The Zim Family Cocker Spaniel Forum

Hi everyone! I'm new here My name is Jesse and I'm from a hick town in Ontario. I have a doberman named Baron who is a good dog, and an american cocker who is a bad dog and her name is BlackBerry.

BlackBerry just turned a year old, and she's not really bad, just full of tricks. Her favorite trick is rolling in mud after a bath and an hour long blow dry heehee. I also have 3 cats, a bird, fish and a horse. I'm an RVT and obviously really love animals. BlackBerry is my first cocker spaniel although I have always admired the breed. I'm not exactly technologically advanced so I will post pics after I get some resized. I wanted my cocker to have a long show coat and I do my own grooming. My grooming looks like I do it myself Wait until you get a load of the pics. Until then I will enjoy looking at all your beautiful dogs!

Welcome to the forum JessC

thanks Terri! I'm excited that I found this place. Ironically I read about it in Dogs in Canada magazine. Maybe I should have just tried google lol I might have found it sooner.

Welcome Jess. I am pretty technologically challenged, so I understand. Your little girl is a cutie.

I stumbled on this site about a week ago, I'm not real computer literate, but love the stories and pictures. My husband Richard and myself, Linda live in Sparks Nv. With our two red and white partis. Toby we have had for 10 yrs, Yancy is about 7 or 8 we adopted her 2 yrs ago.

We live in a rural area, so we walk off leash a lot. Toby puts the word merry in the term "merry cocker" He has had adventures most dogs only dream of, he has been skunked twice, the only fight he ever had was with a racoon(in my livingroom) was even nipped once when he got to close to a mustang. But this weekend he met a Rattlesnake, and did not survive. It was very painful for him, and now for me. I thought I would have him alot longer.

Yancy seems a little anxious, and needy but she is so sweet and comforting.

Thank you!



LWood- I am so sorry for your loss, sounds like Toby had the most exciting life a dog could have. My heart goes out to you.

Lwood, so so sorry for your loss...my heart goes out to you!

Lwood welcome to the forum. I was enjoying your post then read about your Toby. How awful!!!! I'm so sorry for your loss

I don't know how dogs miss each other, but Yancy is stuck to my husbands leg, since we lost Toby. We adopted her two years ago, we are her third family, she was resuced from a abusive home at about a yr.old. then her new owner had a change in lifestyle and had to travel. leaving her for weeks at a time in a garage with someone to feed her. She is very shy and quiet. She never learned to play!

She had become a little bossy with Toby, leaning into him and herding him. I am happy to have Her but, sure miss him. Is there anything softer then a cockers "cheek"?

Welcome. We understand your pain. Love, Marcia

lwood, so sorry for your loss. cockers do steal your heart don't they? hugs to Yancy.. you are lucky to have each other to lean on.

Lwood, welcome. I joined about 4 years and a half years ago when we got our first Cocker. I'll post our story on here soon, I wanted to extend a cyberhug to yourself and your family. I also wanted to let you know about our Rattlesnake Avoidance classes for dogs. We are neighbors, I am in Reno NV.
Every summer we hold our Rattlesnake Avoidance Trainings, the last several years they have been held out at Washoe Lake, usually 2-3 seperate weekends are offered to ensure a time that you can go.
My son's father and I have worked with reptiles doing many related community projects and education. Mostly this involves the Animal Awareness Project where we would do 1-1 1/2 hr long educational presentations at schools, libraries, and other groupings for kids.

In previous years the German Shorthaired Pointer Club and the Nevada Wildlife Federation would team up with us to do the Rattlesnake Avoidance Training for Dogs. I do not currently know if the training is continuing the same this year, but I do know from in depth first hand experience we, and the owner, get to see yer after year that this training takes root and works. We get a lot of feedback from the owner's stories themselves as well when they come back for their 2nd year training. This second training is a reinforcer, and we like for both the owner and us to see that the training stuck. So far- we always do. It is ideal for those who are rural, more than for those who don't walk out of the inner city areas.

I am sorry for the loss you have experienced, and would like to help you to not go through this again. I'll send you my number just in case, since I am not participating this year, IF you would like anything further I can help direct you to those who are/will be. This is only for your information for in case it helps you out, not to sway you to a scam or to try and gather business. I do know also if you'd like to research this you'll find a lot of people in different states now doing these trainings. Please be aware there are some doing these that do not handle the snakes used properly, and do actual damage to them. We have found these are mostly in Arizona. There is a gentleman in southern California that devotes most of his time to these trainings- he does them himself with help from various Dog Clubs... I do not remember his name but a good place to start your research would be there. Since a lot of members on here are from the California area, they may be able to shed light on this as well. Take care of you and yours :)

Sheri, thanks for the info, I beleive my daughter is taking her german short hairs to that class.

