Are spangles really that bad?

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Annette4

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I'm SERIOUSLY tempted to get a Spangle instead of another Corgi (eventually I want both but can only afford one puppy at a time ;) ) but I'm a bit worried about the exercise/energy side of things. I'd be looking at a show bred cocker rather than working bred. Are they really as mental as I think they are? How much exercise do those with spangles (especially show bred ones) give their pooches?

Gah to decisions.....I don't even have the money in hand yet so goodness knows what I'm worrying about just yet :P
 
I don't have a cocker but i have a brittany which i think has a little more energy.

He is walked for an hour in the morning and then 30 minutes to 40 minutes at night!

Thats at 7 years old when he was younger it was 2 hours a day.

He does well on this amount and will sleep for the rest of the day!
 
Our two get one 45min walk a day most days, some days they only get 30mins in the garden playing with the dog walker. May not be perfect but it works fine for them, I just watch how much i feed them. They do get more bouncy round the house and demand more attention if they go two days without a walk but I try to balance that by a mega walk on the third day.

If we're at my parents Dad walks them for 30 mins in the morning and over an hour in the afternoon and they just keep going - then sleep soundly all evening!!
 
Ideally Otto gets 2 X 1 hour walks per day, but that isn't always possible and he will cope with an hour a day, but it has to be an hour of constant running off the lead. If I were to walk him on the lead... it took 5 hours of walking around Burghley before we had made a dent in his energy, hence why it was so important to get him to recall!! :D
He gets about 20 mins during his walks of 'training' to tire his brain, and when we walk him places he can swim that tires him a bit more physically.

However that is just enough to make him quiet, if I wanted to knacker him out completely... well we went on an 11 mile walk (which given how much Otto runs around, you could probably times by 5 for him) and after a 10 minute nap in the car on the way home he was ready to go again! :D :D

(Otto is a particularly high energy Springer however, bred to work all day non-stop!) :D
 
Ideally Henry gets at least one hour per day, and I prefer closer to 1.5-2 hours when practical. He will cope with less, but after a couple of days it will show in his behaviour:eek:

He needs mental stimulation as well - if I don't take him for a walk after work we have to play a game or do some training at home or he gets bored. Ideally his walks have some training element to them as well although not always:o But if I am just ambling along, the chances of him doing something naughty do increase:o

Wouldn't change him though:)
 
See Jack doesn't walk in the moring but gets 45mins with mum and a 20min power walk with me in the evening.

When I move out he'll get 20 mins in the morning, 1/2hr - hr with a dog walker at lunch and another 20 mins (or more if I have pony by then and he can come with me ;) ) in the evening. He can quite happily totally go without a walk though. He also gets VERY long walks at the weekends (we did 5 miles on Monday which is a tiny bit more than normal but not by a lot).

My vain hope is that with another one Jack will play too (he just doesn't play now besides a bit of wrestling with me) which will mean he'll burn more too. I have to weight out his food anyway so used to watching how much my dogs eating.
 
Otto can't really go one day without a walk, by the afternoon he would be climbing the walls! Then when you took him out the next day he would be far more mental than normal. For that reason we try to avoid it as much as possible :D :D
 
kirstyhen said:
Otto can't really go one day without a walk, by the afternoon he would be climbing the walls! Then when you took him out the next day he would be far more mental than normal. For that reason we try to avoid it as much as possible :D :D
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Same as mine.

He more than lets you know when he wants out!

I also don't think it is fair to have a dog with that much energy and not walk them everyday (bar the odd time now and again).
 
Oh no he rarely goes without I walk, it's literally happened about 5 times in 6 years, the last time being when I was home alone for a week and had a nasty tummy bug for two days and couldn't leave the toilet long enough to walk him. I just meant he's of that kind of energy level where he'll walk as much as you want but not be bouncing off the walls if he doesn't get his normal fill of exercise.
 
katielou_houston said:
I also don't think it is fair to have a dog with that much energy and not walk them everyday (bar the odd time now and again).
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That's a bit of a mean comment - if practical we would walk our dogs everyday but given we both work shifts and they only recall to us they have to make do with just garden time when our dog walker visits. Given that when we got them they were used to living on a patio and being walked once a week on a lead I think they have a pretty fair life now!!
 
