My wife and I are really struggling

Rob and Bella Birkett

Rob and Bella Birkett

New Member
Hi all

This is my first time to the forum. I haven't even looked at any posts yet.

We got our cocker Bella about 11 weeks ago. She is now 19 weeks old. She was the most loving, cuddly doggy up until two days ago.

She has started to lose her teeth and when I went to pick her up to put her outside for her to do her business she went absolutely bananas. Alsmost rabid, She got my hand and ripped it like a piece of meat with the teeth she has left. It went right down to the bone.

I managed to get her off by her collar and put her outside. She seemed placid enough and almost apologetic when I opened the door.

As I coaxed her back in her cage and tried to shut the door, she went psycho again, trying to hurt me through the cage.

The day after she was overly loving, wouldn't leave my side. Wanted to be near me and begging me to pick her up all the time.

My question is....is this normal? Is it because she is teething, do I have a puppy with spaniel syndrome?

The only time she has ever been aggressive before this is when she has a chew and you try and take it off her.

I also need some poop training advice but will save it for another post.

Also is it normal for a puppy to lie in bed with you from 6am-7am like a human, as in, lying with head on pillow and half body under duvet. It's very cute.
 
No, this is not normal. I find it difficult to believe. The only circumstance I can imagine a 4 month old puppy attacking you is if she was in great pain or having a seizure. I hope your wounds were treated at the hospital. I would take Bella to the vet and make sure there is nothing physically or neurologically wrong with her.

As far as cocker rage syndrome, I've seen little evidence supporting it. Most likely these are abuse cases where the animal has been traumatized.
 
I would definately take her to your vet and have her checked out right away.
 
Rob and Bella Birkett said:
Hi all

This is my first time to the forum. I haven't even looked at any posts yet.

We got our cocker Bella about 11 weeks ago. She is now 19 weeks old. She was the most loving, cuddly doggy up until two days ago.

She has started to lose her teeth and when I went to pick her up to put her outside for her to do her business she went absolutely bananas. Alsmost rabid, She got my hand and ripped it like a piece of meat with the teeth she has left. It went right down to the bone.

I managed to get her off by her collar and put her outside. She seemed placid enough and almost apologetic when I opened the door.

As I coaxed her back in her cage and tried to shut the door, she went psycho again, trying to hurt me through the cage.

The day after she was overly loving, wouldn't leave my side. Wanted to be near me and begging me to pick her up all the time.

My question is....is this normal? Is it because she is teething, do I have a puppy with spaniel syndrome?

The only time she has ever been aggressive before this is when she has a chew and you try and take it off her.

I also need some poop training advice but will save it for another post.

Also is it normal for a puppy to lie in bed with you from 6am-7am like a human, as in, lying with head on pillow and half body under duvet. It's very cute.
Click to expand...

First of all, most pups of her age have "zoomies" - a moment during a day when they go completely nuts. Some run around, others - bite or bark excessively. Since she is still teething you can add extra frustration given to her by the falling and growing teeth - their gums are very swollen and painful, which can turn a teething pup into a monster unless they have toys and objects to bite into and release it. The way you dealt with her (throwing into a cage, not being in control of the situation, "throwing" her in the cage) tells me that you are either a first pup parent or hasn't spent enough time playing and exercising with her (or overdoing it - tired pups can throw tantrums as a "leave me alone" act) and she may not have enough toys to bite into. Also, no cocker, especially a pup, would be able to rip the hand to the bone! Their bites are painful because the teeth are like needles, but their mouth isn't big enough for such a traumatic experience. :) And to crate her for that is a big no-no. All you need to do is to walk away for a couple of minutes.

The fact that she became "normal" and sweet soon after just proves that there's nothing wrong with her and it is most likely your fault and not the pup. Sometimes people are told about "the rage symptom", but trust me, as a mum of many cockers I can assure you that it is VERY unlikely and the little monster is simply frustrated by those pesky teeth.

So just re-evalute... It's not the easiest time for neither parents nor the pups, but it goes. And give her lots of toys - suede bones, carrots (supervise at all times!), rubber bones (Beco do good ones, soft enough for pups).
 
