Did English Cocker Spaniels fall out of fashion?

[Anonymous]

It blows my mind people choose a dog based on fashion or what’s trendy. So much wrong with this country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a Cocker Spaniel Cavalier mix. For the most part he was a great dog, but he did have occasional issues with Cocker rage and ended developing a heart murmur. We had to put him down at 10 due to congestive heart failure and it was horrible. With how common heart problem are with spaniels, I don't think we would get another.

This is a thing. Unfortunately Cocker Spaniels pretty much always make the list of "Top Ten Dog Breeds Responsible for Dog Bites." A well-trained CS isn't necessarily a dangerous dog, but I wouldn't want one that hasn't been trained and well socialized around children. (Yeah, yeah, of course all dogs are supposed to be trained and socialized, but I bet the percentage of families getting puppies that intend to train their dogs and never do is very, very high -- and if your family falls into this camp and wants a spaniel, I'd go with a CKC instead of a CS to avoid the chance of biting.)

The issue with Cocker rage is that it is different than traditional aggression. Our dog was well trained and well socialized and was an amazing dog 99% of the time. There would just be random things that would set him off and it was like he would completely forget himself and attack. There was one time were he just randomly attacked my mom when she was trying to get a bug outside the door. It was the first time that he bit someone other than me or my husband. We almost put him down so many times and would have if there were kids involved, but after these 30 second episodes happened he would immediately go back to his normal wonderful self, it was like he didn't even remember anything happening. Another episode wouldn't happen again for months. It was impossible to train it out of him, all we could do was try to avoid what we thought might be triggers.