hi,
in the last few weeks i have spoken to a few clients at the vets i work for who have been having aggression problems with their red cockers. one young bitch (18 months) had bitten her owners quite badly, man may lose finger. they brought her into the surgery with a view to having her put to sleep. in the time she was there she seemed like a very sweet, gentle, well behaved dog, never showed any signs of aggression to me as i feed her, cleaned her and handled her. only a short time i know but she was in a strange environment with a stranger. a few hours later the owners called back insisting the dog was pts saying it was the 4th time it had bitten and they were all terrified of her etc etc. can anyone tell me more about cocker rage as i got really angry and upset at this little bitch being pts as i felt that surely something could be done, either behaviour modification training or rehoming with an experienced owner, can anything be done with cockers with this problem? is it a completly different type of aggression problem that cant be controlled? i would like to know more as there is another client with a similar problem and i dont want to see her dog end up the same way.
thanks,
kelly

Kelly

Have a look here
it may help

Pam n the boys

Kelly, don't be angry with these people. Unless you have lived with a dog with Rage, you really do not have a clue. You are living with a ticking bomb :-( I feel very sorry for this owner. I am sure that it was a very hard decision for them to come too and if she had already bitten four times, then she had been given the benefit of the doubt. I hope you didn't give these people a hard time over it, as this will have compounded their guilt even more.

i did not mean i was angry at the clients, i meant i was angry and upset at the whole situation. as far as i could see when looking after the dog she was very friendly, calm and well behaved and displayed no signs of agression and it just did not seem right to have her pts. it is not the dogs fault it was born with a problem and i hate to see anything destroyed if there is a chance that something can be done, it is my job to help save animals. if the dog truly did have rage then perhaps as has been suggested it was the best thing, but the dog had not received any kind of behavioural training to determine if it really did have rage, so i cant help thinking that perhaps it may have been worth a try first rather than going straight for the decision to have her pts. perhaps it had another behvioural problem that could have been managed but because it was a red cocker everyone imediatly assumed it was rage.
yes the clients were upset and no i have not given them a hard time at all, i have not even spoke to them, i resent this suggestion as it is their dog and their decision and would i never dream of questioning or challenging it!! if they felt it was the best for them and the dog i have to respect that, regardless of how i feel.
as i said in my post i dont know a lot about rage, i asked the question as i am looking to find out more as there are other people with similar problems and would like to try and put them in touch with expereinced people. as a result i have seen a link for a helpline and will pass this on.
kelly

Hi Scratchy.
A friend of mine had a cocker with rage he was besotted with this particular one . he had bred her from a cocker he got from a very famous breeder in england . She was winning all around the country , he had it made love him. Well the rage got worse and he had scans done . It was a tumour and he opted to have it removed in the vet college just so they could learn and with the hope he might save her.
It was dreadful . He never expected the after results . I wont go into it but two weeks after she died anyway .
I am afraid I would not want any dog of mine going through that so I would have a rage dog pts with no reluctance .I had a rough collie with rage pts . It is a frightening thing to see like being attacked by a wild rabid beast. So upsetting as it is it Scratchy it is the only way to go . Mari

The only dog I have ever met and was afraid of was a St. Bernard with rage.
I really do think dogs with this problem do not know what they are doing and having them pts is the best option.

It must be dreadful for the poor owners tho.

Theresa

Interesting that the dog had a tumour Mari. Our Lagan had a brain tumour and she had episodes that were very much like the descriptions of rage though it was never mentioned as a possibility. I suppose that was because of her breed (wolfhound). I've never seen a dog with real rage syndrome but by Lagan's attacks were very scary and very dangerous.

Rage *is* a real condition and it can affect any breed. Sadly behaviour modification etc. doesn't work because the dog is not aware of what it is doing. Whether it can be managed depends on the severity of the attacks, the size of the dog and the owner's circumstances. We had a dog who had rage caused by a thyroid condition - 99% of the time he was a sweetheart. But when he "switched" he was terrifying and in the end the only safe option was to put him to sleep. I can't describe how it feels to be attacked by your own dog and to never know when the next attack is going to happen. And in between to have him be his "normal" self and want to play with him and cuddle him but always to have to be on the alert to spot the first sign of a turn.
We lived with it for 6 months and tried medical treatment and training before we gave up - but in the end both the vets and the trainer agreed with our decision. Please don't feel angry with your clients - no one should have to live with that.

Janet

The most important thing with RAge is that it is properly diagnosed, as some new owners feel that if their new Cocker nips it might be RAge syndrome and panic, when 10 to 1 it quite possible isn't.

If the other clients have the same problem, I do hope they will have it properly assessed and investigated. If they do, and it is RAge, then I tend to agree that pts might be sadly the better option :(

LIndsay