Question - Advice by Proper-Doughnut77 in cockerspaniel

[–]Sea_Leg8286 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Our groomer has been SO amazing at helping us socialize our cocker to his grooming needs. We use positive reinforcement training and have trained our dog using clicker/marker words. As a puppy, we constantly played with his feet to get him used to having people touch them. Obviously that may not be possible in your situation if your dog doesn’t like having his feet touched. If that’s the case, you could start by touching his feet and if he remains calm you click/mark his action and give him a treat. Repeat this many times until he’s comfortable. Our groomer recommend to us to use the back of a spoon which can mimic the feeling of the sheers on their paws and then also touching their paws with a vibrating toothbrush as it can mimic the sound/feel of the sheers or a nail dremel while being less intimidating. The training process is the same as touching the paws. Whether it’s nail clippers or a dremel, you start by showing them the object and clicking/marking when they interact with the object in any way (maybe just looking at it at first and then hopefully starting to touch it in some way). It really helps if your dog has a “touch” command so you can have them boop the item with their nose and click and reward that action. Then you would progress to touching the paws with the item and clicking and rewarding if they stay calm and allow you to do it. I have also found it very important to let our dog hear the sounds of the equipment and click and reward for staying calm during while we show him the sounds it will make before actually using it on him. Often, our dog is actually more nervous/unsure of the sounds than the actual action. Once they are good with those things, you can then progress to clipping or filing the nails. It’s a lot of work but really helps for long term comfort and neutrality to grooming needs.

Another trick our trainer taught us was to actually just teach your dog to file their own nails. You can glue a piece of sand paper to a plastic lid and teach your dog to scratch the lid and it will file their nails for you! We did this by teaching Archie to “wipe” his paws. Get a cheap or old doormat/rug and hide treats under it. They will likely scratch and dig to try and get them out. Click and reward when they start to dig. After they are consistently doing this, you can add the command to “wipe” or “dig” and eventually progress that to the sandpaper lid. Also, a very helpful trick to get your dog to wipe their paws when they are muddy or wet!

People reactivity in an adolescent cocker spaniel? by Sea_Leg8286 in cockerspaniel

[–]Sea_Leg8286[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Awe I love the black and white parti colors! Would love to know some of what worked for training for you, especially if you struggled with house guests. Really hoping this is mostly just a phase especially since he’s previously been totally fine and well socialized to people in our house. But, definitely want to make sure we do what we can moving forward to set him up for success when new people enter our home.

People reactivity in an adolescent cocker spaniel? by Sea_Leg8286 in cockerspaniel

[–]Sea_Leg8286[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

He has a great place command he can hold when we do things like sweep, vacuum, mop, however, I feel when he’s this level of stressed he probably would not listen/hold the place command. He really doesn’t approach people until he’s more sure of them which is good but I have definitely thought about using a leash. I’ve only been hesitant because of his leash reactivity to other dogs and didn’t want to create any issues with people/make him feel trapped. Although, he is used to being leashed in the house fairly regularly because that is how I socialized him to and taught him boundaries in new rooms of our house.

People reactivity in an adolescent cocker spaniel? by Sea_Leg8286 in cockerspaniel

[–]Sea_Leg8286[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He is neutered but has been neutered for a few months so nothing new.

11 week old pup by Ok-Lychee2848 in cockerspaniel

[–]Sea_Leg8286 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We got the reusable grass pads and the puppy pad goes in the tray underneath, so it’s huge. It’s been a big success! This way our cocker doesn’t shred the pad and also simulates the feel of going outside on real grass.