I hesitate taking Yancy as she is a rescue and very sensitive to anything she precieves as punishment, She is a good walker tho and sticks like glue. I may consider it next year. Toby was such a free spirit, and loved to be off leash we should have been more careful, the only thing I was really worried about was foxtails!

Aye the foxtails can be quite tricky little devils. Normally I would say to try the class even though she sticks close, since the action of staying close has saved several owners from encounters themselves.
But being that Yancy may have a few things to work through first I wouldn't suggest it at this time either, it's a good call to wait or to decide to not do it at all if you still feel undecided later.
But I would seriously look into it if you get a companion for Yancy. If you did not get a PM with my contact info my email is: aghostofmyself@yahoo.com. Far as I know these classes are still non-profit, and a tax write-off, though there is a fee. I hope she is starting to show more signs of not being as affected by your guy's passing, and that life get's easier for you all.

Linda, I'm so sorry to hear about Toby's tragic end. We have rattlers here too and I just hate them. I hope that Yancy and you all begin to heal. Oh, welcome to the forum.

Hi Kelly, Mo and Hubby Welcome to the forum. We're glad to have you join our group of cocker crazies. Mo is ADORABLE (love his baby pix). You'll find you need a 12-step program pretty soon to pull yourself away from here. Tell hubby to forget clean socks, LOL. Lots of good information here about our breed and lots of nice people. Love it that you posted pictures on your first post.

Hello & Welcome!!

Mo is just too cute! I love that first picture, he definitely looks like he was up to something!

Tina-you are right! I am addicted :) But who really can resist all these beautiful wigglebutts on the forum? I have so many photos I would love to post, but don't want to inundate everyone with photos because I love my boy so much that I enjoy showing him off....in due time, lol! In the meantime, here's one more that I just took at dusk the other night.

Hello everyone, I've been 'lurking' on this forum for a few weeks, off and on, and you all seem so friendly and wonderful! I hope I will be able to add to the wealth of information and fun!

I'm Susan and my husband is Adam. We are currently cocker-less, but that will be changing before the end of the year. I have a deposit in with a breeder, and will either be getting a solid sable girl or a sable/white girl, depending on what the stork brings!

I have had cocker spaniels my whole life, and part of my heart is still aching for the loss of my closest 'heart dog' Muffin, who was a solid chocolate girl I lost way too young to Addison's disease.

When I met my husband, I had a chocolate and white girl named Kerra, and he had a red/white boy named Toby. They've both gone to the rainbow bridge.

I'm getting older, and when we lost Toby, I thought that it might be better to choose a breed that didn't need so much grooming. We picked Australian shepherds because their coat was low maintenance...and we thought that their active nature would encourage us to be more active as we get older (we're in our 40's..). We now have two crazy Aussies and although they are great and we love them...I want a cocker back in my life! I just miss the beautiful and loving nature of the cockers....

I'm at work, and crazy busy, but I'll try to log on tonight with some more info and photos of our crazy furkids.

Nice to meet you all. =)

Hello. My name is Courtney. I'm new to the forum, and am here to learn more about caring for my three-year-old cocker Max, or affectionately, Sir Max the Fat. He is a rescue, and my boyfriend and I have had him for almost three months. He is lovable, playful, and very very fat. We prefer to think of him as jolly. We are working on his weight, so I do ask that comments about his weight come from a fun--not corrective--place. You'd be surprised at the the number of people who stop us on the street (during one of our three daily walks) to scold us for letting him get fat. We found him that way, we're working on it, and we love his rumbly giant tumbly.

But I digress. My family also has a cocker named Marble, a seven-year-old parti, who is technically my grandmother's dog. He is also a rescue. However, he and my whole family live in a different state so I see him when I can. And yes, he's fat too. But that's my grandmother's fault.

This forum is such a great resource, and I look forward to meeting and talking to you all. Now enough of my talking, onto the pictures. I enjoy taking fun, artsy pics of Max in my spare time, and here are a few of my favorites.

Welcome Susan, Courtney and all furkids! Nice to have you join us. Courtney, there is a lot of information on dog food in the "caring for your cocker" section you might want to look at. A lot of us have, at one time or another, had our dogs on the green bean diet - keeping them full, but not adding any calories. Might be worth a try to help get some of the weight off of Sir Max.

Susan: Can't wait to see what the stork brings you. Aussies are great dogs, but you're right - there's nothing like a merry little cocker.

Thanks for the nice welcome Tina. Loooks like the stork brought us a chocolate-sable girl. We're thinking we'll name her "Penny."

She was only born last week, so I have a while before I can see photos with her little eyes open. I will share when I can.

I'm excited!
-Susan

Hi, my name is Nicole. I have been a dog owner since the day I was born, and I can't even imagine my life without dogs. I currently have one dog. She is Cospy, a Cocker Spaniel I got from a rescue site when she was 1 year old. She is now 2 years old.

Looking forward to chatting with you cocker lovers like me :)

Nichole and Cospy. I'm sure you will enjoy it here. Lots of great information.