WAHOO im getting a DOG :)

I can totally see the attraction of dog ownership and the rewards.

Cool

I’ve been leaning towards a Sprocker because of the yougn’uns in the house

You do realise that Cockers and thus Sprockers are some of the bitiest dogs around don’t you?

A surprise entry on this list. Cocker Spaniels are fun-loving, playful and good natured pets. They’re one of the most popular dog breeds to keep as pets. However, these little dogs are also notorious for biting people a lot. A study by Cambridge University brought up surprising results- solid coloured cocker spaniels were likely to be more aggressive. English Cocker Spaniels also have a higher tendency towards owner and stranger directed aggression. In Palm Beach County in 1992, this breed accounted for 59 bites out of the 2,234 reported. Children were the likeliest target of these dogs, with 40% of the victims being under ten years of age.

Real life incident- a cocker spaniel in Wharton bit a 52 year old woman on the leg. She suffered from puncture wounds and had to be hospitalized.

Get a lab or a poodle.

Clearly the op should get a lurcher, best type of dog in the world!!

tis American, must be wrong 😳 Both lab and poodle are too big.

A spaniel will take up as much room and will run around more so needs more space. Lurchers are tall but fold up small and sleep loads.

Then get a minature poodle or a minature poodle crossed with a lab. Sprockers will take up a lot of room simply because they bounce off walls/the roof. Poodles are great dogs, don’t be put off the camp reputation they have because of the silly haircuts.

Also to expand on what A_A said, the best dogs for children and coping with smaller houses are hilariously quite often the massive ones like St Bernards.

That study was done on English cockers by Cambridge.

cockers have a tendency towards possesive behaviour of one owner, so i’m not altogether surprised by the above, TBH.
i have a welsh springer/field spaniel cross, and she’s very good, but with kids i’d probably recommend something like a boarder terrier. they’re popular for a reason.

Lurchers, they are noot inbred pooches and are brilliant with kids

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rage_syndrome

My springer spaniel, is twice the size of my old border terrier, but he doesn’t take up twice the space when sleeping and sits in the footwell of my car quite happily, with room for people’s feet.

They are right about cocker spaniels though, they get spaniel rage and can be very very aggressive! See the link at the top of my post!

Generally, the bigger the dog, the more placid they seem to be (in my personal experience)

Although I did have my left hand half bitten off by a golden retriever when I was young, physically scarred but not mentally! They are another breed that are pretty aggressive but aren’t mentioned much.

Its the inbreeding, get a mutt lurcher

If we’re going to recommend dogs we are personally baised towards, get an Old English Sheepdog.

Your wife won’t care that it will eventually grow into a monster when you bring home this.

lol

Look, I know bigger dogs don’t actually take up much more room than a nutcase hound, however it’s a perception thing (you’ve hit the nail on the head with the last post Tom). So now I’m confused, I’ve had a lot of people saying that a Sprocker is an excellent dog for young family, now quite quickly that’s turned in to – not quite so good..

I grew up with working Springers as a child – but my parents were experienced with them.

But there is definately something different about them, they could be very single minded and moody. Working cockers and to a lesser extent Springers have an edginess to them. My old Springer was great but there was one time when she was young that she snarled at a young one proding and poking her. They do make great family pets but I would say that you’d need some experience to make that happen. Compared to my cockapoo, I’d say my old Springer had a greater sense of the rules in our house (she would very quickly become guilty and hide if she had done something wrong) but at the same time she had a certain bloody mindedness that the poodle cross doesn’t have. The new dog is daft but she listens and learns almost instantly, I taught her to sit, lie down, roll over and high five at four months – if I give her a command she does it. However if she does something she shouldn’t, it seems to go right over her head. Which is weird because she is by far the better behaved dog, I believe it’s because she’s much more people oriented than any of the Springers I’ve dealt with. She attaches herself to your feet, then follows you around all day. If you sit down, she will sit next to you and go to sleep with her head in your neck. (She’s not a working dog :mrgreen:)

Mind you, I have no experience with show cockers – who should be a bit more docile!

I’ve met a lot of dogs since we got our Lurcher, nicest dogs I’ve come across are Labradoodles and Cockerpoos, ie the poodle crosses. Cockers and border collies the biggest pita (I’m aware of the contradiction there). Oh yeah Lurchers are by reputation and ime fabulous with kids.

Just don’t rush into anything Sui, the good thing is that you’re now allowed a dog. Now just meet as many breeds as you can – preferably the mothers and fathers of potential litters. Then decide, no need to decide whether you do or do not want a Sprocker yet 😀

Whippet x bedlington lurcher would honestly be the perfect dog for you, mine has a bit of Greyhound and collie in so is a bit bigger. Here’s an example:

heres mine, 2nd best rough bitch in berkshire!

back to the drawing board maybe..

tony, say it will be alright….<pray>

Bloody hell, I finally get the chance to get a mut, and now it seems impossible

To be honest, within reason any dog will do if you get it as a puppy and train, socialise and exercise it right.

My friend had a cocker when we were in our teens. Lovely dog till it was about 4, then this happened:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rage_syndrome

They new nothing about it at the time, only found this by chance a few years ago. Eventually Snoop (dog) had to be put to sleep after biting my friends Mum, he’d only let a few people near him, and only once in a blue moon. Life in a dog run wasn’t the best. I’m not saying this will happen to ever cocker, or that my friend’s experience could not have somehow been prevented, but it’s worthing keeping in mind.

anagallis_arvensis – Member
To be honest, within reason any dog will do if you get it as a puppy and train, socialise and exercise it right.

Exactly this IMO.

