Cocker Spaniel Puppy Questions

[Jakesmom]

I have an English Cocker Spaniel, somewhat different from American Cockers but also similar. She is now 2 years old. She was "crated" (in our bathroom, she never liked her crate) for about the amount of time you are doing, and seemed to do fine with it. She was always happy when I came home, and she still chooses to sleep in the bathroom if she is not on our bed. She was definately more difficult to housetrain than my Golden Retriever, and in fact was not reliable until about 10 months old (I thought she was trained at 6 months, but had a couple "accidents"). She is now excellent, and will let us know when she needs to go out.

Good luck!

Jake's mom

[wolf_Q]

Congrats on the new puppy! I bet she is cute, do you have any pictures of her?

Peeing when excited/submissive is very common in cockers. We get a lot of cocker spaniels in our grooming salon and most of them do this, so she may not outgrow it.

[wolfsoul]

Cockers very very commonly urinate or defecate when scared or excited -- alot of them grow out of it, alot of them don't. You may want to buy a little doggy diaper for her to wear. You can find them at most pet shops.

[ylrebmik]

I got my puppy last week and she has the submissive elimination problem too. A tip to help that we are working on is when you get home... ignore the puppy for like 5 minutes and do what you need to do so the excitment dies down. Then go to your puppy and gradually greet her.

We crate the dog as well. We went to State Fair (a fair around here) last week and remarkabely held her bladder for almost 6 hours. A little puppy- (like 8-10 weeks) usually hold their bladder about every hour and then 2-4 hours while sleeping. I've heard a controversary but thats the majority.

If you are thinking of using the crate system as she is older, i would definitely start now. Put her in her crate for ten minutes and come back. Gradually every day increase the time. You can go into another room, leave the house, anything. While you are away- especially if you are gone a while- put safe toys in her crate. We have been using a nylabone and a kong. A kong is an amazing invention and i think every dog should have one. If you don't have one i suggest you get one for the puppy.

My best friend has a cocker spaniel and their dog is very very onto a "schedule". When she was a puppy, they took her out every night at midnight.. she is so used to it she still does that and she is almost 8 years. Schedules are very good especially feeding and such but if you want to try and get her through the night... add a little bit each night so she learns to grow with the time and not get set on midnight.

Good luck

[MRichardson50]

Thanks to everyone who responded to my concerns. Sasha is doing very well. She loves her crate and is ready for bed at 10:00. She sleeps until 5:00 or 6:00. As far as her submissive urination, we do ignore her for the first five minutes when arriving home to let her settle down. This has been working 95% of the time. We also don't let visitors pet her until she settles down, this seems to work as well. We took her to Pet Smart today and didn't have one piddle. My husband said we'll have to put a sign on her that says "don't pet, puppy in training." He's just kidding.

We are trying to expose her to different elements. We take her to the park 3-4 times a week and walk her daily. Her brother lives on the street behind us and they get some play time.

Other than the submissive urination problem we have, she is a great dog. We have enrolled her an 8 week puppy class next beginning next week.

I haven't looked at any area pet stores yet, but does anyone know where I can get a deep water bowl so her ears aren't wet after getting a drink?

Thanks again!!

I will post pictures soon.

[ylrebmik]

Your welcome.

That's Lizzy's schedule too! (10-5:30) I hate that submissive eliminattion thing. Everyone was telling me not to take her to petco or classes until she is fully vaccinated. - they even told me not to take for for walks (shh! lol) because of parvo, which is what someone's puppy got and almost died. but hopefully next month i'm going to start her on classes.

Thats great that she is doing so good! I would love to see pictures of her. and taking her to different "elements"... thats exactly what you should be doing with her age. good job

post pics sooon!

[Nathalie's Dad]

We had our two cockers pass this year about 45 days apart. Jackie was 11 and Jessica was 13. Jackie was always good about potty training (3 days!) and didn't "greet & pee". Jessica took a couple of weeks to potty train and peed when greeting for about her first 8 years.

Part of the joy of a cocker!