Hi there,

I have had my heart set on a working cocker spaniel bitch for years now but the time has only just become right (or it will be in a few months!) for this to be a reality. I don't tend to rush into important things like getting a pet and I really like to do my research as my pets are members of the family and we all need to be the right fit for each other.

I have thoroughly researched the working cocker spaniel breed and met lots of WCSs out and about, all of which has strengthened my desire to get a puppy of my own in this breed. One thing that I am very aware of though, is that this puppy will primarily be a pet and I know that they are bred as working dogs rather than pets and they have a huge amount of energy and drive as a consequence. I just wondered if anyone, especially owners of WCS as pets, could give me some advice and tell me of their experiences?

My situation will be as follows: My partner and I both work full time but I am able to take my dog to the office with me every day and out and about when I do surveys, as do my other colleagues (there are three, sometimes four, dogs in the office every day - a border terrier boy (6 months old) and two Tibetan terrier girls, aged 8 and 10). I work in the countryside so will be able to take the dog for a 30+ min walk across fields during my lunch break.

I also live at the foot of the Malvern Hills and 2 mins walk from open countryside so I will take the dog for a morning 30 min walk, off the lead for a good run, and then for a slightly longer walk in the evening. During the day the dog will have the run of the office with the other dogs, who all go out for wees on a regular basis and can have a quick run around then. At weekends I go walking up the hills, which is obviously great (and vigorous) exercise.

My worry is that I will have a frantic spaniel sprinting around all day that won't settle. I have met many other working cockers (strangely a lot of which were in London when I lived there) who go to work with their owners and are very calm and well-behaved, so would it be a case of carefully selecting a puppy according to how calm its parents are?

I am well aware that if I want a calm dog I shouldn't be looking at a spaniel, but in terms of temperament, looks and general good nature I have fallen in love wiht the breed and intend to take it to training, agility, possibly gun dog training as well so it will lead a fulfilling life. My other alternative is a black lab...but I just don't love them like I love working cockers!!! I know that if I got a lab I wold fall in love with it immediately but I would prefer a dog that is the same size as a WCS.

I have read a lot that WCS need lots of mental stimulation. If, for example, I did get one and brought it to work with me every day, would something like a kong provide the kind of mental stimulation that it would need during the day? Obviously not for the whole day, it will have a boisterous border terrier to romp around with as well and the office is full of toys!

I am also hoping to have children in the next two or three years so would a WCS be a good choice to get along with children when they arrive? And what about cats? I have a three yr old cat now who has never met a dog close up bu she is fairly chilled out and adaptable.

Any advice you could give me would be so much appreciated. And also if anyone has breeders' details that would be fab! Does anyone out there have a pet working cocker?

Oh, one last point (sorry, I'm babbling now!) - as my dog will be a pet, does anyone know of any breeders who don't dock their WCS tails?  Ideally the dam will also be a family pet and the sire a working dog.

Many thanks in advance for your help!

Buttercup_L

Hello Buttercup,

You seem to have done a good deal of homework and all the things you have considered would be essential in taking on a WCS.  They really do need mental stimulation, so you will need to be prepapared for this.  It is essential that your boss at work will not change their mind about their dog policy because I would suggest it would be very foolhardy to take on a WCS unless you can maintain the lifestyle you envisage and have planned for.  You absolutely could not leave a dog shut in while you work full time and most especially not a working breed.

This is not to say that the breed you favour is all manic !...but they do need a great deal of time and effort putting in, especially during the early weeks and months.

You do not say whether you have kept dogs before.  I would say that taking on a dog of any breed is time consuming to say the least.  The attention you may need to give to your puppy WILL take you away from your work commitments throughout the day..is your boss really going to be tolerant of this?  if so, they are very understanding !  Your puppy will need taking out every hour while house training and there are likely to be accidents in the office.

You really need to enrol in some good dog training classes.

You have obviously thought long and hard about this, but I would just advise to continue to think about how this will affect your lifestyle while you are still working.  Meeting lots of cockers isn't the same as living with one !

