Hello folks, newbie here.

Me and my girlfriend have a new Cocker Spaniel Daisy, she's just about 10 weeks old now, we've had her about two. She's wonderful, really affectionate and playful and also great with strangers. She's a little bit apprehensive at first and is always sure to have a good sniff around before really diving into anything - I know 8 to 10 weeks is supposedly the first fear stage she goes through - but after a couple of minutes she's going up to them wanting to be held.

She's really clever and already seems to be extremely quick on the uptake. We've already got her fully-trained with food as she sits patiently and waits for the bowl to be put down on the floor. It's just a wonderful sight. We've also managed to toilet train her but she's only going on paper at the moment as, somewhat annoyingly, we cannot take her outside as there was a problem with her initial vaccinations, keeping her housebound for another two weeks from today.

We also are training her to be self-sufficient, leaving her in the house gradually a bit longer each day as we go out (always letting her see us go but not making a big thing about it), and also as we return acting completely as normal. She makes noises for a few seconds after the door closes and apart from a few slightly-bitten walls and chairs when we come back seems to be absolutely fine - often going potty on the paper as she normally would and even sleeping (her bed is often warm when we come back in).

The only concern we have at the moment is the amount she is biting at things. She has about 10 toys which she loves to bite on, but it seems that when she gets excited or in a certain mood she tries to bite anything that moves in front of her, including our feet.

We think it could be that her teeth are giving her trouble as they are coming in, and other people have assured me that this is an initial problem with just about all puppies that they eventually grow out of. However we're also thinking that the problem could be a slight behavioural one brought about by the fact that she's been going stir crazy and not getting the exercise she needs from walking. We've tried telling her off for it and tried finishing the game when she tries to go for one of our hands but nothing seems to work. Something tells me we're being a bit harsh as she's still extremely young, and maybe we should just sail through the storm and try to distract her with another toy every time she tries to bite something she shouldn't.

Any help would be massively appreciated,
cheers!

Hi Alan,
welcome,
I have a 13 week old Golden Cocker bitch called Lady, She is an absolute joy and so far i've not had any problems with her concerning biting, however, my older dog Poppy who is half cocker half springer was a total nightmare with biting anything that moved, feet, hands, tassles, shoelaces, trouser legs, you name it, she did grow out of it and we didn't tolerate it but it was very frustrating, I bought in bulk the rawhide shoes and everytime she tried to bite something undesireable I made a deep 'aahh' noise and put a rawhide shoe in her mouth and then praised her, she soon got the hang of it, unfortunately that wasn't the case for feet, she continued to attack our feet until she was about 5 months old, I think she just thought it was a great game! She still loves feet (she's 11 months) but she'll just give them a lick or a smell!
I'm sorry I can't really be of use here as You seem to be doing all the right things already, have you tried crating the pup? it can stop a lot of anxiety issues and will amost certainly cease any chewing of tables and things when left alone. both ours were crated and it works wonders, they love their little safe haven and retreat to it when they want and when we leave them alone we know they're safe and happy (as is our new kitchen)!!!

Hope that's of some use, please post some pics of the pup, I'm a sucker for a cocker, what colouring is it???

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Love Hannah, Poppy & Lady xx

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Hi I think this is normal puppy behaviour. Our Cocker Spaniel is now 6 months and we got her at 9 1/2 weeks and although she has been very good from the begining she sometimes would try to see how far she could go. Any unwanted behaviour we used the pet corrector (bought from Pets at home). Its a pressurised canister that releases a short burst of air when pressed. It works wonders and usually stops the unwanted behaiviour straight away.

If Mia is playing with us and sometimes bites (playfully) we usually let out a loud and high pitch "ouch" and that also does the trick.

Are you letting her out in the garden?

Mia had her 2nd injection 1 or 2 weeks after we got her and then took her for her first walk 7 days later but we always gave her enough exersise in the garden and mental activity.

As long as she isnt in contact with any other dogs before she has her jabs playing in the garden is ok. Maybe she just needs that mental stimulation to keep her mind active?

