Guilty

[John Wood]

Hi, I keep going through massive guilt about whether we are doing enough for our male 20 month cocker spaniel , I can go for days when I’m feeling fine then I’ll just have a week when I can’t seem to snap out of it and it’s driving me insane .
He will normally get around an hours walk morning and evening he gets a good run if it’s light enough in a field a couple of times in the working week then he will get longer walks at weekends , he then basically sleeps most of the day and I just worry that he is bored .
He is quite chilled for a spaniel .
Is this normal behaviour?

 

[JudyN]

Not all spaniels are like Duracell bunnies - it sounds like he's just naturally chilled, and perfectly happy! If you're concerned you could try playing the odd game with him in between walks to get his brain cells ticking.

 

[Sez1]

He sounds a dream. I know the anxiety of thinking you aren't doing enough for our dog. My 2 1/2 show cocker had a lot of exercise when younger but probably too much which caused problems in itself. He now gets a 1-1 1/2 hour walk then another shorter walk with a couple of garden games of fetch or indoor games each day. He then has at least 3 longish sleeps during the day. If he hasn't had enough physical or mental exercise he will be sure to let me know! There are days when he tells me he isn't keen to go out for a walk and would like to play fetch in the garden. And after a visit to family or somewhere new he is tired and glad to be home. I think you have probably found the best routine you can and he is content with it but change is good too. I vary the places we walk for both our benefit but am also aware that there needs to be a balance of comfortable routine (where he will mark) as well as the excitement and anxiety of a new place.

 

[John Wood]

He sounds a dream. I know the anxiety of thinking you aren't doing enough for our dog. My 2 1/2 show cocker had a lot of exercise when younger but probably too much which caused problems in itself. He now gets a 1-1 1/2 hour walk then another shorter walk with a couple of garden games of fetch or indoor games each day. He then has at least 3 longish sleeps during the day. If he hasn't had enough physical or mental exercise he will be sure to let me know! There are days when he tells me he isn't keen to go out for a walk and would like to play fetch in the garden. And after a visit to family or somewhere new he is tired and glad to be home. I think you have probably found the best routine you can and he is content with it but change is good too. I vary the places we walk for both our benefit but am also aware that there needs to be a balance of comfortable routine (where he will mark) as well as the excitement and anxiety of a new place.

Thank you for your reply.
I'm not sure you realise how much it helps but it does massively.
He is a really good boy I think we got lucky with him being so chilled .
How can you tell if they don’t want to go out ? I’ve often thought of giving him a rest day but never have .

 

[John Wood]

Not all spaniels are like Duracell bunnies - it sounds like he's just naturally chilled, and perfectly happy! If you're concerned you could try playing the odd game with him in between walks to get his brain cells ticking.

Thank you !
I should have said we do play games with him as well, I just want him to be a happy dog .

 

[JudyN]

Then I don't think you have anything to worry about

 

[Sez1]

Not wanting to go out is rare but just refusing his collar, barking and going to where the ball is, is pretty clear spaniel speak. And it tends to follow an eventful day or just miserable weather. I also walk him on a long line as he still training, so this l think is mentally quite a challenge . He like to de-stress after walks with a brief ball play. Some dogs do zoomies.

 

[JudyN]

How can you tell if they don’t want to go out ? I’ve often thought of giving him a rest day but never have .

Make sure he has choices in general, such as where he goes on a walk. Maybe lead him in a 'boring' direction and see if he hesitates, looks at you, looks in the better direction, etc. The more a dog can make choices (within reason) and communicate them to you, the better, IMO. If he knows he can tell you what he wants to do, he's more likely to do so.

And contrary to what some might think, this doesn't result in dogs wanting to make all the decisions. Jasper was very amenable to when I had to overrule him as long as I made clear that I had considered his request but, regrettably, it wasn't possible. If I just blithely ignored what he was telling me he wanted to do, he'd plant himself and made sure I listened.

 

[Wocker]

Don’t worry about it best you can! I’m in a similar situation with my working cocker. She’s 2 & 1/2 but is completely hyper. Bred from a strong working line of farm dogs and gun dogs who weigh in at silly numbers lean. Luckily she’s not turned out huge but still got the relentless energy her father had and the looks of the mother. Sometimes I wish mine was more chilled out. The only time she’s switched ‘off’ is when she’s crated and literally forced to rest.

When I got her I was working 50+ hours a week with a long drive each way and the saving grace was that my family was working from home and as a pup, couldn’t go too far anyway. As she aged, my job changed to a feast and famine. One week I’d do 70+ hours, the next I’d do 6. She would get 15 minutes on a morning before work, I’d pop home if I was able to and give her a 15 minute walk and then 30 minutes on a night. Then the week after we’d go to the beach or woods and walk for miles as well as more on a night around the estate.

The thing is, my job was manual labour and I was shattered. I felt awful not being with her enough and was often out at midnight trying to squeeze some time in. Quite literally just running on empty sometimes. My family went back to the office after Covid and I lost my job when the company closed down indefinitely so in terms of timing for her, it was ideal. Being out of work and having to try and plan wasn’t a good time for me mentally. I just went to bits for a while and the dog helped keep me afloat. Since we’d missed out on good leash training as I was often sleepwalking through life, her pulling was hideous as my training was all or nothing.

I just used to put her in the car and take her for one long off leash walk per day so that the street walks were less and we could focus on training rather than exercise. It’s taken ages and I mean ages to get it out of her. Well over a year of trying all sorts. Eventually it was a front clip harness that’s worked the best on her. As a puppy she was a real pain in the backside so if yours is a good one, think yourself lucky and enjoy the head start!

Teaching mine anything that involves the great outdoors has been a real nightmare but inside she can learn new tricks in one session. I think she’s too clever for her own good and quickly worked out where I wasn’t on the ball whilst she was young m and monopolised on that. Recall was another fun one that we still work on almost daily. All the training I’d done was undone when she caught a rabbit at 7 months old and since then I’ve been having to try and train her that the countryside isn’t a butchers market!

I’ve met many cockers and none have been as much of a handful as mine, even the gundog trainer I know finds her a nightmare haha (I don’t use her as a gundog though). When I started dog grooming I was worried about doing cockers as I thought they were all mad but they’re usually quite well behaved compared to the shih tzus and terriers!

Try not to think too much about what you could do more, just focus on the time you’ve got available which sounds like enough for your chilled out dog. Even for a nutter like mine, it’s plenty of exercise. Right now we do around 15-20 minutes on a morning, 1-1.5 hours off leash between midday and dinner time, 30 minutes on a leash before bed. Then I have to walk my old dog separate as they can’t keep up and only go a short distance if the weather is up to it

 

[JoanneF]

@Wocker, we're you trying to add something? You should see a little panel below this; just type in there and hit ”post reply”.

 

[Wocker]

@Wocker, we're you trying to add something? You should see a little panel below this; just type in there and hit ”post reply”.

yes, managed in the end lol

thanks