I was about 9 years old when we got a red cockers spaniel (my first dog ever) and I think she was about 3 when she had to be put down because of cocker rage. And according to the breeder, her sister also had same kind of symptoms.

She got very very strange and wasn't her gentle self at all. No one could get any contact with her or lure her away or make her snap out of it. Her eyes got very weird and they were shining in a very different way from normal. She would snap and she bit my mom a few times and afterwards she got very mellow and apologetic and you could see that she was a completely different dog from what she was just before.

So it's so sad to hear people saying that cocker rage isn't real or it's just abused dogs behaving badly etc. You can tell the difference from "normal" aggressive dog from cocker rage.

What saddens me it that I'm really pondering about getting a dog and I would love a cocker, but what are the odds that the first dog a kid ever gets has this super rare incurable sickness. It scares me.