Hi. My spouse and I just got our CKC spaniel on Saturday, and we love her. She's 5 months old and has lived with a passel of 8-12 dogs plus pups at the breeders, who seems to truly love her dogs.

After 24 hour airline flight, we picked her up and it was love at first sight, on all sides. She's been amazingly loving and almost inseparable from us.

Monday and Tuesday we left her alone at home while we worked for about 4 hours each day. She seemed worried and a little frenetic as we parted, and very actively overjoyed (pee streaming) upon our return. All delightful :)

Today (Tuesday) we fed her and gave her a pigs ear, and she immediately retired to her little bed. Later we looked in on her, and she began growling. I bent down and teased her (foolishly in retrospect), taking the pigs ear in my mouth, and she became vicious (really vigorously) trying to bite. At that point I had read puppies for dummies (that would be me) and I vaguely remembered that when aggressive dogs (not ours up to now) become aggresive over something, you have to come away the boss or else they think that their aggresive behavior was successful and continue it. Well, really, we were shocked at her really surprisingly vicious approach, and so I took away the pigs ear and she remained unreformed (not surprisingly). After 15 minutes penned in her room, with her whining plaintively, she quieted down and we went on with life all forgiven.

Should we be concerned? How should we handle really wierd behavior? My spouse has lived with CKC spaniels all her life and has never seen anything like that episode. She even recalls her brother playing mouth tugs with dog toys with no ill effect. This leaves us both concerned.

Thanks. PS: Great board -- very informative!

I always feel that mostly only very young pups bond close enough to allow you play mouth to mouth games . there are exceptions but in general I think older puppies are a bit set in their ways on arrival. I guess living with other dogs your little one has had to fight her corner so to speak for what was hers.Im guessing she has not realised it is only a game , so for now dont be too anxious. I cant stress enough that you dont allow bad behaviour from day one .It would spoil your enjoyment of the pup and that wasent the plan . best wishes Mari

Hi, your puppy has taught you a good lesson - DONT TEASE - especially where food is concerned and even more so with pigs ears. Teasing is never a game as far as dogs are concerned and if you carry on like this you will have one confused unhappy and potentially aggressive puppy. If you need to take something away, try to distract with something even nicer. It may take longer now to build up trust between you. The puppy behaved in a perfectly normal manner considering it barely knew you and has been brought up in a kennel situation. I dontmean to sound harsh but people should read books BEFORE they get a puppy , afterwards is a bit late!

I tend to feel that it might be best just to teachher to "Give".

But use toys (2 toys, one she loves and one not quite so important) and get her used to swopping them, using the less important toy first, then "Give", then she gets the best toy.
After a while she should undersand the words, and when you feel she does, she should be happy for you to take the pig's ear. "Give" should basicallymean, she gets something better. But IMHO when you take it,give it back so that she trusts you.

I think it should only be in a n emergency that a dog should be seriously asked to give up food or whatever. But of course the owner needs to be able to do it.
As i think Mari said, if she is used to competeing for her food, she may not know any different :(

It might be best to avoid pigs ears and similar treats for a while until there is more trust between you all.

Agree too, it's best to read books first - I would recommend any by John Fisher (try "Why Does My Dog?" and also "The Perfect Puppy " which gives great help for first time pup owners and sensible advice for problems such as this. It's a good read and really helps :) )

JMHO :)

Lindsay

Dogs LOVE pig ears, they don't want you to mess with them. But if I ever have a puppy challenge me, I take the thing from them and say NO! I also give my breed a quick scruff shake. Very important to be and always remain pack leader. Then I make them sit and give it back to them with a good boy/girl but not overly happy. Don't know if this is the best way to go about it, but it works for me(not that I've had that many instances to begin with).
You however need to gain some trust and begin some training. Keep the pig ears away for awhile. Read some good puppy/training books in a hurry. I recommend How to Raise a Puppy You Can Live With by Rutherford and Neil. Start today and be consistent it will payoff for you!

I would just like to ask, would it be possible that this behaviour has been contributed to by the fact the pup was left alone? I ask this as I have had my CKC a week and I am worried that if I leave him alone indoors he might start to act the same as this pup.

No, i think it was because they tried to take the pigs ear away with eye contact - defying the dog to react - well thats how the puppy saw it. He was not used to this sort of human behaviour and reacted the only way an untrained dog would. She were extremely lucky not to be bitten badly on the face and I'm sorry to say she would have deserved it. Dogs are not toys, and they deserve respect - you wont get it if you dont give it. I agree that a scruff shake for a SMALL YOUNG puppy who has tried on a bit of growling for no good reason is acceptable, but in this instance the dog felt he had good reason to growl, and I think scruff shaking would be detremental, she should forget the incident, learn from it and make sure she and anyone else doesn't encourage defensive/aggressive behaviour again. Lindsay's advice on swapping toys is a good one. How would you like it is a stranger (after all she had only had him a few days) tried to take away your fave Easter Egg? He has had a lot to cope with, leaving his home and owner and doggy friends, air travel, new home and completely different environment, new owner with different ways of doing everything and probably a different diet too. He will have to learn to fit in, but for the moment he's probably still stressed and exhausted from the trauma of moving homes. :-)

We have the same problem with Max and his bed/bones/toys (oh no not again I hear you cry).

