First time cocker owner.

davec921

davec921

Member
Owned by
1 cocker
Well thought I should say hi to everyone.
Tabby says hi as well.
Just thought we would say hi an give some info on us.
We both were born on Oct 22. Im 30 an she is just over 3 months. Man is she growing like a weed. She is pure bred an will get her registored as soon as I can. I all so plan on getting her micro chipped as well.
Sooner or later she will be spayed. How soon will depend on how her temperament is. I have herd that if a bitch is hi strung then you should breed them to calm them down. Is this true or not. I have no plans on breeding her other then for that reason.

She is an all black female. I need to get some picks of her up on here.
She is really smart as well. She all ready knows sit. And we are working on wait an lay. IF you have a treat she will do it all the time. but if not she is a hand full.

We live in west central Ohio. About an hour north of Dayton Ohio if any one is close to that area. I have had beagles before. But just fell in love with her. I live alone so she gets spoiled. but she still knows who the boss is.

Her mom loves to chase squirrels an I'm hoping she will love to chase rabbits. Since that is what I love to hunt. She does love to chase the stuffed rabbit I bought for her.
Any ways her mom was a buff about 14 at the shoulder an her dad was a black an white about 15 at the shoulder.
Im hopeings she wont get much bigger then that since she was the runt of the litter. But man is she growing. she is all ready up to 10 lbs.
Well hope to make new friends on here an get advice in the future.

LOL she is snoring now.
Funny thing she did today. I have Rc cars. well I had a body with the foam bumper laying in it. Well she snatched it out when I was not looking.
I did my SHH an snaped my fingers an she droped it. I put it back turn around an dang if she did not grab it again.

So I put is a foot from me an set it on the floor. She walks up to it an I Shh her. She back up. we do this 3 more times an each time she pouts an grumbles. lol.
Well she got tired of that an just lays down watching it an fell asleep. lol.
I think its time to wake her an play tug of war or chase me now later
all.
DAVE
 
Hi Dave, I am pretty new on here as well. Everyone on here is pretty welcoming though so don't feel shy about asking any questions, no matter how silly you might think they might be.

When we got our little boy he already new sit so that was easy. We are working on "stay" then me walking out of sight. Yesterday was the first time he actually stayed put. That took about a week to train. I just had to keep talking so he knew I was still home haha.

I was told not too play tug-of-war with puppies because it "can" make them more agressive as they get older. So we stopped, he was getting a bit snippy at us. Since we stopped he has calmed down. So that was true for him. We will wait till he is about 1 yr till we start playing that again.

Oh but here is one for ya all. Coco is loosing his baby teeth as you know. He has one though, that is still attached partially. Its now bent over to the roof of his mouth. It doesn't seem to be bothering him, but I was wondering, if we should pull it out or just leave it too continue too fall out on its own. It looks bad from my perspective but, he doesn't seem to care.
 
davec921 said:
I have herd that if a bitch is hi strung then you should breed them to calm them down.
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Welcome Dave and Tabby. I don't know if that is true or not but it does't sound like a worthy reason to breed an animal. :huh:
davec921 said:
Funny thing she did today. I have Rc cars. well I had a body with the foam bumper laying in it. Well she snatched it out when I was not looking.
I did my SHH an snaped my fingers an she droped it. I put it back turn around an dang if she did not grab it again.
Click to expand...
Gabby loves them too. Can't let him catch them though or they're toast. I'll put on a show for him where he can't reach them.
 
Coco's Mom said:
Oh but here is one for ya all. Coco is loosing his baby teeth as you know. He has one though, that is still attached partially. Its now bent over to the roof of his mouth. It doesn't seem to be bothering him, but I was wondering, if we should pull it out or just leave it too continue too fall out on its own. It looks bad from my perspective but, he doesn't seem to care.
Click to expand...

I'd say leave it and let it fall off on it's own.
 
Welcome Dave!
I'm Polly and I live with hubby Michael and our 4 cockers in the forests above Los Angeles. I know you chose a wonderful dog as your companion. And, yes! Cockers are sure up to the sport, that's for sure.
Why not get Tabby and yourself into a puppy class? That way you can find out where a sporting club for cockers is in your area, or, even better yet maybe Robin, Gina, or Kelly can give you pointers. Since you hunt, why not get Tabby completely trained as a hunter/retriever! That would be exciting, we would all follow Tabby's career!

As to breeding, as a rescue person, I really feel that breeding should be left to those who do it for the betterment of the breed, who know how to protect the dog and her pups. She will be a wonderful companion Dave, you won't have to breed her.. ^_^

And, please! We love pictures! You can set up your own photo album thru your CP (control panel)
 
Oh I almost forgot, about Coco's tooth.. I don't have any experience with puppy teeth, but, if my baby didn't loose it, after awhile I would take him/her to the vet and have it pulled.:naughty:
 
Welcome David and Tabby! She sounds like a real cutie, and I'm looking forward to seeing some pictures of her :)

I would definitely get her into some puppy classes. She will get some socialization to other people and other dogs, and you'll learn some new training methods. Try to find a trainer that works with positive reinforcement if you can - these methods work really well for Cockers.

