden and that fact he follows you everywhere is absolutely normal for a cocker  - they’re generally referred to on here as Velcro Dogs  , they just like to be involved in everything and like/need company.
Jumping up at other dogs is normal for a puppy but I would try and discourage it as it can indeed cause a negative reaction, not all dogs tolerate it, try to limit the contact with other dogs to ones you know are friendly at first, puppy classes or supervised meet ups (by that I mean not 20 pups all racing around and not being controlled).

[bizzylizzy]

Sorry, don’t know what happened here, - I hadn’t finished my reply and now its all disappeared! 
To be continud....... 

[bizzylizzy]

Re ignoring commands - he‘s not really ignoring you, he‘s just so preoccupied with whatever else he‘s doing, he‘s switched everything else off, particularly when he‘s concentrating on what his nose is telling him  , he just can’t hear you, when he‘s older you can train commands under distraction but at this stage that’s just a waste of time.
Concentrate for now on just teaching him the basics and teach him commands in an environment with zero distraction, there‘s nothing more frustrating and demotivating for a dog than failure so try and ensure that he has a good chance of succeeding, - e.g. if you’re teaching him to come to you, give him the command when you already have his attention and you‘re more or less 100% sure he‘ll come, then you can praise and reward him, if you call him when he‘s doing something else, that’s guaranteed to fail, all he‘ll learn is that its ok to ignore you it you end up repeating the command so often that it loses its meaning entirely. Hope that makes sense?
Its a learning curve for you as well as Stanley, so take it slowly, celebrate every little success and ignore the failures and you’ll see that he’s learning bit by bit every week.
Finally, never worry about asking anything you like on here, we don’t have all the answers but if the problem is something no one can help with (most unlikely  ), you‘ll at least be guaranteed plenty of sympathy.  Enjoy Stanley ‚s puppyhood, it all goes by so fast!
Look forward to hearing more!
Jayne and Humphrey x

[ejp]

Not got much to add    bizzylizzy has it covered.  Enjoy your pup 

[russ-g]

Thank you so much, this was all very reassuring and helpful to read 🙂

[MIN]

He's a baby. Just like human babies learning takes time.  They learn what you expect by being naughty. The main thing is puppy norties make you handle the terrible 2s and the teenager tantrums better 😬

[sophie.ivy]

Hi Russ,

I had all the same questions when I got my working cocker pup! Everything your pup is doing is exactly what my puppy did. I remember the first time my girl weed in the park - I was so proud!

Excellent advice from Bizzylizzy!!

Something on commands I wish I'd known earlier is to only give them when you feel confident pup will respond. So when you have their full attention or if you've practiced it a lot in little training sessions. In situations where you need pup to stop doing what they're doing and you don't think they will respond, you can try breaking the behaviour by distracting with a game/treat or simply walking them away (if on lead) and sitting down with them for a minute to give them a chance to calm down and forget what it was that was so exciting in the first place. Picking up calmly and taking inside to settle down works too if pup is up to no good in the garden. I did this consistently with my girl when I wanted to stop her digging her way to Australia and it worked a treat! For picking up random things, ignore it completely if it's not harmful and pup should drop it when they get bored or swap for a high-value treat (cheese is good!!) until you have a reliable 'leave'.

Good luck with your boy. It's a super tough stage, but it does get easier I promise.

[Lobo do Mar]

I have come to the conclusion that Cockers aren't normal 

All of the above for Salty except the peeing one

He has plenty of his own extra ones too, tho 

Generally I can explain his whole attitude to my (bad) attempts to train him with the following example (I have lots more):

Pulls like a train on lead so I do the calmly stop when he pulls, and only go when he sits
What happens?
He immediate sits the instant I stop
Then he immediately pulls like a train the instant we move on
I can do this hundreds of times on each walk, every day of the year and he wont change
I have been trying for 3 1/2 years

His nose is orders of magnitude 'bigger' than his ears

Also, the following me around is lovely, but in the kitchen he was a pain, getting literally under my feet
One very stressed day, I just did not bother stumbling & jumping around trying to avoid stepping on him
He yelped pretty loudly and now is pretty quick-sharp moving out of my way in the kitchen
Probably not a 100% virtuous training method, but we are human

Here he is in the photo after stealing my sock, then being a bit peeved when I did not attempt to go get it back.

He will steal flip-flops and slip on shoes off of your feet


Love him to bits

[bizzylizzy]

  That look!!! „You really are a meany spoil sport“

I can quite believe you love him to bits! He‘s gorgeous! 

[ejp]

Salty, you have the spaniel eyes sussed 

[russ-g]

Thanks everyone. It's really great to read that all this is mostly normal.

Some of it is improving already. It's amazing how quick they learn!

[sophie.ivy]

Pulls like a train on lead so I do the calmly stop when he pulls, and only go when he sits
What happens?
He immediate sits the instant I stop
Then he immediately pulls like a train the instant we move on
I can do this hundreds of times on each walk, every day of the year and he wont change
I have been trying for 3 1/2 years

Yes!! This is my experience with the stop method too. Changing directions seems to slingshot her round whenever I turn we call it the rocket launch method now.