'Crazy' dog?

Kokopelli

Kokopelli

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First time posting in dogs so please be nice :o

I have a lovely cocker spaniel, he's a real old fashioned type the sort you don't really say anymore and he is such a lovely dog, not a bad bone in him but he is literally nuts!

He barks all the time, if the doorbell goes, if someone walks past the house, if the neighbours make a noise, if a car goes past... the list is endless, we was told to squirt him with a water gun when he barked and he would be quiet this worked for a week then he thought it was quite fun being squirted by a water gun so were back to square one again! How do I stop the barking?

He also has his 'moments' when he gets really excited he will just run full pelt around the house, he is nuts. He'll run down the hallway do a flip off the dishwasher run back down the hallwaythen go head first into the wall because he hasn't got breaks on the laminat floor!

He'll then go and pull every item of his bed out the kitchen and bring it into the lounge, when you pick it up to put it back he'll have another 'moment' as he thinks your playing with him.

He did this as a puppy and we thought he'd outgrow it but he is now 3 and still bonkers! We love him to pieces he is just such a laugh but we really do need to calm him down before he breaks something, or himself!

Any suggestions on calming him down? We can't feed him anything as he has a very sensitive stomach and is on a prescribed food as it is.
 
katielou_houston said:
A ton of exercise and lots and lots of training sessions every day.

What are you feeding him? It could be half the problem.
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He gets tonnes of exercise! Way more then the recommended amount so were really stuck on what to do we could exercise him more we have got the time and we'll see how that goes.

He was on James Wellbeloved I can't think which sort and then he got ill so we got given prescribed food by the vet by the same company but you can only get through a vet.
 
Am interested to see answers as one of the pups barks at scary things or strange noises and I really don't want a noisy dog. So far, he gets told no, brought in if he's outside and distracted.

Any more suggestions would be bril.
 
Congratulations, it's a spangle:D

Gundog training... put that brain to good use! You don't ever have to take him to a shoot, but he will enjoy the challenge - and using his brain will tire him out very effectively. Also, doing this will help build a better bond with him, which in turn will give you the tools to address problems.

Now, no more advice until we have a picture:D
 
Spudlet... where can you find details of local gun dog training? Please have a look at my aggressive dog post... think my situation will end up with me and OH divorcing soon....
 
Oh dear, just read it, that doesn't sound good...! Well, I was recommended a trainer via another forum http://www.cockersonline.co.uk/discuss/index.php, or you could try the Gundog Club. They run courses, and you might prefer 1-2-1, but it might be a good source of contacts.

I don't know if it would help an aggressive dog or not as that is totally outside my experience, but it's got to be worth a shot IMO - I would ask about, follow up a few leads and see what trainers think.
 
Working - brain exercise tires them.

Exercise - mine gets 45 minutes 3 x per day minimum my OH also runs with him and he can comfortably run for 6 or 7 miles!!

Swimming - I find this good for burning energy.

They are in general quite nutty though!!
 
I made mine fairly tired the other day by walking up and down a mountain in driving rain and gale force winds...:D

He was ready to go again the next day though - too bad I wasn't!
 
Typical Spaniel!! :)
Is he castrated?
If the food you have him on is quite high protein that might not be helping, but obviously can't be changed. Lots of brain occupying - try feeding him his food from a treat ball (if its dry) then he actually has to work for his food.
http://www.bustercube.com/how_to/howto.html our GSD has this one and we set the level to "hardest" and put half her dried food in there.
Lots of training as suggested already.
You could speak to your vet about DAP - dog appeasing pheromone. Its a little plug in rather like an air freshener, that releases pheromones which calm our canines! We had one for our dog aggressive shepherd and whilst it didn't work on her, it had a VERY good effect on our loopy Goldie!! :) Its also available in a collar, but I understand some people don't like the idea - it has no effect on humans.
Trial and error I'm afraid in the barking states - rattle bottle, ignoring him, shouting one sharp word, praising when he stops...the list is endless it just depends on the individual dog :)
Good luck with your hooligan I hope he calms down!!
K x

ETA our Goldie regularly has a mad five minutes flying through the house and as the GSD is trying to trip her up (!) she will, without fail, smack into the wall or door looking behind her! We keep wondering if it will knock sense into her...but we're still to see evidence!!
 
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Oh he loves swimming! The new trick is to jump in the water trouph (SP) and do laps! Will try the gun dog thing I think he would love that, I was also thinking maybe dog agility as he loves jumping the showjumps in the field :)

Heres some piccies of Benjie, he is a lot bigger since these were taken:
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And some of our old dog daisy for comparison she was a diddy little cocker compared to Benjie (she was very sadly kicked by our horse when she was still a puppy)

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Oh bless, he's lovely:)

Am I right in thinking that Daisy was a show type? While Benjie is a working type. Workers do need a lot more stimulation than show types as a general rule of thumb, they need to have their brains occupied. Show types tend to be a bit more laid back and easygoing.

Sorry if you know this already!
 
Spudlet said:
Oh bless, he's lovely:)

Am I right in thinking that Daisy was a show type? While Benjie is a working type. Workers do need a lot more stimulation than show types as a general rule of thumb, they need to have their brains occupied. Show types tend to be a bit more laid back and easygoing.

Sorry if you know this already!
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Yeah Daisy was a show type, she still had her moments though but she was just easier to deal with, she used to come to mounted games practices and fall asleep in the bucket of tennis balls, we was planning on showing her aswell as her parents were very succesful show dogs.

And Benjie is definatly the working type, we realised he needed more stimulation but he was a very quiet dog when we fist had him, it wasn't until he was about a year old he turned into a nutter. We definatly don't want to show Benjie :p

I would always get a spaniel though they are just such friendly lovely dogs even though they are energetic :)
 
Working dogs are charged! Having had a springer x lab and now two JRTs from working stock I can tell you it never really gets better - however channeling energy and finding an appropriate outlet works wonders. My dogs have times when I allow hoony behaviour and times I don't allow it at all and by letting them have allocated nutty times I find it helps curtail the less opportune moments :)
 
silverbullet said:
Swimming - I find this good for burning energy.
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Swimming makes/made my two go mental to the point where the OH tried to ban me from taking them! They loved it, tho and the accompanying walk was fabulous.

Putting the pups in the car and going for a drive (we're building up length of car journeys to overcome travel sickness and we're taking all three so they get used to being in a confined space together) completely wipes them: would this help for yours or does going somewhere just excite him more?
 
cinammontoast said:
Swimming makes/made my two go mental to the point where the OH tried to ban me from taking them! They loved it, tho and the accompanying walk was fabulous.

Putting the pups in the car and going for a drive (we're building up length of car journeys to overcome travel sickness and we're taking all three so they get used to being in a confined space together) completely wipes them: would this help for yours or does going somewhere just excite him more?
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He loves swimming but going anywhere for him is mega exciting as soon as he sees his lead he's mad. So swimming will be great for him, where can you take them swimming?
 
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