If you think Bella has a physical problem, then that is way beyond my ability to solve. However if the problem is behavioral, then you need some training strategies to put into place right now because your puppy is 19 weeks old so your window for an optimal outcome to change her behavior is closing so time is of the essence--it needs to be addressed now. Bella's issues are difficult to assess without actually seeing it so I am going to qualify my response by saying that IF all this situation is about is hyper English Cocker puppy hijinks, than I will tell you how we coped and what worked for us with my dog: Fiona was a very bite-y infant puppy and those teeth were like needle tipped razors! So I turned to the breeder for advice--here is what she said: Feed her meals by hand...a little at a time---this will help to teach her manners and ramp down the possessiveness tendency (believe me when I say that you want to ensure that you don't let this problem develop)in the breed. When you feed her, hold the bowl in your lap and do not let the puppy get away with being grabby---close your hand and say in a shocked tone of voice "Ouch!" and put the bowl up for 5 minutes and then try again. Then you will feed her a morsel or two at a time----do this for several meals and then after a couple of days of hand feeding her, put the bowl on the floor next to you and hand feed her from that while you are sitting next to her (she has to learn that lunging for the bowl and/or your hand will not get her what she wants--use ouch for the hand and a sharp no for lunging for the bowl)---putting the bowl up if she repeated breaks the rules--sooner or later she will figure out that behaving badly doesn't really pay off. Next progress to picking the whole bowl up while she is eating, moving it around and observe her body language--do you see a stiffening in body posture, get growls, does the dog freeze and give you the whale eye?) If she doesn't, give her a piece of chicken or turkey and return the bowl to her.....repeat this many times. Put good things to eat in her bowl while she is eating and be able to pick food up out of her bowl while she is eating and feed it to her with no change of body posture. If she shows signs of seeing this as a challenge then go back to the previous step.

Another strategy is to also get a bully stick for her to gnaw on----this is something that she never gets unless she is in your lap and you are holding it by one end while she chews on the other---it lets her understand that chewing on her toys around while people have their hands on it is a good thing---if you see unwanted behavior, the chew gets put away. Then take the chew off her pet her and then resume give it back, still holding it and she gets another round of chewing. At our house this was done several times a day--mostly in the evening while I was watching television.

Another strategy we used: We would engage the puppy in play and after a moment, whip out a piece of chicken, wait until she became focused on the food that you are holding on to, while you grab the other end of the toy that she has in her mouth and give her the food as a reward. If she didn't seem particularly interested in the food---we timed it so she was hungry----before breakfast or dinner. After we established this behavior and we could tell that the dog knows the routine(perhaps 75 sessions (2-3times a day)and shoot for 5-7 repetitions of the behavior in each session---(you can see that this was not a quick fix for us}. Later, we added the command "Give" right before we took the toy off of her--say the word and then swap for a morsel of food or a more favorite toy. One day after she responded to the give command automatically, we decreased the frequency of the food....sometimes a treat and sometimes not. At almost two, her reward is now another round of play or nothing at all.

Many English Cockers engage in petty larceny (mine is a little hairy thief) so I taught her to bring what ever she has purloined to get a snack. Then we used the command "give" applied right before the snack. Do not snatch things off the puppy....offer a trade....if she has a toy --offer a high value snack (like boiled chicken or turkey morsel) as a trade, saying "give" right before she releases the toy or bully stick--apply snack within 3 seconds after you say the word--the timing of the commands relative to the food is important and will speed the dog's ability to learn these behaviors. Where this all goes is to teach the puppy that there are rules to interacting with humans and there is zero payoff if they aren't followed. If the dog proves uncontrollable and gets wild and/or chomps on you simply say "Ouch!" and the fun immediately stops-- then you put the toy or treats up and ignore her for a bit---put her potty if you need to certainly but do not engage with her and do not give her the coveted possession, In fact, it hit me that toys were terribly important to my dog so I took Fiona's most highly valued toys and they were only for training. To this day we have toys that we only use when I am playing with her. You have to know your dog---Fiona is highly motivated by games and toys---some dogs are more interested in and motivated by food.

I hope that this is useful to you.
 
I have a friend whose dogs are like piranhas when you go to give them a treat. I will not give them one unless they take it nice. I value my fingers.
 
Manuel, does Hoshi have possessive tendencies? The instructor that teaches my class at the training club said that the tendency to have an attitude of "MINE!!" is very much a spaniel thing. It would be an understatement to say that I have done a lot of reading on the subject. The trainer on one site stated that more than 70% of the cases of possessiveness that he worked with involved spaniel----out of that general category---guess which spaniel breed was the most common---? English Cockers specifically. It was difficult to judge in a lot of the cases because if the people were Americans---then cocker means American Cocker but if the website was owned by an person from across the ocean, and they use the term cocker---then they almost always mean an English cocker. That is not to say that this is the problem with Bella, you couldn't really know that without being there in person. I just know that inducing a thinking state of mind and encouraging good manners and a little impulse control might be a good start to solving behavioral issues.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top