The Zim Family Cocker Spaniel Forum

My Cocker - Perci - has been unkenneled for about 2 months with no issues when alone until recently. When we are gone from the house now she will get into the trash or anything that is out to chew on. I am sure this is because we left her, but why all of the suddden after a few months is she doing this and does anyone have tips on how to stop it. I don't want to have to kennel her again but have resorted to that when we leave the house. THANKS for tips!!!

Your cocker obviously cannot be trusted when out. I would suggest crating him/her until they can be trusted for their own safety. You would hate for him/her to get bones or something dangerous when you were out. Some dogs are never allowed to be out as they just cannot be trusted.

My previous Cocker Muffin used to do the same thing. I'd come home and there was smelly trash all over the kitchen floor! What we did was put the trash can in the cabinet under the sink, and secured that cabinet with baby-safe magnets so she couldn't nudge it open with her snout. She never did it again, because she couldn't open the cabinet. Hope that helps!

Perci is still really a puppy. I would put her back in the crate for a while longer - both for her safety and your sanity. If you don't like the crate, put her in an x-pen where she has a little more room, but can't climb out and get into things. While trash makes a huge mess, she could also eat something that could cause pancreatitis - and you really don't want to deal with that.

My trash can is ON my counter half of the time. Lovely!!! My babies can open the trash drawer!!! Honestly, I think there are some that you will never break of the trash

I agree with Tina in that you don't want her eating something she shouldn't be eating. My pups were crated when we weren't home with them until they proved they were able to be trusted in the house. I don't mean as in not leaving floor art - I mean as in knowing they won't chew cords, TV remotes, garbage, iPods, etc. For each of them it was a different age; Teddy was great by 8 months, Annie was crated till she was a little past two years, Cody could be trusted by the time he was a year. There is no rule of thumb here - just keeping them safe till they can be trusted.

Snap - our trash can has lived up high for 9.5 years now, thanks to George!

We had to do this with a springer we had or else we'd find garbage all over the house, yuck!

I'm not sure you can train a cocker to leave paper alone. Mine will push out a chair to climb on to the kitchen table to get a box of kleenex. My trash cans have a foot peddle that the dogs aren't strong enough to step on to open.

Its like locking up the liquor cabinet.

I think your Perci is just "proving" that she is, in fact, a cocker!!

Cockers are known for loving to play with/ tear up /spread around paper - paper of all sorts and anything that is included with the paper.

(that's why I will _never_ understand anyone who tries to "paper train" a cocker for potty purposes ... just doesn't work because they've just been provided with our breed's favorite toy...)

Over the 17 years that Feather had lived with me- the bathroom trash has been mounted high up on the wall, where only an adult standing up can reach it; the kitchen trash is inside the cabinet with the childproof lock on it; I don't have waste baskets in the bedrooms any more; any trash by my desk gets emptied into the kitchen trash before I go to bed in the evening; and I was cured of leaving magazines on the floor beside my bed. Thankfully she has never snatched a book off a bookshelf to shred, like one of my fosters did!

All of this came in very handy and I was fully prepared when the grandsons came along...
dog-proofing my house was way more extensive than child-proofing-- I've never had a toddler chew the remote, or unzip my purse, or snap computer cords in two in one bite, or gnaw on the edge of a bookshelf, or unravel the doormat ... but I had fosters do all of those things!

But the paper- that is pretty much guaranteed!

I have to put my trashcan outside when I leave. Ozzie is perfectly well behaved (well apart from if he gets hold of a box of kleenex ) Raiding the trashcan is his only downfall.

In our home, the kitchen trash can is a heavy one that requires lots of pressure to open. It has NO lip that a cocker can use to manipulate the lid off. The bath trash containers go onto the counter or we shut the bathroom doors.

I think they get bored and then find how much fun that is. Once they enjoy that game, I don't think there is any going back. We tried multiple kitchen trash containers and finally found this one. It has been "dog proof" for a couple of years.

All my house trashcans have lids, including the bathroom ones. But if she cannot be trusted not to knock them over, I would suggest crating or at least baby gating.

All our trash cans are behind closed doors but it's our toilet paper that had to be set on window sills instead of the toilet paper holders because Cuddles (our CKCS) would grab hold of the end of it and run with it and make a trail of it into the livingroom while we were gone and then the rest would have a field day with it and shred it and consume it. Once when we were home we caught our Cuddle-bug in the act while we were preparing to leave. They have their ways of communicating, don't they!

All: This poster hasn't been back to the forum since August 9 - so she isn't seeing any response made since then.