I have a allmost 10 month old  PURE BREED cocker spanile. She has a proble with other people and dogs! She becomes very inraged when my friends come over or when my own family trys to come near her or just around me! She allso has a hard time with other dogs she will go after them bitting at them and just beging mean!she dose the same thing to people!We dont know if maybe it because she a pure breed or what!If anyone now anything to help me with me lil sugar and her bad attitude then please e-mail me at ( lawlas04@yahoo.com)! We love her to death and would like in input on her !I really need help with her because Iam running out of ideas! Hopefully someone out there has had one like her and can help!We owned dog our hole life and this is the first one who acts crazy!Well except me she loves me and liestin to me!Well Please help me if u can!
                                                                        Lisa Ann

Guest,Have you ever heard of cocker rage ?If not, perhaps do a google and see if the symptoms are similar to your girls.

What colour is she? Solid reds seems to have the worse reputations :(

Was she properly socialised as a pup,has this behaviour come on all of a sudden?

It would be helpful if you could register as there are so many questions that you need to answer in order for us to help you more :)

Hi Lisa Ann,

Sorry to hear of your problems - as Rose suggests, why not register to join the forum?  There could be so many issues which are causing this bevahiour with your puppy and it would be helpful for you especially if other members could ask you questions that you were able to give detailed answers to - which as a *Guest only* you unfortunately can't ;)

Fortunately "rage syndrom" in Cockers is very rare so personally I think with more information available about all the circumstances it's likely that training solutions will overcome your pup's issues but we can't get any further than tossing ideas in the air until we hear more from you :(

Hope to see you on board soon,
Regards Teri :) 

Cockers are normally sweeties, BUT they are working dogs, and very clever, and give one an inch, and they soon learn they can take a mile.........  However, with correct, positive methods, most Cockers do make excellent pets, so I think you really need advise from a GOOD hands on behaviourist.  Your vet should be the best person to ask, he may even refer you, in which case you could charge it to your pet insurance if you have it.  I grew up with a wonderful Cocker, then in adult life came across a Cocker who'd been treated like some kind of 'babe pulling magnet' and was totally spoilt - she learnt that if push came to shove, she could have people jumping through hoops with her behaviour, but it didn't take her long to learn if she wanted affection she only had to be nice.

My ex hates cockers :( One bit him hard when he was a kid and he's been scared of em ever since :p :D  I think their gorgous dogs BUT i dont know much about their personalities and when i've heard of cocker rage it was usually associated with a red??

I have always heard that it is the solid colours that are bad tempered but speaking from a dog groomers point of view I think the blue roan are by far the worse.  In fact I would say i have to muzzle 90% of them as they wouldnt hesitate to have me.  In fact I am convinced there is someone round here churning them out as they all are very much of a kind.

My sister had two of the red coloured ones and they were both lovely although they hated each other.

:) I have never come across any evidence (based on my own experience or otherwise) that would support the view that solids or blue roans are bad tempered!  In fact, my main trouble is stopping mine being overly friendly!  Guest, I think it would be inappropriate to jump to any conclusions based on what has been discussed on this thread as regards deciding your dog is suffering from Rage Syndrome, whatever colour she is!  Rage Syndrome is very rare and is not just restricted to cockers- breeds varying from Springers to St Bernards can suffer.  It is far more likely that your dogs behaviour can be explained by simple things such as illness (have you had her checked out by the vet to eliminate any medical explanation for her behaviour?), training, or simply down to poor genetics and breeding.  If you want to know more about Rage Sydrome, you might wish to look here.  However, I think the first to do would have her checked over by the vet and seek their opinion and also consider enlisting the help of a trainer or behaviourist.  Good luck and perhaps you might wish to register with us to let us know how you get on? 

Good luck with everything. :)

I have a red cocker spaniel girl and she is three years old.  She is the nicest, sweetest tempered, friendly dog I have ever known and does not have a nasty bone in her body.  She loves all people, all dogs, and will run up to any dog and always looks hurt if they don't like her! She seems to prefer men to women if given the choice (but I think that is just bad taste!), but really loves everyone.  I think they are wonderful, intelligent charming dogs.  Does anyone know if chocolate or chocolate/tan is a rare colour in cockers?

Just because its pure bred dosent mean its bred well I always find alot of these dogs come from puppy farms now a days  ;) , you will find badly bred animals with have bad tempraments ,this goes for all breeds ,  Rage is very very rare and applies to many other breeds too not just the cocker , and from what your exsplaining it sounds nothing like it ,
Ive had a cocker with rage she was unfortnuatly not bred well and came with many health problems too, ther difference with rage is  its not an on going behavour problem its like they snap into this rage then snap out all over in a few mins , but they can do alot of damage its like the dog looks like its in its own little world  ,ive not met another person with a rage cocker , ive owned  others with no problem at all including red.

If you read the rage website it will show you pictures of dogs there are solid dogs and i have read about roans too . I think all dog owners would do well reading this site and read the breeds that do get it , im sure alot of these owners dont put it down to rage just bad behavour which wont help the situation  if they breed from those animals .
like spaniel lover says id get her checked out i have herd people blame there cocker of having rage and they find that theres an injury .Then see if you can find a trainer or behavourist the rage website May help you find a good one , someone whos used to dealing with the breed.
Liver and tan isent too common :) hope this helps

Hiya,

I can only give an opinion of Working Cockers but Chocolate/liver or Liver and tan is not particularly rare.  The liver and tan is probably not found as often, most of the cockers of that colouring that I've seen have been liver/tan and white (tricolour).
The problem with cockers is that the coat genetics don't really run true, you can get lots of different colours even if you breed two of the same colour together, although I would think that two blacks probably are more likely to produce mostly black pups (don't quote me on that!). The roan gene is the one that seems to be less common.

Ali :)

Coat colour genetics in Cockers (whether Working type or not) do run true - you just need to know what colour genes the parents carry to be able to predict what puppies they might produce & sometimes you do get surprises where recessive colour genes have been "hidden" for several generations. You do get more varied colours in Working Cockers because solids & partis are not separated for breeding but they still follow the normal rules for coat colour inheritance as the show type Cocker ;-)

Jane,

I'm such a div!  You're right about coat colours, sometimes I wonder where my head is! I meant to say that you need to look at the colours of the grandparents and g-grandparents, not just the parents of the litter, in case you get some surprises!

I'll go now- Ali :)

Guest, are you in the States? If so, I'm assuming you are talking about an American Cocker Spaniel not an English Cocker. I would suggest you get in touch with a reputable trainer or behaviourist who can help you work out why your puppy is behaving like this & recommend a course of action - advising on problems with aggressive behaviour via the internet is extremely difficult so it's always best to get some professional advice from someone who can observe your dog & advise accordingly. Many have mentioned Cocker Rage to you in this thread but this is not common in American Cockers (or English Cockers come to that) and there are many other reasons your dog could be behaving like she is.

Jane