kirstyhen said:
Otto can't really go one day without a walk, by the afternoon he would be climbing the walls! Then when you took him out the next day he would be far more mental than normal. For that reason we try to avoid it as much as possible :D :D
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Annette4 said:
Oh no he rarely goes without I walk, it's literally happened about 5 times in 6 years, the last time being when I was home alone for a week and had a nasty tummy bug for two days and couldn't leave the toilet long enough to walk him. I just meant he's of that kind of energy level where he'll walk as much as you want but not be bouncing off the walls if he doesn't get his normal fill of exercise.
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Yeah i think its totally different with a corgi (i want one)
Just most spangles would be bouncing off the walls!
 
JoG said:
That's a bit of a mean comment - if practical we would walk our dogs everyday but given we both work shifts and they only recall to us they have to make do with just garden time when our dog walker visits. Given that when we got them they were used to living on a patio and being walked once a week on a lead I think they have a pretty fair life now!!
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Thats fine that it works for you but i was saying i would not do it with my dogs!
 
Sorry, bad day to ask me that! I had three of them in back to back for grooming - all with varying degrees of matting and ALL of them whinging non-stop for hours. arrrrgh!
 
Does the intended walking system (with mental training too obv) sound like enough?

It does seem it from what people have said. I'm staying clear of working spangles as I want something (for a spangle) lower energy but not as low as Jack.

ETA I'm possibly looking for another PAT dog so I'll be aiming for that kind of energy anyway.
 
Pippa must be a greyhound in disguise then!
She is the only springer I know that will happily sleep the day away in the sunshine. Somedays you actually have to drag the lazy moo out the door. Bear and Harry Puppy on the other hand, MORE than make up for Pippa's lazyness!
 
we have a 15month old cocker,don,t matter how much walking you give him when you are out,he just keeps going,as already quoted this is what they are bred to do.
when he gets home tho he settles done and has plenty naps! a little play when he wants, then :)sleeps again.
had all different types of breds but must say i do like the cocker easy to train
and generaly very nice dog.
 
joeanne said:
Pippa must be a greyhound in disguise then!
She is the only springer I know that will happily sleep the day away in the sunshine. Somedays you actually have to drag the lazy moo out the door. Bear and Harry Puppy on the other hand, MORE than make up for Pippa's lazyness!
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LOL - funny you should say that, I was just reflecting about the ability of a greyhound to sleep for 23.5 hours a day :D I really couldnt cope with a manic dog, mine are just perfect :D
 
I have had St Sweep since he was 8 weeks old and from the first day he could go out after his jabs he had a a hlf an hour walk first thing in the morning and the same again when I got in from work - weekends would be a the same but with a big long walk both days round one of the big parks or at my parents as I lived in a flat in the middle of Birmingham. He is a show cocker and has always been absolutley fine with that. Obviously when we moved back to the countryside he has had different sort of walks but always at least an hour a day - he has never been destructive or bored which is more than I can say about some dogs who live in the countryside and never get walked because they have a garden.:rolleyes:

Dogs, like all animals are creatures of habit and as long as they get regular excercie they will be fine. In some cases the fitter they get the more excercise they need.:) But all dogs are different and they will slip into any routine you make for them.:)
 
I agree that a lot of it is routine and most Spaniels aren't that manic.
Otto is a fairly extreme example and I'm sure most Spaniel people read my answers about Spaniels and think I'm talking complete and utter nonsense.
However, Otto is not unique, you could get one of the lovely, biddable, relaxed (for a Spaniel) Spaniels there are about, or you could get an Otto-esq nutcase.
I just like to prepare people for the worst! :D If what I say about Otto puts someone off, then perhaps a Spaniel (even a nice one!) isn't the dog for them! If it doesn't, then clearly they should be sectioned and in that case are more than suitable to own a Spaniel :D :D
 
LB (Little Bitch) was a rescue cocker so when we got her at fifteen months old she was pretty mainc and no matter how much exercise or play she got she wanted more and drove us up the walls.

However with time, love and patience she has turned into a more controlable dog and although at seven will still go allday does now settle in the evenings.

