We got our new "rescue" Lucy two weeks ago today, and she's a dream - totally placid, obedient, friendly and laid-back. She looks a bit intimidating, but she behaves like a more mature dog than her 3 years and will do lots of commands which her foster carer taught her.
@apatchy We have always been a Springer house. Our current ones are youngsters. Two under two. Dog is 2 in Aug. Bitch just turned 1 in March. Imagine the fun!!
My Jack Russell/Shitzu. Very faithful and easy to train but can be very grumpy in company a bit like myself.
Be careful what you wish for. If Early Man had been able to lick his own balls, how much evolving and civilising do you reckon he would have got done? There’d have been no Stone Age (so no tools), no Industrial Revolution (so no motorbikes) and no IT revolution (so no Ducati Forum).
First proof of alien life found on DFUK? View attachment 203400 View attachment 203400 View attachment 203400
As I posted before, sadly Meg's little boy didn't make it. Her little girl (Grace) however is now going from strength to strength (she's 3 weeks old now). It's been a scary ride, we nearly lost her too. So anyway, I've been hand feeding her 24/7, although she's now moving to solid food. ....and wearing quite a bit of it
Happiest dog in the world. We were throwing our old mattress away and left it in the next room but didn’t realise that we’d made all Iggy’s dreams come true as it’s been his ambition to be allowed on the bed ever since we got him. After 20 minutes running around in circles while pissing with excitement and savaging it to get at the fluff he fell asleep like this. I really wish I was a dog sometimes. The savaging obviously loosened one of his baby teeth as we found this near it later on.
Meet Tyrone he was the family pet and a serious looking guard dog. Unfortunately no longer with us couldn’t replace him with another
They’re beautiful. Who is who? I’ve noticed two distinct “looks” within the working cocker type and you seem to have one of each. The darker dog has a slightly rounder, flatter face and looks to have curly fur, while the lighter one has a slimmer longer face and short and straightish fur. Our Iggy is the same type as the lighter dog and he also has a “rangier” build than most cockers I’ve seen, as he’s kind of long bodied and long legged but I don’t know if that will change as he gets older.
We're on our fifth - when they go it's heart-breaking, but if you can give a rescue dog a good home, you're repaying the breed for the happiness your dog gave you.
Thanks. Kenny is the older and darker one and hes a classic working cocker I would say (although I don’t work him). He was a dream as a first dog, never had a spot of bother with him in anyway shape or form. Normas supposed to be a WCS too but I think she has a little bit of cav in her although I haven’t had her DNA tested to be sure. Shes so much smaller and almost like a cat when it comes to being stroked, proper little madam she is. She is 2 in August but most people think shes a pup. TBH I never knew there were two types of cocker when I went to get Kenny but im glad I ended up with a worker (no offence to anyone with show cockers ofc).
View attachment 204975 That’s Iggy with my girlf and her pushbike for scale He’s 6 months old and as you can see, he’s kind of long legged and lean. I know he’s still a pup but his mother was a similar build so I doubt he will change too much. He also has hazel eyes. We have the benefit of 5 generation pedigree certificates for for both his parents and he’s from proper working stock with numerous field trial champions but you never really know what else is there in the mix. Only a few years ago there was some scandal over one of the Queen’s field trial champion cockers turning out to be a sprocker (half springer/half cocker), which apparently gives the best of both breeds - the “go all day” engine of the cocker combined with the greater speed and power of the springer.
While having a quick google for info on sprockers, by pure chance just found this paragraph on a website which is describing the two “lines” within the working type cocker. “Cocker boys can be split in both size and personality. Starting with the solid ones, the Mallowdale pedigree line of Cockers (for example out of quite a few) are robust dogs with a bold head and a sturdy body. Don’t be fooled by this though, they are extremely agile and as fast as they smaller contemporary’s. Happy twinkling eyes, clever and handsome with it. This line of Cockers is quick to learn and need to be taught whether they are destined to be family pets or working dogs. The smaller of the Cocker males are extremely athletic looking. Lean, muscular, longer legged and deeper in the chest. You often don’t own one of these you simply wear one, since their main principle in life is to love you as much as feasibly possible and this often means attempting to morph their sinewy body into yours. They need praise as opposed to food, often not being particularly interested in eating which keeps this handsome body slight and this carries through into their offspring. More chatty than the bigger Cockers in a good mood but if feeling left out can make a howl sound like someone is torturing him so doesn’t always take kindly to being left alone. They need a lot of mental stimulation otherwise they learn interesting tricks like opening the fridge” That second paragraph is basically a 100% accurate description of Iggy, including his personality. It’s funny the author talks about them “trying to morph their body into yours” and “you don’t own one but wear them”, as that is spot on, and IIRC on the last page before this one I posted some pics of him literally sitting on my head and shoulders. He’s also not that greedy really and we have to make him eat or he gets skinny, particularly as he’s on the go all the time. He’s also a lot more vocal than any other cocker I’ve encountered and he doesn’t mind letting his feelings be known if he is left on his own for more than a few mins by howling and barking. He can’t open the fridge yet, but he can open doors with pull down handles and we’ve found him out of his crate a few times when we’re sure we closed the latch properly.