Edit: apparently i need to learn how to quote properly 😆

Oh yeah gratuitous dog pick required

Tom_W1987 – that thing about Cockers in Palm Beach would be referring to American Cocker Spaniels, which are different to English Cocker Spaniels. Weirder shaped heads, to start with.

I’ve never met a snappy cocker spaniel – in fact, I remember being AMAZED at one at Benny’s training class, when her gave her a treat it was like my hand was being kissed by velvet, she was so incredibly gentle! Apparently she actually spent her days with her owner in a nursery, surrounded by children, so she’d been trained to be very gentle.

Noodles, another dog at dog school, is a cocker poo, and he’s also lovely and friendly, but can be a bit food aggressive and occasionally territorial towards people (but not dogs, oddly).

Benny’s half cocker spaniel, and he’s ridiculously soft – he never barks back or responds aggressively to other dogs, even if they’re snapping (or biting) him. He’s lovely around children – he’s normally very bouncy, but he tones it down in the presence of babies (as tested on my nephews and friend’s daughters).

That said, my brother’s dog is the most adorable around children, and especially around my 1 year old nephew – they’re partners in crime. He’s very gentle and protective of my nephew, and he’s a staffie.

EDIT: Forgot obligatory dog photos

Do you think she will notice if I come home with a Newfoundland 🙂

Cockerpoo you say…..

Edit… scrub that, they look like what Paul o Grady has…

We’ve a Working Cocker and he’s gentle and friendly. Not aggressive in anyway.

He will stand his ground with other dogs and stand up for himself but he has to be provoked first by them barking and snapping at him.

Lots has been written about rage and it’s something we looked into a lot to make sure ours would be ok. The conclusion we got to was it was more common in show cockers that were golden and it was something that these days is rare if it exists at all.

I won’t deny it he was a little “cockerdile” when he was young but it passed in a few months once he learnt his place, this it seems is a common cocker trait!

tony, say it will be alright.

Well, we’ve only had Poppy for a couple of months so it’s early days yet. For now I can’t foresee any issues, I know that can change quickly but it can for any dog. As above, I think so long as you socialise them adequately and they learn their place in the home then it should all be good. Part of socialising them is to cry ouch or something when they nip you, as with litter mates it teaches them that they’ve hurt you and should refrain.

Since we got Poppy she started out a bit nippy but this is to be expected and something I think all pups go through wether in the litter or elsewhere. Being around such young children I think has helped as they are obviously more sensitive to nips etc so she’s had to learn very quickly to be gentle. I’m not sure if it’s just her or the breed in general but she tends to be very ‘mouthy’, in that she wants to get her mouth round your hands etc. Tactile I guess. Pups have sharp teeth and at times she still gets it a bit wrong but she’s still young.

As a_a says above, socialise, train, and exercise. If a dog gets bored it gets mischievous, training sessions give them a good mental as well as physical workout.

Personally I don’t think you can go far wrong with a Sprocker but then I would say that! I did grow up with all sorts of dogs, Springers included, and have never had reason to worry about any of them, so I’ve got a very positive bias.

Whatever breed you choose so long as you treat it well and responsibly (socialise, train, exercise, etc) then you’ll be fine.

Again, we’re not that far up the road, bring your kids to meet Poppy if you’re in anyway concerned.

Also:

I finally get the chance to get a mut, and now it seems impossible

That’s the problem with asking the advice of a bunch of strangers on the internet! Lots of opinions, all good and all valid but they are just that, opinions.

Decide what you want from a dog, do some independent research, once you decide on a breed find a litter and go see them. Meet the parents and see if they’re what you expected. If they’re not then look at something else.

We thought we wanted a lab when we decided to get a dog. Once we spent a while looking into breeds, talking with friends (and folks on here), etc we ended up with a Sprocker.

Lol @ cockerdile 🙂

Cheers for all the words of wisdom and opinions. Tony I may take you up on that offer, so be prepared.. I’ve put some feelers out with some other rescue centres and also a Spaniel breeder as my head still says Sprocker 🙂

Just being impatient now.

No worries, please do. My email is in my profile.

I work with dogs and see dozens a day of all breeds and you soon get to know what’s snappy 😉 it is true that there are snappy cockers around, mainly the solid coloured ones for some reason? They are normally alright though, you meet far more aggressive golden retrievers which people normally think of as good family dogs. Springers tend to be good if you can excercise them enough. I wouldn’t recommend poodles, the little ones can be bity and the big ones loopy (ymmv), I’m always wary with terriers and collies. Obviously all dogs have the potential to bite so good socialisation etc is vital. I’m a lurcher fan but pure greyhounds are good as well if you don’t like long walks they don’t take much more work than a cat and curl up small.

Got a working cocker. She’s 1 at the end of the month. I have no idea where the time has gone with her. She was mouthy at first, but soon got out of it. My Sister has her half-sister, who is more show type. She is the most docile dog that lets my nieces get away with dressing her up as Rapunzel. Neither have ever shown any aggression. Rage Syndrome was a problem, but I think it is slowly being bred out. She is bloody lively though and has her quirks, like digging the water from her water bowl, or blowing bubbles in it. She loves her walks and knows that it is walk time and will bark at the door to go out if I dilly-dally around. When she plays with my partners show type cocker, she makes chimpanzee noises, which is odd but funny!

All pups bite. We just had a rope type toy and everytime we nipped we’d shove it in her gob and she would chew that. If she still chewed us we just stopped playing with her.
Now training her not to steal other dogs balls in the park, that was tricky!

I second the bedlington whippet cross, here’s ours, sadly departed two weeks ago. God i miss him.

What a great looking dog, sorry he passed on. Bloody dogs you love them but they dont live long enough!

how true, not like loosing a child or anything, but definitely like loosing a best mate.