Welcome to COL
I'm Claire and I have two cockers Poppy who is a 15 month old golden cocker spaniel and Daisy who is a 5 month old black cocker spaniel.
I hadn't owned a dog 13 months ago and now I have two!! They are just a fantastic breed and I'm sure you and the family will have lots of fun.
When mine aren't playing and hyper they are very caring and loving. Poppy met my cousin who is mentally handicaped for the first time on Christmas day and Poppy was very gentle with her and seemed to be quite drawn to sitting quietly next to her with her head resting on her lap. I was very impressed, she seemed to understand that Jenny needed her to be calm and loving. I'm sure Barney will learn the same very soon.
If Barney doesn't calm down it may be worth looking at his diet, there are others on the site who or are experts compared to me but when I took Poppy to puppy class for those dogs/puppies that were hyper they recommended a raw food diet to avoid additives etc in the food which can make them hyper. We feed raw and ours seem to have a good balance of calm and manic in their lives!!!