I have never heard that breeding a high strung female will calm her down. Spaying a female will also help calm her down, due to the removal of fluctuating hormones. The BEST way to calm down any high strung dog is to train them and keep them busy with walks, exercise and chew toys (peanut butter and kibble stuffed Kongs work wonders with my crew).

I've heard the old wives' tale about not playing tug of war, but I disagree with it. If your dog knows the rules (the game starts and ends when YOU initiate it, not when the dog wants it to), then it can be a good game.

As for Coco's tooth . . . leave it. It'll come out when it's ready, especially if it's just hanging by a thread. A good game of tug will help too.
 
I've heard the old wives' tale about not playing tug of war, but I disagree with it. If your dog knows the rules (the game starts and ends when YOU initiate it, not when the dog wants it to), then it can be a good game.

Ya I was given a DVD from our puppy food actually. He was saying it wasn't a good idea but, I see our point. Maybe he was just too young when we started to play. After all, I live in a house of the male gender...they tend too be a bit more "ruff" when playing.


As for his tooth, I will leave it till next week. See if it does come out. Yesterday I noticed him rubbing his paw on the side of his face, which is what he was doing when his first tooth fell out.
 
Wow see! I am learning too! Since I have never had a very young puppy, I have never experienced the teething.. fun to read about I must say.
 
Thanks for all the warm welcomes.
Yep Tabby knows that the tug of war starts and end when I say so.
She is learning so fast. She will sit for me agout 70% of the time when I tell her to. Getting her to lay on the other hand is a 40% at best. She does well on wait if I am near. the farther I go the harder it is for her.

She has started to sit an stay out of the kitchen when I'm doing laundry or cooking. That was the hard part as half the time I am out of view when I am cooking. Boy oh boy does she love the snow. As for her knowing people that is easy I have a really big family. I have 5 aunts an 1 uncle. An a ton of cousins who all adore her.
A few of my family have dogs as well so she get so meet them quite often.
She loves to play with sparky who is a mix chiwawa an wiener dog.
She has done great as far as not having any accident in the house an knows as soon as she gets in the yard its potty time.
The way I got tabby was my friend from work bred her cocker Abby.
She traded one of her buff pups for a chocolate one that is cute as well.
Tabby was my Christmas present. I really wanted her but funds were tight.

I plan on training her for hunting an hopefully to retrieve for me. There is a dvd online just for training cockers that I plan on getting soon.
As for training courses around here they are few an far between.

I have taken a few pics so far but have yet to upload them to the comp.
I told my friend jerry about this site an I hope she joins as well.

Does any one else on here hunt with there dogs as well?
Well sorry for being so long winded. I could just go an on about tabby. well later All
DAVE
 
Isn't having a puppy great. I know what you mean about going on and on about her. I feel sometimes ppl must think I am obsessed with my little boy Coco.
 
davec921 said:
Does any one else on here hunt with there dogs as well?
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Gabby's never been hunting but he knows how to chase game on my signal. When Gabby and I search for game we spread out to cover more area. Gabby always keeps eye contact with me. When I spot prey, I point it out to Gabby. Gabby bolts on queue in the direction I signal. Gabby's experienced enough to read his prey's moves and often heads them off. He just lacks speed to catch it, especially now since he has 2 bad knees. I imagine he'd would have been a great bird dog too since he's always tracking and likely to spook anything in his path. Whenever he sees movement he always rushes in which is sort of dangerous. He ran after a woodchuck once and caught up to it. The woodchuck stopped and stood up on it's hind legs towering over Gabby. Gabby must have known it was dangerous cause he walked away and left it alone.
 
I have a very good friend that hunts with her Cockers . . . she has earned Master Hunter titles on her female in both Canada and the US. She trains them a lot, and starts them off with bird wings and retrieving dummies from a really young age. There's a GREAT book by James Spencer called "Hup!" that I would recommend if you want to teach Tabby to hunt . . . it's an awesome resource. Check out the Spaniel Journal too - http://www.spanieljournal.com is the link I think.
 
WOW a new puppy and a cocker at that - welcome to the group.
I am Cheryl and live in Texas with my two Bluebonnets Annie and Daffney. Daffney is my first cocker as well but she is not 3 months she is 8 years. But still acts like she is 3 months:) my Annie is 12 and came to me at the age of 6 years. Happy that you joined us this is a great place and a group of wonderful folks and furkids.
 
Well its been awhile since I posted but I am back. Been outside allot walking tabby an taking her to a rabbit pen were she can chase them for fun.
So any ways here are a few pics. tried to load some up in my album but had problems. So I will just link them from photobuckes
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HPIM0587.jpg

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Dave
What great pictures! Wonderful! And, welcome back!
 
Thanks. I normally check the boards once a day.
But If I dont have any thing to contribute I dont post. :)
Hope fully I can get some nices pics taken of tabby playing outside when the weather gets nice again.
Im wishing I would have taken more pics when she was younger. But that said she is only 4 months old.
Well later
DAVE
 
Thanks for sharing. Gabby would have ripped up that plush bunny the minute I handed to him. :D
davec921 said:
Been outside allot walking tabby an taking her to a rabbit pen were she can chase them for fun.
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We had bunnies on our farm when I was a kid. At some point Tabby will take an interest in catching a bunny. Bunnies do bite.
 
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