The Zim Family Cocker Spaniel Forum

Welcome Ginny,ViVi, and Sky,,,,First let me say,,,THANK YOU for taking in Sky,,,bless you,,,,Both of your babies are beautiful. I am so glad that you have joined the forum, I remember sky well . Well I am Susan from NC,,and I have 3 furbabies,,2 ACS Sam, and Chase and 1 GSD named GT. And all of us welcome you to this great forum.

Hello all - I wanted to join this forum because such a thing wasn't really around or at least I didn't know about it when I had my last two cockers. Well, unexpectedly, we got a 6 month old tri-color from a rescue organization and he's GORGEOUS! I'm so luck to have found him but I also had a question. His name is Boston and he DOES not bark?

I've had two buff cockers in my life and my most recent one passed in May 2010 at almost 17 years old. Anyway, they didn't bark excessively but they did bark. This little guy has done no more than a little bit of crying when he's excited to get out of his crate or the few times he may have gotten his paw stepped on and such.

Anyway, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that I also have two old guys but not cockers. Also adopted, well, they found us as they were dumped on a beach and we happened upon them while on vacation in 2000. A Gordon Setter/Golden mix and they are now 11 and slowing down tremendously.

But, we love them just the same - thanks for any info about the barking. I just had Boston neutered on Friday and the vet ask if he was debarked but said that he would most likely still make a barking motion but no sound would come out if he was. That does not seem to be the case here. And, FYI, I've never had a cocker this young, I got one when he was 3 and the other when she was 1. Thanks, Linda

Hi Linda, welcome to the forum and congratulations in your new baby. About your question regarding barking let me tell you about my Holly. she turned 12 years old last week. I got her at 9 weeks old and shedid not barked until she was almost 1 1/2 years. She will whine some and growl some but not bark. She still is not a dog that whines if pain or make purposeful noises unless she is hungrynor she barks a lot at all. It was so funny as my neighbor who also had a puppy but a boxer will teased me to exchange dogs as his was barking like crazy. Please dont wish for barking you might regret it. Again best wishes in your new family member and welcome to the forum.

My name is Chery and my husband is Tim and we live in Riverside, CA. We now have four cockers, Cassie, Max, Bella, and - - - little Emily Hope. She was born 6-1-11 and came from one of the females from our first litter (Martini, who our son has) and Ch. Jo-Bea's Jericho. Guess I need to change my avatar, if she will ever stay still!!!! She is such a little diva

Her favorite toys are two legs with feet, plus a pumpkin from one of their toys!! We still have two boys from the litter left and she will not let them near her treasures.

I work from home so I can spend my days (most of them) with our very special group. But because I work from home I am very busy also, so I've been having a hard time trying to keep up with all that is going on around here!!! And I apologize.

So here is our Li'l Emily hope, and the last picture is Tim and me at our son's wedding last April.

What a beautiful name and a beautiful pup,,,Welcome to the forum, I am Susan and live in NC with my husband mark and 3 furbabies,,,Sam blk,tan,,Chase sable/white parti,,and GT our GSD.

Hello Everyone!! My name is Kirsten, I feel so lucky to have stumbled along this site late tonight! I live in Spokane,WA with my Hubby and our two children. I was so happy three years ago to find my third child, Lily, the love of my life. She was born on 8/8/08 and was a beautiful black sable, with a personality that would crack anyone up! She was my velcro puppy, never letting me out of her eyesight, unless her favorite blanket was calling. She would retrieve her toys all day, bark at you when you came back home with a stuffed toy in her mouth-she was very tallented! She snuggled under our covers at night. Ran giant circles on the beach, at the park and at soccer games. She had more fun running in circles so she never ran straight. She would also "Marine crawl" around our living room and down our hall- just pulling herself around with her front legs, thinking she was sneaking up on you and you would give her love. Her tail had its own name, Stubby, and a life of its own. Just talking to her would cause it to wag and wag. She travelled with us on many vacations, never behaving badly, just happy to be with her family. She was my best friend. She died this past Monday, just 3 years old. A victim of IMHA, the cruelest disease I know of. I will love her and miss her forever. How do you find the desire to try again with a new "child"? I am still sobbing when I see her toys, or accidently talk to her as if she is still here. I am terrified that I will eventually find a new puppy only to lose one again.

" I got her at 9 weeks old and shedid not barked until she was almost 1 1/2 years. "

Thank you! That is very interesting, we had two puppies we adopted about 11 years ago and I sure can't remember if they barked as puppies. And, we "found" them (I mean literally, dumped on a beach) when they were about 8 weeks ago! My memory is so bad sometimes. So, maybe you are right, it will take a while. I'm not wishing for it just thought it was strange. Thanks.