Her current regime is 2 miles gentle jogging with me in the mornings, take about 20 mins. She's goes to work with OH carpeting fitting (she is a working cocker afterall) and gets around 20 mins playtime at lunch. Evenings is a five mile run, about 45 mins. She's off the lead for most of both runs so probably goes much further than I. Weekends are usually spent at the yard -allday playing!

Good luck with whatever you decide. They do keep you entertained & very busy.

JDx
 
I love having a greyhound! After having an extreme border collie who needed walking 22 hours a day, having a dog that is happy to do an hour on the lead or 20 minutes hoolying and 10 minutes training a day is great! Yet he still has energy to play of we want him too.

Often has to be dragged for a walk, especially when its raining.

He quite happily sleeps the rest of the time, getting up occasionally to have something to eat!

I'd quite like to be him!
 
Is a spangle a true Cocker Spaniel or one of these new crosses?

I have show type cockers and I don't walk them everyday. They have 2 acres and free access as I am at home all day. Sometimes we go off for a jolly rabbit and phesant chasing but other days they just flush our paddock and bundle around with me in the garden.

Before we moved here I still didn't walk them everyday. Yes we had another big garden and yes I was still at home all day so they just excersized eachother and we played find it, and ball and generally had a good time.

To me dogs especially spaniels are companions and very sociable. They would far prefer your company to a quick 30 mins walk then noone around all day. I'm gonna get shot down in flames here i just know it.........eeeekk I'm off ( hides)
 
I think alot depends on the dog! If you want something a bit more chilled then a clumber or sussex may be an idea?

I'm lucky with archie - he's only 18 months but as long as he gets outside he'd happily exist on 30 mins a day.........I'm convinced he's not a full cocker!
 
Bomber is now 6mths old and is a total lunatic!

I have genuiunely never seen him walk. He is either running flat out with his tail clamped to his backside or every second step is a 2ft jump in the air :rolleyes:

When we're in the the house he constantly seeks out stimulation by harrassing other dogs, OH or by finding things to chew. We have tried ignoring it, getting involved with it and controlling it by giving him other stimuli, but to date nothing keeps him occupied for more than a few minutes before he resumes whichever disruptive/destructive task takes his preference!

Occasionally (about once a week) he'll get so tired during a play time that he slinks off for a recharge, which takes about 4hrs, before he is full of beans and ready to go again :rolleyes:

I'm not being funny, this has been my life for 4mths now!!

Don't get me wrong, when he is training and you have his full intelligent attention you know that no other dog could be as rewarding- but gees do you pay for it!

Perhaps you want a 6mth old cocker for a week or two? I know if I had lived with a cocker spaniel first I NEVER would have bought one!! :D :p :D
 
I'm actually shocked reading some of these replies....................
How do you get your spangles to rest and sleep????
Millies routine is:
Monday-Friday
5am-45min walk
7am-8am-freetime in garden
12.30-1.30pm walk around Hobbit land with me eating my lunch on the move.
3.30-5.00pm Hobbit land walk, duck killing/terrorising and play in ford.
8.00pm walk in Hobbit land
10pm walk round block for last widdles then upstairs into the double bed, chased out of double bed put on landing only to open door and climb back onto bed!
At the weekends she has several walks lasting anything between 3-6hours!!!
Little fek NEVER tires!
 
As some have already mentioned - they can be quite different. I have 2 rescue spangles (1 ESS & 1 Springer x Lab). They are walked twice a day for at least 45 min-1 hr (longer if poss), with a couple of 10-15 min first thing & last thing. They will often also be running in the paddock whilst I am poo-picking & doing stuff with the horses. If one of the walks doesn't entail free running ( and they literally will run & hunt, not just trot along, & like kirstyhen above, will have some training work included) the ESS will not settle at home & will bounce off the walls. He also does agility- still has plenty of energy doing this in the evening after doing all the above all day! The cross is also energetic whilst out but will settle quite happily at home, even if he does not get quite as much exercise as usual. That said, another springer who used to go to agility had much lower energy levels & was quite sedate, with its owner often having difficulty coaxing it out of trot!
 
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