Adopting a Cocker Spaniel

emilyvl

Question about cockers - after searching on and off for several months to add a second dog to our brood, I found a very sweet cocker spaniel thru a rescue. She is one of dozens of CS's who were surrendered by an out of business breeder. The story is that all these dogs are purebred AKC cocker spaniels. Despite the lack of socialization and training, the dog we're looking at seems to be very well-mannered, gentle, and pretty well-rounded considering the lack of attention she's had in her life (she's a year and a half). Most importantly to us, she seems to get along pretty well with our dog (who is extremely well-mannered and behaved, but very sensitive). After doing a bit of research online, I'm getting a little nervous about the cocker spaniel breed and hoping for some clarification and to weed out some of the stuff I've read. I'm reading a lot that this breed bites often and is prone to unprovoked attacks or "cocker rage". Does anyone know how severe of an issue this is? I already question the integrity of this breeder having met a large number of the dogs they surrendered and were using to breed. Anyone here have a cocker spaniel and/or know the breed well? By all accounts this dog seems like a total sweetheart, but I wanted to look into this before fully committing. Thanks in advance for any insight!

aggiebug

The Cocker Spaniel breed has had over breeding troubles because of a Disney movie (among other factors).  There are genetic lines within the breed that have to characteristics that you have mentioned, but there are also many lines that are sweet as sugar.  Unfortunately its hard to say what the genetic predisposition is for the dog you are considering adopting.  That being said, they may have genetic tendencies, but proper training can help offset their genetics quite a bit.  It sounds like you take manners seriously will make sure the little lady will behave appropriately.

 

 

lcchristensen

I have an 8- year old cocker and also volunteer with the local rescue organization so I've met a lot of cockers. While some can have issues, most are sweethearts.  Unfortunately they were just overbreed for a time and have gotten a bad reputation.  If you have met the dog and introduced it to your dog and there have been no bad reactions, then I'd say that you're probably fine but if you have both the dogs spend time together that's even better.  The cockers that I have seen that have "rage" issues, it's very obvious that they don't like other dogs, so it's not like they would be fine one moment and attack the next.