The Zim Family Cocker Spaniel Forum

Hello everyone. I have frequently visited here as a guest in preparation for the arrival of my new Cocker puppy, Shelly, but decided to join in this great forum for some specific advice for her needs.

I've received her last Saturday when she became 8 weeks and since then, she couldn't be more of a bundle of joy to have. She is unusually bold and doesn't seem to fear much. Her housetraining is improving every day with having her go potty in the kitchen with puppy pads and then eventually moving outside when her immunization is finished (I live in an apartment complex where exposure wouldn't be smart at this time).

But of course, she does have her share of mischief as all puppies would get into and Shelly has a few quirks that makes it difficult to improve her behavior. All week, I've been giving her the benefit of the doubt that she is only a puppy and while that may be the sole reason, any advice on getting her on the right track as she gets older would be very much appreciated from veteran Cocker owners.

Firstly, her biting habits. Yes, I realize that this is probably the most common complaint for new puppies and that they will have to bite & chew a lot to satisfy their teething, but Shelly seems to take this habit above and beyond. She will, on almost any circumstance, attempt to bite our hands, feet, clothes, or sometimes even the face if she has a clear path to them and when there is movement. At times, she gets pretty overzealous and will start biting WAY too hard where blood is almost drawn, obviously an enormous no-no which I've been trying to discourage with a loud, clear "NO!" to her face every time she does, but she is completely unfazed by this no matter what the volume of my voice is and attempts to bite again right after. I've also tried to do the "ignore her when she bites" tactic but no improvement seems to be evident from it either.

She has plenty of chew toys and most of the time, she will go after them when I coax her into chewing them to keep her busy when we need to get up and walk away, but it's not long until she loses interest and goes after our feet again. I wonder if she even learned not to bite so hard with her Mom/littermates but it looks like she either completely skipped that phase or Shelly & her littermates fully tolerated the rough-housing. So I wonder if there are any better methods I could use to help with breaking this pesky habit of hers or if I should just continue to be consistent with what I'm doing now that will be more effective over time.

Next, as stated before, she is very bold for a puppy, but one of the few things she isn't tolerant of is being inside her crate. She cries for what seems like an eternity when she is put in for an hour to help her get used to it for the last three days and it really tears my heart strings to have to listen to how upset she gets. I've tried to stay with her to help calm her down, gave a couple treats and left a couple toys in there with her, but she still cries non-stop. Any tips would be very helpful and appreciated in helping her get more comfortable in her crate.

Oh yes, and here are a few pics of my little bundle of joy.

Second day arriving to her new home.


Here you can see her white markings. She gets them from her proud grandfather as told by her breeder.


Hahaha, an adorable moment captured during a play-shuffle session.

I don't really have that much advice at the moment, sorry. But I know PLENTY of people will!
But I do have to say....Shelly is BEAUTIFUL. I love those white markings

Congrats on your beautiful puppy! I can't offer any advice on the crate training , but I'm sure others here can. But regarding the biting, my first response is "get used to it for awhile"!
Seriously, when they bite, respond with a loud "Ouch" or a shriek, and then turn away and ignore them or physically remove them (kinda like a puppy time-out). However, if you're crate training, I don't think you want to remove them to the crate, as that's only supposed to be a positive place. Also, do not ever encourage snapping or biting by blowing in their face, no matter how cute you think it is when they're tiny.

Puppies mouth and bite, this is part of their learning. Be consistent and positive reinforcement, and trust me they do finally grow out of it. Fortunately, those tiny needle teeth leave rarely leave scars!

She is adorable! Congrats on your new pup. I always re-directed to a toy or chew when my pups were going through this stage. I think I kept something in almost every room so I could re-direct consistently. Also I never sat on the floor with them when we played inside as they would just get too wild. Beau was a terror, I couldn't walk through a room without him going for my pant legs.

Edited to add:
Can't help with the crates as I didn't end up buying any until they were around two years old! I just leave them with the doors open and they sleep in them when they feel like it. It would have made potty training easier if I had gotten the crates when they were puppies!

