And then there were two!
October 10, 2019
Harvey, the working cocker spaniel, literally bounced into Rachel and her family’s life in 2018 following the loss of their much-loved westie. Not deterred by Harvey’s energy, he’s recently been joined by pup number two, Hazel. Here’s Rachel’s story.
After 14 years in 2018 we lost our beloved westie Woody. We’re a family of four and our two children are ten and twelve. They weren’t used to seeing their parents cry every day for weeks.
Five weeks later we had picked a new puppy. We went for a completely different breed this time as didn’t want to try and replace Woody. Harvey is a golden working cocker spaniel and we collected him at 8 weeks old.
“Now that we’ve discovered his love of a tennis ball, he’s really focused and much easier to train.”
On the go
From the minute Harvey came home he has been non stop and if we are honest, really hard work. I knew buying a working cocker would mean a lot of exercise, but what I gradually began to understand was that more exercise just made Harvey fitter and certainly didn’t calm him down. Harvey needs a lot of mental stimulation as he’s a working dog. Now that we’ve discovered his love of a tennis ball, he’s really focused and much easier to train.
Sock fetish
Harvey has eaten 12 socks in total. Yep that’s right, 12! How he has never needed surgery we will never know!
Fortunately he has vomited everyone single one up, except one which I had to poop scoop 8 days later. He has even eaten my daughters crop top which he kept down for ten days. How he is alive is an absolute mystery.
Introducing Hazel
I’ve been going on and on about another dog for a few months now (Like we haven’t already got our hands full!). I set up notifications on my emails of local dogs for months which I constantly send to my husband. Some messages he ignores, sometimes he gives me a ‘one day babe’ reply.
But then we found Hazel when we were away on holiday this summer. She was already four months old when we got her. We improvised with a cardboard potato box for her bed on her first night, as we were still on holiday, and then the next day we made the nine hour journey home back to Newcastle. I have to say she was an actual dream on the way home.
So we are now a family with 2 dogs. Hazel has been a little more tricky to toilet train but with lots of perseverance she seems to have it mastered. Her recall is amazing and she is a much calmer natured dog. There is clearly a big difference in personalities between working cockers and show cockers.
It’s really important to read as much as possible before choosing a dog breed. Whilst we wouldn’t change a thing, it’s a big commitment getting a high energy dog and you need to make sure you have lots of free time and patience.