I enjoyed that book, too.

To crate a dog who is misbehaving is not punishment so much as it is an opportunity to a) stop the misbehavior and contain the dog, and b) give yourself the opportunity to cool off. When you crate a dog who is misbehaving, you should do so in a **neutral** manner, so that he is not being "punished" by being crated, and he is not being rewarded for the undesireable behavior. You should praise him for going into his crate; he will understand that he is being praised for kenneling up, and not think you are praising him for misbehaving.

Andrea wrote:

I have adopted a 7.5 y.o cocker spaniel from a rescue yesterday, and found that he snaps when people touch him.
Or when I touch him anywhere on his head. He lets me pat him and brush him, but can't clean his eyes, ear, mouth because he hates it
and will snap. He never bit anyone, but snapped at strangers. I take it this is a fear biter we have.

Hi Andrea, I doubt this is fear. This is a typical reaction for a cocker spaniel. Both as a groomer, vet assistant, and animal control officer over the last 24 years, I would estimate 75% of cockers I've handled were thinking about snapping. With proper training, you may minimize the tendency that he will snap at you, but he will, more than likely, continue to snap at all others if they try to handle him in a way he does not approve of. That includes ears, grooming, picking up, feet, etc. Just what I've found to be true over the years. Susan

Andrea: To give you some insight on an "escorted go to your room" experience:

Hubby and I passed each other coming in/leaving tonight. We talked for a few minutes and then I came on into the house. The dogs were all in and loose in the house. I could here a couple of the young ones playing what sounded to be "tug of war" game in the mud/crate room making those little noises that they do...didn't give it a thought. I thought it was "odd" that one of the pillows on the couch was gone but figured that hubby had "done" something with it..dismissed it from my mind... I walked out to the mud/crate room and in disbelief..saw..my couch pillow being used as a "tug a war" game..the pillow was long past dead with white "fluffy stuff" everywhere. The dogs in unison stopped and looked at me with an expression of oh ooh...mom's home...and I think she's not happy. Dallas (my GSD pup) decided to try and "smooth" things over; walked over to great me with tail wagging and the remains of the pillow still in her teeth and offered me what was left. In a stern tone I expressed that they had been very bad and to immediately go to your room(s)...and just think about what they had done. Each went to their crate and I closed their door(s). All the while I was cleaning up "their fun"; I lectured them on how disappointed I was in them. Once I got it all swept up; I left the room and left them in their crates. After about an hour; I had "chilled" out and let both of them out of their crates. As they exited; each came up to me; sat in front of me and offered their paw for apoligy and forgiveness. I accepted their paw; loved on them and said now..be good!

Well, if it is not fear - I don't know if that makes a difference - I still do not want anyone bitten including myself. His behaviour seemed to be related to fear since his posture changed to crouching and tail went down.
He is doing great with the crate. The schedule is good and he does not need much encouragement. Obedience is another issue, we will work on this later when ge gets more used to us.

Today we had our first groomer experience. He needed to get the hair cut from his toes because he was chewing so much and he didn't let me do that so I didn't force it myself. I made special treats just for this occassion. I always give him the medium good treats when I give him any. This treat is for use with only strangers - I sliced up some wieners and dried them out in the oven. He loves treats and he is well motivated with food.
When we met the groomer, I gave her the treats to say hi and asked her to give more than one because I give only one piece at a time. He did not shy away and we told him how great he was. After a few minutes he let her touch him without showing any teeth - I already know his pattern and know how he gives a warning - he always shows the same sequence and will give time to back off if people are slow. (The sequence is the same when people just lounge to the head but it is very hard to stop him because his reaction time is much better than mine and given the speed of the action he has to give warning faster and then he reacts with a snap, very fast.) Anyway, we did slowly and put the muzzle on him then got his paws cut but didn't get anything else done. He was doing very well and eventually the groomer removed the muzzle and treated him with more treats, we all did and told him how well he was behaving. I think it went really well.

This just tells me we need to socialize him much more than we did until now, we know him better and he know us better too. Only strangers will give him better treats than I. If people want to pet him I just give them a treat to give it to him. This seems to work. It is harder to deal with people who come from behind corners and zoom in on him before I realize. Some people are really stupid and many times I have to ask not to touch him. Some people say he is a mean dog but he is not, they are stupid. Would you want a stranger come up to you and start touching you from any angle without your permission? I think not.

I need some suggestions on how I can approach his mouth to eventually lead to brushing his teeth? I am NOT putting my finger into his mouth. His mouth is getting so bad we can smell it form 15 feet away; not a pleasant experience. I can't give him chew toys because he is not chewing, he is guarding. We will work on that later.
Or should the resource guarding have a higher priority before the body handling?
When we saw the vet a week ago he didn't say anything about his mouth. His infection just cleared up with antibiotics.

I need some guidance again. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Andrea wrote:

Some people say he is a mean dog but he is not, they are stupid. Would you want a stranger come up to you and start touching you from any angle without your permission?

