Here's Dixie Snuggling with my 12-year-old daughter, Stephanie.
Cocker Spaniels require special ear care. I learned that at Dixie's first visit to the vet for shots. She already had a yeast infection in both ears... and that was the day after we got her! Cockers just happen to be prone to this because of their long ear canals. Water, wax, dirt, etc. is easily trapped down in the ear canal and can become infected without constant ear maintenance. Ear maintenance is easily done with drops you can get from the vet for about $7 (last a long time) or you can even make your own. Use a cotton ball to clean the ears but not swabs as you may injure the ears. Preventing infections early with regular maintenance is easy once you get in the habit.
Grooming is also a regular part of Cocker maintenance. You can groom them yourself or you can expect to visit the groomer about every 3-6 weeks, depending on how fast your dogs hair grows. I myself get bugged and will take the buzzer to them when their hair gets too long or in between visits to the groomer. Grooming is a must whether or not you intend to show your dogs. Their long hair tends to catch things out in the yard like bushes, leaves, stickers etc. and brushing and maintenance keeps their coats in good shape.
Socialization with people from an early age is the way to teach your dog to be people friendly. I have three children
so my dogs have been raised from 8 weeks with kids around. My son has a tendency to "maul" the
dogs, too, so their tolerance level is high! I take my dogs everywhere with me from the time they are puppies, and
getting all that interaction with people is great for them. While some people do own Cocker Spaniels that snap and
bite, I have only met one Cocker Spaniel with that problem and she was about 13 years old. My dogs are all wary
of people they first meet but as soon as they see the people are "safe" they are fine with them. When
our door bell rings it sounds like you are in a kennel or at the pound with all the barking and racket!
Based on my experience so far with Cockers, they have been the easiest dogs I've ever had to potty train. Not even my Australian Shepard was as easy and he was the MOST intelligent dog I've ever owned. Tragically, he was stolen at the age of two years when we were living in Colorado. We were extremely heartbroken, and it took us a very long time to get over the loss of Whipper.
Back to Cockers... besides being easy to potty train, Cockers are extremely loving and devoted. All of my dogs are part of the family. They live, sleep and go everywhere with us. Their favorite thing to do is to go "bye-bye". Just the mention of those words or seeing me get my keys will work them all into a dog pack frenzy!
Dixie is a bird dog and loves to chase birds. She also loves to swim. I am sure she would be a great hunting
dog had we trained her early. Buck on the other hand, HATES water, although he does love to jump in the bath tub
for a drink. All my Cockers seem to like to do this strange thing! Buck will take a nap in the bathtub in the
summer too, when it is hot.
All three of my Cockers and Trevor, my ten year old Beagle, get along well together.
They all get along well with our two cats, too. Now this is a feat because before we got the cats, I had spent the dogs
entire lives telling them to "get the cat" whenever we would see one outside! Trevor has made the most
progress as he had 10 years invested in cat chasing. Birds, are a different story. I think all the dogs would
love to eat our birds. They do not however bother them to any extent beyond sitting and staring longingly at the cage.
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Laurie Stanton |
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