The Zim Family Cocker Spaniel Forum

How soon is too soon to add to a family? Rocky is 6 months old. His doggie parents just had their last litter and they will be availabile in 2 months. Rocky will be 8 months and they will be 2 months. One one hand, i don't think we are ready b/c Rocky isn't fully obedience trained and would still be a puppy himself. On the other hand, It would be nice to have 2 siblings. I worry about how Rocky will feel. Will he be hurt if I add another puppy? Will be "know" its his brother/sister? If I got one of the puppies, I would get one of the boys. THere were 6 boys and 3 girls in the litter. He's such a velcro puppy. He's always up my tush for soemthing. He even follows me in the bathroom and waits for me to finish whatever I am doing. He watches me shower and hangs out while I dry my hair. I dont' want him to think I love him less if I get another puppy. What are your thoguhts?

(based on info others have kindly added to Rocky's current situation, gathered from other threads, I am changing my mind and removing my original answer ... I have to agree with the others below, now knowing more information .... kisses to Rocky!)

Hi Gina,

Please don't take this the wrong way, but I would wait awhile and make sure that you had a real handle on Rocky's issues and he was more fully trained. From your previous posts he was having some issues and although the collar episode I blame on the trainer, I think you've had some other problems, all of which can be dealt with given time. Remember a second puppy takes lots and lots of time both together with Rocky and also one on one with you. Rocky will also require extra time so he doesn't feel replaced or left out. Our trainer suggested waiting until Karlie was around two years old as that way she would be obedient and able to help teach the new pup the rules, she was right Kaitlyn learned everything faster by copying Karlie this goes for both good manners and bad. So for instance if Karlie barked at the trash trucks then Kaitlyn too learned to bark at the trash trucks. Bad Mommy for not fixing this problem ahead of time. I would wait until at least a year old or even older depending on how well Rocky's training was going. I know how hard it is to wait believe me.......I have my two and the will be 4 and 6 this year and I have the worst case of puppy fever but know that as long as my husband still has to work full time two is our limit. Again just keeping up with training (an ongoing for life type of thing) and agility training and perhaps getting them into rally o, weekly grooming, etc. takes up a lot of time and effort.

I have been wanting to ask this for a while, so here goes. How responsible are Rocky's breeders? He doesn't look like a properly bred puppy, the health issues that go along with cockers are much more prevelent in BYB puppies. He appears have 1 Solid and 1 Parti parent because he has the white his nose and his feet. This is a big no-no with good breeders because it produces mis-marked puppies. He also looks like a english/american mix? He doesnt quite look like either breed exactly. This breeder has also bred the same mother in less than 1 year!! That poor thing! Just my 2 cents.

I hOpe by siblings you do not mean same female?My Dudley was A
Mismark but a wonderful dog. If it's the same female I would run from that awful breeder and love the one I had

Well since you asked, my opinion is 'no'. Rocky is just entering the challenging stage. He is going to need lots of obedience work for at least the next year. In my experience cockers don't really mature until about 18 months.

There is also the very pragmatic issue of having dogs close in age. They will age, and pass, at about the same time. After losing 3 seniors within 23 months, this is not a pleasant experience.

Colleen Keough

Thanks everyone for your advice. I agree with most all of you and think we will wait a while. Rocky is entering that stage were he needs intensive obedience training and he is definately testing his boundaries to see what he can sneak away with. After some reflection I am not sure I can handle 2 and one of the posters had a good point about the "monkey see monkey do" concept and if I am working on things with Rocky, I would rather wait and have him be a role model for a new pup, than to teach two.

To answer some of the other questions that have been asked, by siblings I mean Rocky's parents had another litter so those puppies, while not his litter mates would be his siblings (half-siblings). I agree that its not ideal that mom has been bred 2x and has had litters 6-7 months apart, but that's out of my control. However, its because of them that I have my little pupper, and I wouldn't trade him for all the mega-million lotteries in the world.

As far as solid and parti pups, I don't know and can't answer it because I don't understand parti or the different colors (difference in buff vs red vs parti vs roan). People as me what color he is and I tell them buffy-tan with polka dot fee and white tummy. As for whether or not he looks like either an english or american cocker, or a mix of the two....I can't say either. All I know is that his white tummy, and white with polka dot feet and mostly floppy ears make him cute to me and my family. For a while, I was concerned that abotu which type of cocker he was, but now I really don't care. Field type, working type, show type..... all I know is he is a family type. When he runs and jumps and such, its cute to watch his big cocker-ears flap. It's possible that one ear may be a smidgen longer than the other, but at least he has 2 ears and they are soft and silky to play with. Its one of the things that make him unique. I once had a 3-legged cat and it was what made her unique too.

Rocky's dad is an AKC registered English Cocker and his mom looks English to me with a puppy cut. She doesn't have a skirt and her ears are groomed short to the leather. If he's not absolutely 100% purebred, it makes no difference to us, because to us, he's 100% loveable. We get stopped all the time when we are on our walks and everyone says he is cute. So far, his health issues have subsided and the only thing he needs is his probiotic every day else we get the loose poos and he gets the bubble guts.

I've signed him up for obedience classes and will continue to do one-on-one sessions at home with him and will have a trainer come to me sometimes to work on a few other things. He's getting to be a smart little puppy. He has figred out how to open trash cans with pop up lids, reaches for his toys/balls with his paws (like hands) and can suck a piece of food off the counter in stealth mode better than a hoover vacumn without ever touching the counter with his mouth or face or tounge (note: this was not something we trained him to do, we caught him in the act one day). He's settled in very nicely here. We've had one potty accident in the past month and that is because he was playing with my son and I lost track of time. He's way to young for me to claim he's housebroken, but he is certainly well on his way to getting the concept down.

Gina you are absolutely right, your boy is a doll and nothing else matters. But I would never give that breeder another dime to encourage her to over breed another

I agree with Debbie on this issue, but also agree with you, Gina, about Rocky being a "family" Cocker.

This BYB sounds like the twit that we "RESCUED" our Leo from, her breeding females were all in terrible shape and had been bred continuously! All her "stock" was in cages (Including Leo) After getting poor Leo from her I called the County and turned her in..... All her Cockers were re-homed, Thank God! You have a puppy with issues because of people like this and I wouldn't encourage her poor breeding habits by getting any other little soul from her, I would, however, have her investigated! Just my two cents, for what it's worth..... LOVE THE ONE YOU GOT and when appropriate get your babies "PAL" from a reliable rescue group! Thanks for letting me vent....Tom