I agree, I don't think the word "mean" applies to any dog. But there is a vast difference in temperament that appears to be breed related. Many dogs wil allow anyone to come from any angle to be petted on the head. Cockers are well known for their dislike of being handled if they're not in the mood. This can be overcome with training, and it sounds to me like you are making great progress. The crouching and tail tucking you see may be anticipation of a correction. I've found most of the strange cockers that I handle usually resent being picked-up. I try them out without a muzzle by gently touching them by the rib area. If the body language stiffens and the "stare" begins, I know I need to muzzle. This is the tricky part because the dog is already in a stage of alert, because I touched him/her in a way the dog didn't like. Sometimes there is a struggle to muzzle, usually accompnied by tail between the legs, snapping, etc. I picked up thousands of dogs and a lot of cockers do tend to respond in this manner. This doesn't mean you can't work around it. You carefully structured the "handling" to allow as much reward as possible, so the dog can focus on the positive. I doubt that the training will remain in place if you're not there and someone else is trying to pet, etc. I don't have any specific suggestions for mouth inspection. The easy way out would be to schedule a teeth cleaning the next time you may need anesthesia for any other veterinarian procedure. If you can't do nails without a muzzle, I doubt if you could examine, or look at the mouth. Susan

Oh my, this pains me. I can't even believe that I'm going to say it. Deep breaths. . . .here goes.

Barbara was right. OUCH!!! That sucked. . . <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

Slow down, let the dog ease into your lives. The teeth and ears or whatever can wait for a bit. It takes a long time for dogs to bond with new owners, throw into that mix- problems in the last home, a little bit of fear aggression, and who knows what other problems and you have a long road ahead of you.

Chill the -F- out on that dog. I would start with 100% hand feeding. Don't push his buttons yet, build a little trust first. Let him have his toys, let him have his space. In a month or so you can start pushing the "who's the boss issue". Don't let him get away with gross misbehavior, but don't physically punish him in a way that is going to cause more fear. Try to avoid problems by crate training and keeping him in an enclosed area.

With the "fear me" signals that he is giving, just ignore them. Don't let on that it bothers you and don't back down (shy away) that is what he wants. Just act as if it didn't happen for a little while. You should be able to avoid any situation where he could bite you or anyone else, so that shouldn't be an issue for now. A little later you may have to put him on his ass, but I don't think so.

That is my humble advice. If I repeated some things that were said already, sorry. . .

Clarification- you may not want to give him the bones, as mentioned. But he'll have to have something to do while crated or in an enclosure. I might give him little chews that will get eaten pretty quick. That way there aren't any problems with having to take them away.

I agree, why can't he have a little nyla bone or something in his crate and leave it there. Not all kids like their toys taken away either. By the way I have a cocker, and I have met many cockers and yet have to meet a snapper. Everyone says the bad rep they have but considering how popular the breed is and the poor breeding being done, is it any surprise? Look at the GSD and rottweilers, no difference.
Anyhow I think they are great. I will always own a cocker. Ours is so submissive it isn't even funny. On the ears, as I am sure you are aware, cockers suffer from chronic ear infections, mainly due to yeast which can cause severe pain as well as tissue alteration which causes closure of the ear canal. My vet told me to avoid putting any liquid cleaners in there unless absolutely necessary. Her point was, moisture is moisture, whether it be cleaner or water. So if you're dog has no ear infections, use a dry q-tip only. Don't put stuff in there.
As far as the howling goes, well my cocker still does it whenever we leave. She is 5 and has been crate trained since a pup. It usually only lasts about 30 minutes and then she settles down and sleeps. Good luck.

 Quote:

Originally posted by Lanegirl:
I agree, why can't he have a little nyla bone or something in his crate and leave it there. Not all kids like their toys taken away either. By the way I have a cocker, and I have met many cockers and yet have to meet a snapper.

Lanegirl... The idea behind not giving him chews has to do with the fact that it is KNOWN in this particular dog that he is posessive. Things that can be consumed are ok, like a pig ear, or something, but a nylabone will last a while, and add to that the dog is in a crate, you are asking for a bite.

No, not all kids like having their toys taken away, but would you allow a child to bully or bite you over it? That is what is going on here... To help this dog acclimate to the new home we want to have positive experiences, by giving him something to be posessive of we set the dog up to LOSE not to win.

You are lucky that you have never come across a snapper. They are prevalent in the breed, don't kid yourself. Percentage wise I had to muzzle a whole heck of a lot more cockers for basic grooming then I have ever had to rotts, dobes, and these killer gsd's. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Bad breath can be caused by a number of things.

Usually; it is from tarter on the teeth causing an infection in the gum (gingivitis) which can spread to the bone (periodontal disease). No amount of hand brushing can remove the hard tarter from the teeth. Only hand scaling with speciality dental instruments (scaler/cavitron) can properly remove all of the tarter while the dog is under a general anesthetic.

Another contributing factor to bad breath in dogs is the food that they are consuming; ie-canned food. Also; underlying stomach problems can also produce a foul breath.

What I would suggest between now and a dental cleaning appointment is to give the dog extra large dog biscuits to chew. These stimulate the gums and provide the "chewing" passification.