Working cockers are bred to work and they are FAST !! People breed these dogs specifically to work, so finding a line of 'calm' dogs won't neccesarily be easy.  You will need to do your homework with various lines and visit potential bitches.  Many of these will be working dogs and will therefore naturally be calm as they are being worked....it is when the dog is not given enough of an outlet that issues can come to the fore and be outwardly recognised.  The only way to ensure calmness is to provide LOTS of physical and mental stimulation throughout the day. It will be imperative to find some sort of suitable outlet for your dog..as you suggest agility...cockers LOVE agility...!!

best of luck anyway...I agree they are a lovely breed
good luck !

Hi Genie,

Thank you so much for your advice. I have discussed it with my boss and he also thinks I should go for a WCS! There are three other dogs int he office that have been there for years and a colleague got a new puppy 4 months ago and brought him in from day 1 and our boss is very understanding. There are still lots of accidents happeneing in the office with the puppy we have there at the moment. My boss adores dogs and has one of his own. It is also a very small office (only three of us there most of the time) in the countryside so it will be absolutely fine for me to take my puppy with me. I have thought about the future and considered what would happen if I needed to change jobs, and if I do change jobs it won't be for a while and it will be to become self employed, in which case I will permanently be working from home, so all ok on that front!

I grew up with a dalmatian so have experience of dogs from birth really! My partner also grew up with a dog from when he was about 18 (the dog is now very old!) so has had lots of experience and had to take responsibility for him alot of the time. You can be assured that I won't get a puppy until I am 100% sure that the tinme is right and that I can commit all my time to it. I think it will be more of a case of tryingt o tear me away from my puppy though rather than not giving it enough of my time!

Thanks again, all good advice.

Hi Buttercup,

Im in a similar situation and have really had my heart set on getting on a WCS for a couple of years now, we also would not work out dog, i have two small children and two cats. We have been warned off getting a WCS by so many people due to the fact some are "very manic" and "dont have an off switch" and although a lot is down to the parents, line etc (stay clear of a pedigree with lots of FTCH) and also the owner, training and then each dog is different. BUT we keep thinking do we really want to risk having a dog that is likely going to not have an off switch. We plan on walking dog 1-2 hours off lead in the woods each morning, a couple of "school run" walks during the day and then a jog run at night, and still people are telling me i still need to be prepared to have a manic little dog in the home. Whereas other gundog breeds which yes need as much mental and physical excersise they are less manic, fizzy, hot than a WCS. We are deciding between a WCS and a German Pointer, the size is very different yes but i think i would rather a bigger dog who has an off switch which i believe on a hole GSP do.

Its a tricky one. I am off to crufts tomorrow to chat to breeders of the breeds i like and i will then make my decision but we are leaning more towards a GSP. (I have done tons of research on WCS and can recommend some breeders who will give you a fantastic WCS.

On the docking point-- no dogs, working or otherwise, can be docked in Scotland, so all WCSs have lovely long tails up here. Don't know where you live, so travelling to Scotland may not be practical, but there are some great WCS up here :-)

An off switch is something to be taught, not necessarily something inbuilt - certainly in a working dog, it's a specific thing that needs to be trained like any other behaviour.  Learning to settle is just as important for a working breed dog as learning to recall, leave etc.

What about a Welsh Springer Spaniel, more of an off switch even though thery are one of the best performign dual purpose (show and work) breeds.

They are also very attractive in their colouring.  I used to look after a freinds Welshies in return for ahving mine when we had holidays.

>On the docking point-- no dogs, working or otherwise, can be docked in Scotland, so all WCSs have lovely long tails up here. Don't know where you live, so travelling to Scotland may not be practical, but there are some great WCS up here

We travelled from Bristol to Scotland for one of our Show Cockers, definitely worth it.

An off switch is something to be taught, not necessarily something inbuilt - certainly in a working dog, it's a specific thing that needs to be trained like any other behaviour.  Learning to settle is just as important for a working breed dog as learning to recall, leave etc.