He doesn't seem to bad with me and my mum but is very possessive with stuff and my dad. Could be a pack thing and have tried the swapping training with him at an early age.

I've just resorted to scolding recently as this seems to diffuse the situation but that only works if I'm present and he is growling at me or my dad. Still looking for a reliable method to diffuse this one.

Have you ever tried removing all his toys, bones etc without speaking to him just remove them, put them into a carrier bag and put them out of sight and don't give him anything back until he has done something worthy of a reward. and even then only one at a time.
Toys and chews are yours to give to him at YOUR discretion and he hasn't got the right to be possessive over them.

Well after reading all messages, thanks by the way, come to the conclusion that we should have bought the book "dummies for puppies" us being the dummies. Any more advice is greatly appreciated.

my pennyworth--i expect to be able to take anything at anytime -if i want to from my dogs. without a reaction, i dont tease i just take it--theyd get to know about it very quickly if they back answered, im not into swapping or bargaining. although its the way others sometimes deal with it, its to me an option -IF- things have become a problem ,but as its obvious from the start to any dog i own that whats mine is mine--and so's whats theirs!!!!awful eh?
in your case i agree that because youve not had the pup from the beggining and also that its lived in a pack-guarding the pigs ear would be automatic, its got to readjust to living with you and not having to fight for the privelige. im sure she'll come around, but start with something boring until trust is gained,

<<<IF- things have become a problem ,but as its obvious from the start to any dog i own that whats mine is mine--and so's whats theirs!!!!awful eh?>>>

I don't think it's awful at all....My dogs will agree with you ;) They're brought up knowing (and if they don't know they're taught smartish) that whatever they think is theirs is not really, it's mine. Beds are there for their convenience, I am allowed in them if I wish and if they chew them, well they disappear for a while. Toys are theirs but only when I decide to play, not when they decide, food bowls are mine until I decide to let the dogs eat from them etc etc...nothing awful about that! :D

In the case of pigs ears and rawhide though, you will often find that these products bring out the worst in even the best trained dogs! The puppy was reacting (rightly or wrongly) the only way it knew when it came to protecting it's treasure....Maybe from now on teach the puppy with less 'valuable' food items to 'give', no teasing involved! Once the puppy 'gives' then praise but I'm another who doesn't necessarily give back! This is a must to teach if you have small children in the house!!!

Have you ordered the books that Lindsay suggested - they are both excellent books and will show you how a dog thinks, so you can learn to understand why he does what he does. dogs don't have our values and can only understand ours if you teach him in "language" he understands. I would also highly recommend any puppy book by Ian Dunbar.

What are you feeding pup on ? Read on a CKCS website recently not to feed pups too much protein as it can make them "over excited and silly". Also heard from breeder in UK that lots of American breeders won't give their pups Eukanuba or Iams because of this problem.
Sounds as if pup has had a lot of changes going on in life. Hope you sort this out. You're certainly getting lots of excellent advice and support.
Good luck.

Hi, the breeder had sent some dry food with her for the journey but she wont eat anything here except roast beef and KFC, she even knows when we drive though, excitement and all. We understand the necessity to get her on a good balanced diet but up until now we're trying to let her settle in and pander to her whims. I notice that she seems to pant a lot outside in the sun, is this because it's warmer here in the US or just something they do when outside???? She seems to drink enough but have noticed a dry and warm nose most of the time. Any suggestions out there??

Roast beef and KFC! Who's training whom at the moment ? Try looking at www.cavalierclub.co.uk. Go to pets and then look under February and March. Makes sense when you get there ! Feb has tips on feeding a puppy and March on feeding an adult dog. You can email the writer with queries (I think)
Trouble with CKCS is they look so pleadingly at you - hard not to give in.

Hugen, thanks for the info, yup you're right CKCS look at you with those big brown eyes and you're sunk!!! will try swimming for the border:)

Hi

Perhaps you didn't know and it's a bit late now - but most puppies go off their food for the first few days in their new home!!! Yours has managed to capitalise on that. You must get your pup onto a proper diet. Have you spoken to the breeder?

Pam n the boys

Looks like you have a lot of homework to do. Please start now so that we don't hear later about all the dogs problems that really could have been prevented if you had just opened a good dog book and read it. I don't intend this post to be a negative one, but it is so true that an owner shapes the puppy into what it will become. They need you to be the one who sets the rules. No dog is born trained. If you put in some quality time right now it will make this puppy a most treasured pet. If not you're looking at years of " oh that darn dog did it AGAIN!". I am in the US too, where are you located?
I look forward to hearing more about how you and your puppy get on. Please don't think I'm trying to "bash" you, I'm just trying to get you moving now before a monster is created!:) :)

<<< most puppies go off their food for the first few days >>>

Max didn't :rolleyes:

Hey Banger,
Just out of curiosity, where exactly in his litter did Max fit? Was he the largest male? or was he a runt? Somewhere in the middle? Just curious. :D

When we saw the puppies they were all the same size except for the 7th which was the runt. 6 males and 1 female, non of them stood out as being the strongest but the runt was a little smaller in size. Max and the female were the ones who attacked my shoes. :D Maybe I should have got the bitch :rolleyes:

Hmm, sounds like the urge to attack shoes came from an early age and was never successfully discouraged? (ducking in advance of thrown shoe)