Kevin and Shelly,
Congratulations on your new baby. Sounds as though you have a little rascal on your hands.
The best advice I can give is to be consistant. If she whines and you let her out of her crate, you'll be rewarding her whining. Try short amounts of time with treats for going in.
Good luck with puppyhood!

what a cutie! I agree with the others advice about biting... it takes time and although its hard to be patient whne those needle teeth have got you, just keep at it. keep toys handy to use as a n alternative to human skin... I always said "NO BITE" then stuffed toy in her mouth then "GOOOOD PUPPY" I also would say no rough housing or any thing that gets her too excited for now, that will only bring on the biting more. as for the crate... don't give in when she cries.. wait for quiet for a few minutes (or seconds) use lots of treats.. any toy she likes especialy? when she is realy tired.. about 15 minutes after a good play session. hopefuly she will fall asleep after a few minutes in the crate.
good luck

Hi Kevin

I have a new puppy too, he's 12 weeks old now. I've never had a crate problem as he loves being in there but boy, have I got the biting problem LOL. Just like your little beauty, he nips, goes for the face and nose and hangs on to my feet when I'm walking. I've read two "remedies" which I've tried but they didn't work. However, there is one which I am working on now that seems to be slowly doing the trick. When Toby bites I scream as loud as I can (very embarassing in the garden - don't know what the neighbours think!!) and run away from him, making little whimping noises like a puppy would. I stand with my back to him and do not speak for maybe a minute. I then calmly carrying on playing with him until he does it again, then I repeat the process. Yesterday, while I was standing with my back to him, he actually came and sort of nuzzled my leg without biting. So, this seems to be working. Try this, I'm sure it will help. (I have a problem with potty training but I am going to start another thread for advice on this one).
PS - love the last picture of her, she looks so cheeky

Hello everyone again, sorry for the late response but I'm back with some updates on Shelly. Went to parents' house for Father's Day weekend with Shelly and during my visit there, her behavior actually seemed to be gradually improving since my last post, especially with her nasty biting habits during play. She even started to finally be acclimating to her crate without too much crying, which I was very pleased to see. Back at my apartment, I highly doubt she would have done neither change in behavior over the last few days. I wonder if it had anything to do with the presence of two other dogs there (Nikki, a nine y/o female toy Poodle and Chance, a five y/o male Australian Cattle Dog & Boxer mix) and the new introductions with family that's made her like this. She was especially fond of my mom who would be very vocal and nurturing to her, also added with the fact that she never tried to bite her. It's all pretty much a change of behavior that I didn't expect at all from her, but of course I'm very glad to see Shelly controlling her mouth from snapping at everything that moves for once and finding her crate to be more comfortable with each entry.

Anyway, although she has gotten a lot better with both biting and going in her crate, we still obviously have a long way to go after only a week and half, but last weekend was a great ice-breaker. Thanks a bunch for the advice given and will continue building upon her improvement with the suggestions given, as well as giving updates as they come up. Ah, and of course thanks a ton for the compliments; Shelly absolutely loves being admired by everyone.

hello your dog is adorable, I just got Ginger 8 weeks old. We had a black cocker too, she was 15 years old.

It all sounds perfectly normal for a puppy and it's great you have already made progress.

There is a couple of words that jumped out at me in your first post:
It is extremely important that a new puppy owner understands that puppy biting is not a pesky habit, but an absolutely vital development stage for a puppy. A puppy that doesn't play bite has no opportunity to learn bite inhibition and therefore might grow up into a dog that isn't safe!

So please look at the puppy biting as a training opportunity, not as a nuissance. It is such an important thing to do for a puppy, perhaps the most important thing ever as without it, the adult dog won't have the excellent control over their teeth that we expect from our dogs.

I think Ian Dubar explains it nicely in this article where you soften the bite first and then stop it! This way the puppy learns excellent bite inhibition.

http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/puppy-biting

I had a foster, Mickey, last year that had this same problem with bite inhibition. This method works but you need to be patient because it does take time. I think Vera would agree that a common mistake by many new dog owners is that they expect the new training to happen right away. Just because it takes an hour on TV doesn't mean it will in real life! It took Mickey about 2 months of consistent behavior modification to learn not to bite to get attention.

Good luck!