Advice for 5month old Cocker Spaniel

Trigger

New Member
Hi All,

I am looking for some advice regarding my 5month old male cocker (Trigger). Any advice tips or reality checks very welcome.

Exercise - I think I am over doing it, currently we do two walks a day. Morning walk on lead for circa 30mins (1.6km) and an afternoon walk mainly off lead for circa 50mins (3.5 - 4km for me with Trigger covering a lot more ground). Is this too much, I introduced the morning walk as our garden was not accessible, now that it is I was thinking of stopping the morning walk for now. Thoughts?

Training - I have been really impressed with how receptive Trigger is to training and how quickly he can pick things up (being in lockdown has defo helped for this). However, if he sees another dog or person he wont recall 90% of the time. Any advice on how I can improve this?

Absolutely any advice would be appreciated, I researched dog breeds for over a year before getting a Cocker and want to make sure I am doing everything possible to make Trigger's life a full as possible and have a well trained dog.
 
Why do you think his walks are too much? If he's doing fine, I see no reason to limit them.
 
Towards the end of the walks he stops and sits and can be resistant to carry on. I'm not sure if this is fatigue or if it is due to him being very scared of cars and towards the end of the walk us needing to walk alongside a road for a few mins. Also other owners have advised that it may be too much.
 
I wouldn’t force him to walk if he doesn’t want to. The duration doesn’t sound too long but adjust it to his comfort zone
 
Stopping and sitting are ways my cocker tells me she has had enough. She will also simply try to turn around. I find that even with a somewhat short haircut, cockers really feel the heat and need a shorter walk.

As far as refusing the recall when other dogs are around, cockers are highly sociable. Never count on a recall near a street or dangerous area. Practice the recall on a long lead, first in your house/ yard then other areas with treats. (I'm sure you already know this: never get after a dog when they finally come to you.. even if they ignored your call)
 
Training - I have been really impressed with how receptive Trigger is to training and how quickly he can pick things up (being in lockdown has defo helped for this). However, if he sees another dog or person he wont recall 90% of the time. Any advice on how I can improve this?

Absolutely any advice would be appreciated, I researched dog breeds for over a year before getting a Cocker and want to make sure I am doing everything possible to make Trigger's life a full as possible and have a well trained dog.
I trained Tiree to the whistle. He's a working cocker and they pick up training really quickly and they love it too. It means he will always come to the whistle now, whatever the distraction. There are lots of gun dog training videos on Youtube, but it basically involves rewarding him with treats whenever he comes so he associates the whistle with getting a treat.
 
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