New pack member

[PurpleFloyd]

Brought this little snot rocket home yesterday. He's already establishing himself as the boss of things and my old Springers don't know how to react. 

 

This is my first shot at field bred Cockers after 25 years of Springer spaniels and he is certainly going to push the boundaries. I am excited to see how he does once he gets a little work and gets on the pheasants this fall. 

[RebelSS]

Ha!! Looks like a glorified hamster!!! What a cute little guy!!!   

[Ufatz]

Decades ago had a little Cocker.  They are balls of energy wrapped in love and fur.  Have fun!!

[Big Dave2]

Yeah we had a "regular" Cocker a good 10 years ago too. She was a great dog and I highly considered getting a field bread version when that one died but decided to go with Brittanies instead. 

 

Where did you get him/her?

[PurpleFloyd]

Cambridge.

 

He is quite the character.

[pushbutton]

I bet a cocker could be awesome in the field. Had one, never hunted it, but that nose was ALWAYS to the ground and working. Well guess he was kind of a hunter......that little dude would tangle with skunks any chance he could get. One or two sprays was not a deterrent either, just jacked him up even more. 9 -10 shots, didn't matter.....he would get it. Had a lot of mound gophers at the time as well, and pretty much just let him dig up a 1/2 acre. Day after day, year after year. Ended up looking like a WW1 trench battle scene. He never got one, but not for the lack of trying......buried him out there....and still smile when i walk by. Enjoy your pup!!!

[Big Dave2]

On 1/30/2017 at 9:57 PM, PurpleFloyd said:

Cambridge.

 

Darttwood?

[Ufatz]

You can easily turn a well bred little Cocker into one hell of a bird dog. They have limitations (deep tangled cover) and too much wet stuff but they have noses like a Hoover and there is no limit to their heart. And love is all their about!

[fishwidow]

I've had dogs all of my life, usually two at a time and sometimes three.  I've had a wide variety of breeds and always leaned toward bigger dogs and mostly sporting breeds. Some were mutts and a few had extremely good pedigrees and were worth a fair amount of money.

In 2OO2, we had an Airedale that unfortunately would regularly get wanderlust and find a way to break out of a well built and sturdy kennel.  This would happen during the day when we were at work, and she would be sitting on the deck when we arrived home, happy to see us with scratches all over face and paws from tearing through the fencing which was made of concrete reinforcing mesh.  The last time she was able to make the escape, she did not return and we found her on the side of the road where she had been stuck by a car.

We decided to go the rescue route and settled on a five year old Gordon Setter.  While waiting for that dog to arrive, my wife talked me into stopping at the local shelter.  When we got inside, their was a young Cocker sitting in the lobby.  I'm guessing he was between six and nine months.  He still had one puppy tooth. She said, "What about him?" and I told her "You know I like bigger dogs and we have the Gordon on the way."  The staff suggested taking him for a walk, and five minutes later we were on our way home with the little guy.

I still had my doubts when he and I had an argument about who was going to sleep on my side of the bed.  He claimed it should be his and let me know with a growl that he felt I was a trespasser.  We straightened that out in a hurry and never had a bad exchange again.

He was, by far, the smartest dog I have ever owned.  Although I never hunted him, I have no doubt that he would have been a terrific, if tiny, bird dog.  He had an excellent nose and would find baby bunnies and bring them home alive in a soft mouth.  He never went around a brush pile, but would make his way straight through the middle, emerging on the other side covered with cockleburrs and beggars lice and small twigs tangled in the hair on his ears.

In spite of the fact that he had a defective heart valve all of his life, and later on developed other health issues, he lived a very active and happy life until last August, when that big heart in the small dog finally could go on no longer.

I'm back down to one dog now, but I'm sure there will be more, and after my experience with him, I would have absolutely no reservations about having another Cocker.

Good luck, Floyd.  I hope your boy turns out to be the hunter that you want him to be, and that you have as much fun with him as I did with mine.

[andy33]

They look really cute.  

[monstermoose78]

4 minutes ago, andy33 said:

They look really cute.  

Thanks for posting Andy and welcome to hso

[PurpleFloyd]

On 2/16/2017 at 3:57 PM, Big Dave2 said:

 

Darttwood?

Yes

[Big Dave2]

How's the little guy doing?

[PurpleFloyd]

Oh, he is quite the character. He's about 27 pounds of attitude right now.

Took him for a dirt road walk last evening and he was sniffing pretty hard all the way along the half mile in these holes by the shoulder when suddenly a badger busted out of the ditch and ran along the shoulder and Taz decided to try to run him down. Thank goodness the badger was fast and got down a hole. Scared the dump out of me thinking how bad that could have turned out considering I was only armed with a water bottle. 

[Big Dave2]

Any recent pictures of the little critter?

[bobberineyes]

Looking good PF!!  My daughter came home with a trouble maker last weekend,  cute little poop ( golden retriever) but a handful,  ya that rug doesn't belong there..

Edited January 20, 2018 by bobberineyes

[PurpleFloyd]

That's a cute little carpet muncher. 

[PurpleFloyd]

Here are a few pictures of the little peanut aka TazMania. 

 

I got waaay behind on introducing him to birds and with work and the weather it was a slow start but once I finally got him on birds he really took off. He has an incredible nose and he is close working which for me and my family a$$ is a benefit. I was worried about going away from Springer's but  I am not disappointed and love the cocker. 

[PRO-V]

I had a cocker and he was great. Also hunted a miniature schnauzer and lastly a Bichon frise. They were all killers on grouse. I got a lot of looks from guys with the two little ones. They did pheasant too.

[PurpleFloyd]

Well, we lost the middle springer to throat cancer this spring and the Matriarch springer is now 14.5 years old and very frail. So a few weeks back the same Kennel we got our last Cocker from had a dog that was purchased and the owner had a medical issue and couldn’t take him so they brought him to Pine Shadows for some training and offered him up as a started 10 month old dog so we pulled the trigger and added another Cocker to the pack. This dog is looking to be a very promising. He didn’t have the drive for field trials but will be a superb ditch parrot finder. 

 

 

 

Edited September 23, 2019 by PurpleFloyd

[smurfy]

My soggy wet little terrorist decided he needed laptime.

[smurfy]

Been a while but he's grown a bit, and finally resting 

Edited June 22, 2021 by smurfy

[smurfy]

My big ole white dog taught my granddaughters dog to drink out of the bird bath!!! 

[leech~~]

1 hour ago, smurfy said:

My big ole white dog taught my granddaughters dog to drink out of the bird bath!!! 

 

Keep the bathroom door closed!  

[Mike89]

1 hour ago, leech~~ said:

 

Keep the bathroom door closed!  

he could one of those blue tablets in the water tank and the pup could have a blue tongue!!!