Kristen...welcome to the forum. I'm so sorry about the loss of you precious little girl. Your post screams out how much you loved her.

Welcome you new forum friends. Emily Hope is darling.

Kristin, you're the first forum member from the inland NW. I know, because I'm originally from there and have posted asking for any members in that region. I'm sorry you lost your precious, young pup. Most all of us here on the forum have lost pets and most have been able to adopt a new fur baby. Remember to dwell on the happy memories, not the loss, for it is the life that is so important. May those happy memories help ease your sorrow.

Our last pup, Rusty, lead me to this forum after he passed. I had an overwhelming need to give his things to a cocker rescue and one thing lead to another... . Five months after he passed, we adopted our Sadie. Rusty was the cocker from hell, and Sadie is God's reward for living with Rusty for 13 1/2 years.

Some day I hope to live back up there, probably in Hayden. Until then, I make an annual trip and dream....

Thank you for the kind words, Debbie and MJ. It all happened so fast that I still feel like I am dreaming.
MJ- I love living in the Inland Northwest! All 4 seasons, clean air, lakes and rivers, just a great part of the world! I will try to get some pics of my Lily here soon, not to good at computer stuff...

Kirsten


Lily 8/8/08-10/24/11 I will love you and miss you always

My apologies - I called you by my neighbor's name. Sorry - Kirsten.

Welcome to the new forum members!! It's great to see so many cocker lovers joining this wonderful forum. Kirsten, I am so sorry about the loss of Lily. Parker, our tri colored boy struggled with IMHA last February. Thanks to all the information on this forum we got him to the vet and after many sleepless and stressful days and nights Parker came home from the vet and continues to do ok. I am so afraid to say great, terrific, wonderful because I might jinx his recovery. I am so appreciative to the educated, concerned, loving, and great people on this forum. You've come to a place full of good people with a great love of cocker spaniels (and many other living things!!).

Hi Everyone! My name is Marigold. I live in Nova Scotia Canada with my husband and our 2 furkids - Zuzu and Zoe. I adopted Zuzu 12 years ago. She's a keeshound collie mix and was surrendered by her first owners when she was 2yrs. Lucky for me 'cause she's been my constant companion ever since. This past spring we decided to add to our dog family and adopted Zoe. She was given up by her first owner at 12 weeks - after 4 weeks the lady got her! Zoe is such a happy girl. She's crazy for balls and loves to play catch. She loves bones and her favorite thing to do in the evening (after gong for a walk and playing fetch of course) is curling up on my lap with her bone for a good chew. I'm so excited to have found this site. So much info and great pictures too.

Hi my name is Julie and I am English but have lived in Illinois for almost nine years.

Our beautiful babygirl Kasey shown in my profile pic died of congestive heart failure a few weeks ago, just three weeks after diagnosis and under treatment. She was just ten years old. We adopted Kasey from the County shelter me and my husband were volunteering at when she was seven years old. We saw this bundle of matted fur who sat and lowered her head for the leash, gave us enthusiastic kisses and just captured our hearts. We had to take her to the vet to be put under so that they could shave her, she was too bad to be groomed.

We were Kasey's fourth home. Her first home gave her away at the age of two, that person had her for four years and then turned her into the shelter because he could not afford to keep her anymore. A lady adopted her but almost a year later she was found wandering the streets, we think she was abandoned because she never left our sides. The police picked her up and when they called the owner she said she didn't want her back and just left her there.

Kasey had several issues. Chronic seperation anxiety, she would shriek and howl if she got left in the yard and couldn't see us or if we left the house. She had severe grooming issues, she tried to bite our mobile groomer who came to the house five times the first time but over the years every other month Michelle and us persisted until Kasey did really very well. Kasey slept with us every night and was always on the couch with us. When she first went to the dog park she clung to me the entire first season and refused to get down... she was tiny.. just 16lbs. Three years later she would run in the park and had even made a few small friends. Our two big dogs who weigh 114lbs rottweiler/GS/Lab watched over her.. we called them her security detail.

We made a bike trailer for her when it seemed difficult for her to keep up as she would run alongside. At night we always had 'Kasey time' before we went to sleep where she would wiggle between us and shower us with kisses and get a belly rub laying on her back against my legs. We adored her.

Then came the morning she just had a difficult night and I found her laid on the kitchen floor where she had said goodbye to Daddy and she was gone. We were utterly devastated.

