The Zim Family Cocker Spaniel Forum

This is my first dog and I had my cocker, Donny since he was 8 wks and is now 5 months. He is very friendly and very jumpy and whenever we take him out for a walk he would focus all of his attention on a passerby or jump excitedly and uncontrolably pull on the leash. The main concern is that if I take him off the leash to play ball and he sees someone on the other side of the street, he would dart across the street and would ignore my commands to come back. I would like to know if this phase of "stupidity" (: will pass through time and when and also he has trouble darting outside the door whenever I open it. Oh, and whenever we walk it's not a walk but more like him running and me trying to slow him down. If I do make him sit and give him the ok I walk he dashes and I have to start all over again.

It's a lot of questions and a giant paragraph I know but I need a lot of help

When I got Feather, my first cocker, her breeder told me "never, ever, trust a cocker off-leash. They'll see another dog or a kid and decide to go visit- even if there's a busy street in between."

Then, in the first 6 months I had her, I swear at least once a day someone would tell me a story, along the lines of "we had a cocker... got hit by a car..."

I know there are people on this forum who have cockers trained well enough to trust off-leash. Mine are allowed off-leash ONLY in a fully enclosed area.

Bottom line, I think the need to socialize and no fear are basically breed characteristics, and "better safe than sorry" is my motto.

I'd recommend a harness for walking, and a class for leash training.

My Aussi walks with a haltie at almost 3 yrs old he walks great with a haltie on but if you try and walk him without he just pulls you down the street you'd think he'd realize by now if you don't pull you don't have to wear the nose harness but nope He is never off leash unless he is enclosed in the backyard at home or at the cottage. He's a good boy but I don't trust him 100% as he loves people and I would hate for something to happen to him, he's had a few close calls.

Have you taken him to an obedience class?

Oh and yes he has been to obedience training but we haven't really touched on leash training

Two out of the three cocker have been off leash at the school yard as it is completely fenced in with a weedy grass play yard with a track. He's has a leash on all the time but not me holding it. This at the age of three years. He loves the kids and will buzz them but he has gotten over meeting other dogs and stays close to my side and leash free now.

All I can say we are lucky to be real close to that school so it can tire him out. Won't retrieve a ball but as a puppy he was the first out of the litter to retrieve, sometimes three to four times in the house only.

You need to know the dog and he needs to know the master. TRAIN! Carry treats.

Something to look at is eye contact with the other person, that's all it takes to melt my Oliver. He knows the names of the people on our three mile walks. Like there's the doctor, look it's Sue and so on, but Bob is his biggest fan. He told me he would pay me to dog sit him anytime. It's really nice to own a ambassador of the breed. The trouble is Oliver would go with anyone I think. I did let a person hold his leash as I want to inspect some beaver damage to a tree and he wasn't happy about it. A dog need to to best friends and have lots of your time and play together. It's about a fifteen year investment. He is part of the family.

Haha oh guys, it gives me such great joy to read these comments, with so many of you saying, "Um, no. We don't trust our dog off leash." I have spent SO much time teaching my recall to my little one, and he just has a mind of his own. Maybe 70% of the time he listens...the other 30%, there is a squirrel/leaf/human/rabbit/moth/piece of paper....basically, you name it...that is more exciting than a juicy morsel of chicken. We work on it regularly, but I just don't trust him... =P I'm glad to know I'm not alone

Lucy has been my first dog to not take off when off leash. She stays close and always follows, if she sees something in the distance she just looks, however if its close enough it would be fair game, however she is obsessed with whistling, it will get her attention everytime, stop dead in her tracks and look at me with her ears perked and she returns. I dont trust however for her to be off leash near roads, her curiousity towards cars worries me, but if we are at a park, or something like that I let her go. We dont have dog parks here, so if it wasn't for some quiet parks, she would never be able to have a full fledged run.

I would strongly suggest proper training walks with any puppy, especially with one though that doesn't listen when outside.

A training walk consists of this: 1/4 of training, 1/4 of training, 1/4 of doing doggie things and 1/4 of relaxing.

1/4 training: this can include heel walking, sit, down, stays etc. But also tracking, searching for food or toys etc. Do this in little spurts of perhaps a couple of minutes at the time... it doesn't have to be in one block.

1/4 playing: play ball, tug of war, chase games, running etc. It's interacting with you and I normally do it just after a little training session. Again, it doesn't have to be in one block, but little bits here and there during the walk.

1/4 doggie things: let your pup play with other dogs, sniffing... doing what dogs do.

1/4 relaxing: this is the only thing I would do in one block. Just sit down on a bench or in the grass, keep puppy on a short lead and relax watching the world go by. You can also practice this in a cafe for example with outside seating. Puppies need to learn to switch off when they are outside too, the only way they are going to learn if you practice it.

Doing training walks means that at least half of the time, your puppy is interacting with YOU and not with the environment and the puppy also learns that you are fun to be with and will learn to hang around and keep an eye on you just in case another training/playing session is coming up.

As for jumping up on people: see my post to the other thread re this problem using treats to teach your puppy to focus on you when people walk past not on them.

(All of my dogs -4 of them - are off lead in appropriate safe areas, that is every single day in the local parks. They hang around me, they watch what I am doing, if I change direction they will automatically change with me etc.).

My dogs are off lead every day (cockers and salukis!), however, only in secure areas away from roads! I would NEVER have any dog off lead near roads regardless of how well behaved and trained they are - things happen and my dogs' lives are too precious for that. But in a park or out in the country away from roads, my dogs are absolutely fine. (And I too use harnesses for my dogs!)

Ditto, I would never have mine offlead where they could run into danger. But equally, I train and expect all of mine to have a reasonably reliable recall. That's not to say it won't take several shouts if they are deep into sniffing something gross, or rolling, or playing with another dog, but they WILL come back after 2 or 3 calls!