Exactely that! Pretty much any dog can be taught to settle and not be manic all day. I have a working cocker spaniel and she settles most of the day. She is overall of course more lively than perhaps my sighthounds indoors, but she is by no means on the go non-stop eventhough she is only just over a year old. That's because she has learnt to settle and relax, I have built the off-switch into her. In fact, I can sometimes see her going all giddy and making a conscious effort to settle herself without me even saying a word just because she has learnt to do that in certain situations (e.g. when she goes particularly giddy)... LOL

I am not saying that a WCS is going to be calmness in person because they are not, and they do of course need a lot of exercise and mental stimulation/training activities, but it doesn't mean that they can't switch off, relax and settle for a good part of the day if they have learnt to do that.

I have two working cockers, one is a pet and the other is used occasionally as a beating dog, but is a pet the remaining 90% of the time.  We are often able to work from home but, if not, the dogs come into work with us.  The personalities and energy levels of the two dogs are very different, but they are both certainly equally capable of spending an entire day either walking in the hills or lounging on the sofa.  It's true that working cockers are very intelligent dogs and are one of the breeds that requires the most exercise and stimulation, but there are upsides to this, in that they are quick to learn and very much disposed to please their owners.  Our older dog is the first dog we've had, so it was a bit of a learning curve and we got a few things wrong, but I really don't think working cockers are as difficult as some people make out - as long as you know what you're getting yourself into.  The main problem we had with the older dog was chewing (she destroyed a lot of our things!), but this was much easier to deal with with our second dog as we used a puppy pen.  Both dogs are pretty healthy and have been mercifully free of any inherited health problems, but they are at the vets often enough for injuries which, I would say, are a function of their lifestyle and speed:  ie. older dog had to be stitched up after tearing a big gash in her shoulder while running through the woods, the younger dog recently tore a dew claw while on rough terrain, and was also stupid enough to swallow a sponge, which required surgery to remove from his stomach. 

As for children and cats - both my cockers hate cats, but then they were not bought up around them.  One of them seems to get quite freaked out by toddlers (she recently snapped at one, though my husband was stupid enough to let the visiting child approach her when she was lying in her basket and start prodding her) but both are fine with older children.  To be honest, I'm not sure I would manage to cope with a baby and a young cocker at the same time.  I would want to wait until the dog was three - in my experience, most dogs calm down when they're about two years old, but cockers seem to take a little longer to mature!

Hi all,

Your replies are very much appreciated. I am pretty much decided on a WCS as they tick all the boxes for me. Anything bigger and I would probably not be able to take it to work with me. I am in the process of having my garden done (new build house - they don't even turf these days!) which will take three or four months (as I need to save) but I have been in touch with a couple of breeders, one of which sold a WCS pup to a friend of mine who cannot speak highly enough of his dog. This breeder said that although WCS do have an awful lot of energy, they are also very adaptable and they will get used to the amount of exercise you are able to give them, and that they don't necessarily need 5 mile runs every day! Also, my friend who has a WCS said that his is very excitable but you can easily turn it on or off, so I guess it's donw to good training as much as genetics. I have really done my research on this breed and definitely feel that it is the breed for me. I just hope the 'Kate Middleton effect' doesn't push the prices up as I will have even longer to wait then! (Incidentally, I have wanted a WCS for about 5 years now and certainly not because a royal has one!).

Soppyc - any information on reputable breeders would be much appreciated, thank you. And that's a good point about choosing a dog that doesn't have generations of FTCH behind it!

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

Buttercup.

http://www.workingcockerhealthscreendirectory.com/healthissues.htm

The above link takes you to a site that has some great information about the WCS and tells you what to look for in a responsible breeder.

after a visit to crufts, lots of chats with breeders, owners etc We have also decided that a WCS is defo the dog for us. At the end of the day ANY highly intelligent is going to need lots of work in lots of ways which we are up for and looking for and we would rather a smaller hyper dog than a big bounding hyper dog. We need to be able to take our little dog where ever we go and a GSP I dont think fits into that.

Buttercup feel free to email me x soppyc@gmail.com

The "Working Cocker Pro Health" site is excellent, only health screened dogs may advertise here. There is loads of advice and knowledge to be obtained from this site. First class