We miss her dreadfully every day. But in her honor and memory we applied to Shorewood Cocker Rescue and we are now a foster home. Someday a cocker will come into our life that we can love again almost as we did her.

I am really glad to be here, I wish I had thought about it before. Oh.. and I am also Director of Great Lakes Bengal Rescue and have so far fostered 24 Bengal cats in the last two years.

Pleased to meet you. Julie

Welcome Julie - I am so sorry to hear about your baby. It is so hard to lose them. We live in Minnesota (but winter in Florida which is where we are not). We have two cockers - Odie and Tango. They are both rescue boys from Shorewood. (Odie was Prince 042 and Tango 081) We love them dearly. I still keep an eye on the Shorewood site (not that we are getting another one). Do you have a foster now? This is a wonderful site and you will enjoy it immensely.

Welcome to all of the new people and pets! It's cool how we all eventually "find" each other through our love of cockers.

Welcome!

Marigold, we would love to see pictures of your kids.

Julie, I'm so sorry for your loss. Kasey certainly got tossed around. I'm so glad that she found her forever home with you. Many of us know how tough it is to loose our little ones.

Thank you for the welcomes. It is wonderful to run into people who have adopted from Shorewood. We have a person at our dog park who adopted from Shorewood in 2004, her boy has cancer sadly.

We got our first foster within a week of Kasey passing, Beau was a beautiful black cocker with a white chest and belly and we were falling for him. He had toy aggression, food aggression and he was having seizures. Unfortunately his possession aggression also extended to my husband and he attacked me twice totally unprovoked one morning. It wasn't the first incident in the first foster home.. so horribly for us and him he had to be euthanized as a serious bite risk. On top of all the losses this last few weeks including my beloved oldest brother last week.

Right now we have our second foster, a black cocker/german water spaniel mix who is two years old and ready for adoption, he has issues with eating stuff and he is very lively but will do great in a home that will carry on with his training.

At the end of next week we will get our third foster, this one is a buff male also two years old who came out of Chicago and it sounds like he is also ready for adoption.

We have a busy home. The two big boys, Jake foster two, soon to be Chico foster three, two Bengals, an F1 early generation Bengal and three foster kittens who will start going to their new homes Thanksgiving weekend. Never a dull moment!

Hello!

I'm wanting another cocker in my life. We had cockers in our family since I was a baby, in fact my older "brother" was a red cocker that my parents got before I was born. We had 2 more cockers while I was growing up with the last one living over 18 years.

My last dog was a dalmation that developed epilepsy and died at age 4 in 1990. Since then, I acquired 4 kitties who are 6 years old now.

I am interested in red or red/white parti as our 1st cocker was red, and the others were buff and cream. As I understand it, red is a rare color.

I have to prepare the kitties for a puppy's arrival, changing their feeding schedule etc. I will be ready for a puppy next mid to late August. I am experienced in raising a puppy, crate training and obedience training.

If you or anyone you know breed for red cockers, please let me know by PM or email.

Thanks, Susan

Hi everyone,

I'm so glad to have found this community. The resources are incredible and the enthusiasm is contagious! My family had an English Cocker Spaniel when I was growing up. Just a month ago, I adopted my first very own Cocker Spaniel and I couldn't be happier! This pup is cuddly, loyal, and a gorgeous little goofball. Her name is Davey, and I love her :)

I've attached a picture of her because I want to get your opinion on something that should be obvious but is confusing me nevertheless. Is this dog actually a Cocker Spaniel? Her ears are so short, and her coat is sleek and short, not curly or fast-growing at all. And she's only 16 pounds. This seems to be her adult weight as she's about a year old. Could she be a Cockalier? Of course, she's my buddy whatever breed she is, and I love her no matter how much she weighs or what her hair does. I'm just curious what all you awesome people think, and just in case I should be treating her ears like Cocker ears, and watching out for the same common diseases, etc.

She's curled up on my bed right now. I love this cuddlebug!

Smiles,
AnneMarie

(This is only a picture of her face - it was taken by a friend. I should take some better pictures of her. If only I could find my camera...)

Welcome AnneMarie.

Your girl is a cocker. She's a field coat, as most red are. She's absolutely beautiful and will be much easier to care for in the grooming area than a full coat cocker.

Yes, you need to treat her ears as you would any other cocker.

Welcome AnneMarie,
Your little Davey is most definitely cocker. And a beauty too. I just love the little red ones. And the field coat makes it nice for alot less grooming.

Welcome Susan and AnnMarie

Ohh so that's what her coat is. Thank you very much, I wouldn't have thought of that. Happy thanksgiving!