Hi all

I am interested in your opinions. I have been offered a 2 yr old working cocker bitch who has never worked. The reason I have been offered her is because she has nipped 2 children (both under the age of 6). When I say nipped, there was no breaking of skin and no blood involved. The first incident was at a very busy time for the family and they had friends round, the children were all running back and forward when one of them said that he had been bitten the child was examined but there were no marks left. The second incident happened to a neighbours child when they were out in the garden as no one saw it they don't know if there was any teasing going on again no marks were left. Her owners feel that they cannot cope with her and are wary that she may do it again with serious consequences. I am wary myself of taking her on as I have two kids who are 8 and 10, however my girls know that dogs are not toys and that they should be treated with respect at all times. They both manage to get a hold of my 18 month old Gordon and tell her off if she needs it. I have spoken to the breeder of this bitch as she has had her back and she says all she needs is a firm hand and kids that can verbally tell her off if she starts any silliness, she also said that she would trust her with her 7yr old grandson. I am  aware that working cockers especially, need lots of mental stimulation as well as exercise. I just wondered if she realised right from the start that the kids wouldn't take any nonsense and maybe if they fed her and did some training with her if she would come good. What do you all think?

Alli

Personally I wouldn't home any dog that had 'nipped' children into an environment where there are children.  It is not only your own children you have to consider it is visiting friends of your children.

The breeder would be better to find the bitch a home with no children around, as nipping could easily escalate into full blown biting.

Hi there and thankyou for your input. My 9 month old Irish girl will still have a play nip at the kids if she gets too wound up and I wouldn't dream of rehoming her to a house with no kids as she adores children. I have spoken to the breeder of this bitch at length and am now trying to decide what path to take .

Hi Alli,

No offence, but from the info on your post I wouldn't advise taking on an adult dog that has "nipped" kids previously -  if her previous owners were concerned enough to return her to the breeder when she lived with them as a family pet for 2 years it sounds a high risk situation to me for her to be re-homed in another family environment.

Although you have been advised that no skin was broken how can you be sure that is genuinely the case?  I cannot envisage a situation where I could safely have such a dog around ANY children - however responsible and dog aware they are.  She is not a puppy anymore, play biting and nipping are no goes with adult dogs - they should have been trained out of her long ago!

You haven't mentioned any proof on the the severity of the dog's reactions and nor do you seem to have accurate facts about why she did react that way (ie. being teased, frightened, hurt etc).  Even if she was being GENUINELY mistreated by the children, this may only have served to make her distrustful of ALL children now.  :-(

You may know more details than you've had time to write on but I can only give an opinion on what you've said so far - so if I'm off on the wrong tangent forgive me ;-)

Had I bred this bitch and had her returned to me, regardless of how well behaved she appeared, I would definitely NOT offer her to anyone with children, even including an older couple with visiting grand children etc.  If there's one sure thing about kids it's that they have other kids as friends and of course sometimes the younger siblings of their friends will be hanging around too.  There are just too many unpredictable situations in this sort of scenario and not only your own girls behaviour but every child who has even the tiniest opportunity of meeting the dog too throws up a potential problem and the dog (from your above info) is IMO an unknown quantity :-(

Another thing, as you probably know, any dogs regardless of breed which have a separate "working strain" have different requirements of expertise to suit their temperaments and their instinctive working characteristics.  I don't pretend to know anything about working cockers' temperaments but for eg. look how often there are disasters with "farm bred" (ie working, not puppy farmed :-) ) border collies proving to be unmanageable in a "pet" home simply because they have decades of breeding behind them to bring out the traits need to work sheep, stimulate their highly active minds and run countless miles a day - but they get none of those "life essentials" in the *average* family home - certainly not to the same extent as they would with say an obedience/agility/flyball enthusiasts ownership :-(

Sorry to ramble on and on.  I just think this is not the right dog for a family environment and hope the breeder takes the decision out of your hands and finds a working type home for her instead.

HTH.  Good luck, :-)

Kind regards, Teri            

The best thing that could happen for this dog is to find a working home.  This is going to be an ongoing problem if people home a dog in an environment in which it is not bred to be in. Get the poor dog out doing the job it has been bred to do!

I was thinking that too Jacky.  Why has she never worked? 

Helen

Although we don't know the circumstances of the injuries - I'd be concerned that advocating a child to 'tell a dog off' is asking for trouble to start with...........

My advice would be to get the breeder to seek either a working home for this dog themselves or to contact Pat Rhodes of working cocker rescue and get her to look at her list and see if there is anyone looking in this area at the moment. :)

Ive got two working cockers and a working springer as well as the Sheps, These dogs really do need experienced homes.  I would be very reluctant to advise someone with kids to take on a dog of any breed that has nipped its own family children, no matter what the circumstances.  this dog will already be confused being back with the breeder, and really should be carefully placed to avoid further bouncing from home to home. 

Its the same old story, which we are seeing more and more, infact there is a little WC lad in rescue at the moment, carbon copy story, nipped in his home - hasnt been trained or stimulated properly.   And the more popular working cockers become the worse its going to get.

Hi there

Thankyou all for your input on this situation. I did have an uneasy feeling about this and thought I'd ask for some more opinions, I told the lady who has the dog that I would have to very carefully think about having her(almost 4 days I have been thinking lol). Well I phoned this morning and said I couldn't take her, as to be honest I don't know if I could fully trust the wee dog with my kids and I also don't know how well my dogs(all bitches) would take to an older bitch coming into their home. I still want to have another dog so I think I'll perhaps look into a rescue of some sort.

Thankyou all once again
Alli

I can't understand why anyone would want a working cocker and NOT work it!  If you want a cocker but don't want to train it to work then get a show type cocker - problem solved!