the Zim Family:
American Cocker Spaniel
breeder located in
San Luis Obispo county, California

Online Forum For Cocker Lovers

Our online forum lets Cocker lovers all around the world share information and photos!  Have a question or a comment that you'd like to direct to other Cocker owners?  Have a story about your dog, or a picture that you would like to share with the world?  Want to see how our puppies are doing at their new homes?  Want to hear from other people who are as fanatical about Cocker Spaniels as you are?  Our Cocker forum is the place to do all that, and more.  We have over 2500 registered forum members, and we recently updated the forum software and moved to a new server...  so it's now working better than ever!

Cocker Puppies!!! 

Find out about our most recent litter of puppies, as well as our breeding plans for 2008.  We'll also explain how we choose homes for our pups and what type of people we like to place our puppies with.  Here's a clue:  it has nothing to do with who can call us on the telephone first!  If you're thinking that you're interested in adding one of our puppies to your family, this is one section of the web site you should read thoroughly!

How To Groom A Cocker Spaniel

This is something that will be useful to just about anyone that owns a Cocker Spaniel:  an instructional (and entertaining!) DVD which shows you how to do your own Cocker grooming.  Stop paying a professional groomer to do what you can do yourself!  Find out about what equipment you have to have to get the job done, and get a preview of exactly what's on the DVD.  It's our biggest video production ever, and there's a lot of fun and personality in it...  we hope you enjoy it! 

The Latest News And Features

Get all the latest news about what's been going on with our dogs recently...  including the sad news about who we've had to retire from breeding.  Oh a happier note...  2007 was a big year, with 18 new Zim pups, and three very fun Pupapalooza social events.  Find out about a couple of our pups that came back for a few days, and see the pictures I snapped of them.  Also...  have a look at the happy new owners of Joanna's puppies...  and find out which one of our pups does the best Reese impersonation.

Pupapalooza! 

See pictures from our May 2008 Pupapalooza, where Cocker lovers from all over California met for a weekend-long party here in San Luis Obispo county.  While Pupapalooza began years ago as a reunion of the puppies from our previous litters, it has definitely evolved in to a gigantic social event for Cocker lovers from all over the state of California!

Meet Our Dogs 

Get the full story on all five of the Zim dogs...  including Pipa, the a beautiful girl with a solid gold pedigree!  You'll find lots of adorable pictures of our Cockers, including some large versions suitable for use as your computer desktop background.  You can even vote for your favorite dog in our web poll.

General Information About The Breed

If you've never owned a Cocker before, but you'd like to find out more about the breed...  this is the page for you.  I've put together some basic information about both the good and bad aspects of the breed...  plus, there's photos that show just about all of the various coat colors that Cockers come in.

How To Prevent And Treat Ear Infections

Almost every Cocker Spaniel will have problems with ear infections during his lifetime...  some so severe that they could require surgery.  Many Cocker owners have spent big bucks at the vet treating ear infections, only to have the infections return over and over again.  We'll share the not-so-secret-recipe for an ear cleaning solution that will completely solve this problem for most dogs.

Pictures of some of our previous litters of puppies 

Hundreds of adorable pictures of our pups from the last few years, with commentary from the photographer.  Sit back and be entertained by some great photos of cute Cocker Spaniel puppies!

Cocker Spaniel Rescue

If you're looking for a Cocker to add to your family, and you don't want to put up with potty training and all the chewing that goes along with raising a puppy...  you might want to consider rescuing an adult.  Our rescue section will show you how to locate Cockers in shelters near you, and we'll share some success stories of Cockers we've had a hand in placing in forever homes.

Free Cocker Pictures For Your Computer Desktop

Here's a collection of some of the best photos I've ever taken with my various digital cameras.  I've sized them so that they'll be perfect as your Windows desktop background...  and I've included instructions on how to turn them in to a screensaver slideshow, too.  They're free for your personal, non-commercial use...  but if you want to use these pictures for anything other than your desktop background, you need to get my permission first, OK?

All About Us

We breed Cockers with one goal in mind:  to make great family pets.  We don't breed dogs for the show ring.  Read about our breeding philosophy to find out what makes us so different from your average Cocker breeder, learn about our history with Cocker Spaniels, meet some of the champion Cocker Spaniels in our pedigrees, meet the humans in our family, or read what we've been up to lately here at the Zim house.

Tips About Cocker Spaniels

Looking for a Cocker breeder near you?  Trying to potty train your new puppy?  Need advice?  Check out our tips on buying a Cocker puppy, our tips on raising a Cocker puppy, our potty-training tips, our tips on delivering a litter of puppies, information about how to prevent ear infections, and our list of the top ten signs that your Cocker is addicted to tennis balls.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are answers to some of the questions I seem to get over and over in my inbox!  Save yourself some time and read this first before you email me.

Products Recommended for Cocker Spaniel Owners

There are several products such as flea treatments, grooming tools, and chew toys that will make the life of a Cocker owner a whole lot easier.  Learn from our experiences over the last 30+ years and try some of the products we wouldn't want to live without!  You can also order one of Mrs. Zim's hand-made personalized dog blankets, embroidered with the name of your own dog.

Homemade Dog Biscuits

Here's an easy recipe for homemade dog biscuits that will leave your Cocker begging for more!  We pass along the complete directions to making our dogs' favorite treats so that you never have to get store-bought biscuits again.

Cocker Spaniel Videos

This may actually be the most fun part of the entire web site!  Over the years, I've shot a lot of video of our dogs and our puppies playing and having fun...  and made a lot of slideshows of my still pictures.  Browse through my collection, and enjoy!

Another way you can help us cover our costs is to make a direct donation via the link on the right.  We'd like to thank the many people that have made Amazon.com purchases as well as direct donations.  In 2007 it paid for all of our web hosting costs, as well as the purchase of some software that has made creating these pages a lot easier!  In 2008 it is paying the increased costs of moving our site to an improved type of server that will vastly improve the technical performance of our Cocker forum.