Let us know how you guys get on..........and welcome to the forum (post some pics)

Chezza

Hi there is no reason that pup cant go out in your garden,im surprised your vet didnt tell you that.paper training at this stage is not a good idea it can be very hard to get them out of it.As long as he has no contact with unvaccinated dogs she will be fine,biting and chewing is normal,she`s probably teething,get her some chewys.And make it clear that biting you is not acceptable,by saying no firmly.

She doesn't need a lot of exercise yet, she's still too little for too many walks.

She's teething, her gums are probably driving her crazy. Discourage her from getting to used to chewing on you, always give her something else to chew instead if she starts .
Distracting her will help her forget the habit. Make sure you have plenty of chew toys, ragga type toys .

I have a cocker too, and they do grow out of it if you are consistent, but teething can take a little while.

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Yeah Daisy has this exact problem, just today I couldn't get any peace as I tried to put my slightly baggy, raggy jeans on because she was snapping playfully at all the raggy bits. Shoelaces as well, my God it gets irritating. I just do exactly what you did, make a sudden unpleasant noise every time she does it until she stops and then praise her. She usually licks after she's bitten probably because she thinks she's hurt me! At this point I give her her bone or ragga toy and praise her for biting that.

It's working but sometimes she has to be reminded and given a stern word because she's either forgotten or just got too damn excited.

Ha ha, will do once I figure out how to plug in this sodding digital camera! I'll get my lass to help, and the pics will be up soon.

EDIT: She's golden by the way, beautiful colour, beautiful coat she looks brilliant.

Thanks for the advice Chezza, we will certainly think about the pet corrector but only as a last resort if Daisy doesn't cease and desist using our arms as chew toys. I believe more in rewarding and encouraging good behaviour than punishing bad behaviour, even though I could strangle her at times!

The vet did tell us that, but the problem is we're living in a city apartment in Spain at the moment (we got her here) and we're not moving back into the countryside until next July. Fortunately the apartment is quite long so we can still play good games of fetch. There's plenty of grassy areas surrounding and a walk along the river that's very scenic and wonderful for dogs, not to mention miles and miles of open countryside 20 mins walk away from us, but the problem is we don't have a garden that we can potty train her in.

We asked the vet if we could take her out to use the toilet in a grassy area near us but she said it's best not to risk it until she has finished her course of vaccinations so basically we shouldn't take her out at all because unvaccinated stray dogs could have been anywhere round here. The trouble here you see is that almost EVERYBODY has dogs here and some probably don't adhere to their responsibilities as much as others.

Having said that we have let her down on the ground once or twice for a quick stroll alongside us and we've been taking her outfor fresh air once a day.

Kill me now.

Seriously, crate training does seem a great idea and we've been thinking about it for a week now. It'll be great to get her crate trained because we're transporting her back to England next July and we want her to be as comfortable as possible spending an extended amount of time in an enclosed area.

We do understand that it isn't an ideal situation and it's going to take a little while and a lot of effort to get her to go potty outside but we're ready for it and it'll be worth it in the end.

We'll just have to weather the biting storm as well! The joys of owning a puppy!

Thanks for all your help people, I'll keep you informed of Daisy's progress.

LOL!

I feel your pain. My pup was a chewing nightmare. She's always had loads of chews, filled kongs/filled bones etc. Loads of mental exercise. Loads of (age appropriate) physical exercise. She's not left alone much as I'm in all day, apart from school run/Tesco type outings and yet we have huge holes in our dining room wall (it's now the dog room but you still don't want it to look like a WW2 bunker, do you?). We never thought she'd ever grow out of it. She did, but it did take a while. She's a year old now and never (touch wood) chews anything except her chewies - although we never leave anything around that we don't want chewed, just in case.

Crates help enormously. If we go out now I still leave hollow bones for her, filled with wet food and frozen, which A) Takes them longer and B) Is nice for sore gums when they're teething.

It will pass. It just doesn't feel like it will