Life with a crazy cocker spaniel puppy

November 9, 2019

Hi there, I am Natalie also known as the furless mama to Piper. This is a completely honest account about our time so far with Piper, she is a little working cocker spaniel puppy with the attitude of a Great Dane.

Decisions Decisions 

We lost our beautiful old lady, May after a year plagued with pancreatitis. She had been poorly on and off having more reoccurring and painful flare ups. She let us know on the 3rd of October that it was her time for the rainbow bridge, losing May truly broke our hearts. 

In June of this year we decided that our hearts were ready for another working cocker. 

In comes our little happy feet crashing into our lives like an absolute whirlwind! She is so different to May, strong willed, feisty, sass for days and stubborn. We were so unsure on numerous occasions if we had made the right decision getting Piper but we know now that we totally did. She is our chaotic little love bug that tackles things head on and spreads a little love with everyone she meets.

Will work for chicken 

Absolutely full of cheek and extremely sassy, training was hard as she did not like being told no or taking direction in general, particularly from me. Of course with the husband it was quite a different story, relatively well behaved and a little less sass. I was so disappointed that she didn’t seem to want to bond with me the way that I was desperately craving. In comes the trainer with some chicken… lightbulb moment! It appears that greed was a way stronger urge than naughtiness. We enrolled in puppy class following our one to one session, socialising and training, perfect! 

Our first class it was just the two of us, no furless dad, just the girls on tour. WE DID AMAZING! I was so, so proud and she knew it. Right there we had our moment and clicked like no other. Piper was finally desperate to please me and from that moment we fell in love. 

“I promise it does come to an end but until then there is always make up for those not so designer eye bags that you are carrying!” 

Early morning temper tantrums

Six whole months of limited broken sleep and it appears we have just cracked this, thank goodness! It’s hard to ignore a screaming puppy who’s acting like their whole world is coming to an end BUT bare with it. We tried all sorts, it would appear a bed that is way too big for her, black out blinds and wellies in front of the cat flap works. Keep going, you will find your way. I promise it does come to an end but until then there is always make up for those not so designer eye bags that you are carrying! 

Powered by Duracell

She’s a chatty bundle of endless energy, I swear she’s powered by Duracell batteries.

I’ll be honest, this is still a work in progress. The settle and relax will hopefully come at some point. Until that point it’s walkies, training and brain training exercises with of course plenty of chatty conversations from Piper along the way. 

Chatty chops

What a gasbag she is. I’ve never known a more chatty dog, she certainly gives me a run for my money! Grumbles, snuffles, forced sneezes and quiet barks is her game. Want a wee, want a chew, wants someone just to look at her and she is off. She craves cuddles, kisses and copious amounts of attention. 

Thankfully we find this quite endearing and entertaining, she certainly lets us know what she is thinking. I imagine if she was a child she would be at the why stage. 

Dirty Dog

Poo… Lots and lots of poo! I find myself asking how one little dog produce so much poo and the most hideous of smells, think sewer and you’re half way there. Well, apparently that’s the way she likes it!! We have a poo muncher, she’s fussy and only likes her own but a poo muncher all the same. This is something she has done since the day we brought her home. I was almost sick the first time she did it, wolfed it down, down the hatch the poo was gone. We were informed not to tell her off for doing this or when she took a god awful dump on the kitchen floor. I think given half the chance she would still feed the dirty dog habit if one of us weren’t there to shoo her away and bag Mount Everest up immediately. This being said, she is improving with this, well at least she’s not as frantic to feed her poo habit. 

Where are you putting that thing?

The dirty word… Vet.

Piper fortunately doesn’t actually mind a trip to see the vet although we are lucky as he is pretty amazing and so lovely to all the fur babies. She’s actually generally very well behaved at the vets and adores the attention and treats she gets there… Again, will work for treats. 

As mentioned earlier, she is a poo muncher. I am sure you can imagine this didn’t do her insides a world of good. Off to the vets we go, obviously I’m in utter meltdown. Nothing was staying inside of her, bouts of endless diarrhoea and very gassy bottom burps. Alls okay, Tony, our lovely vet is giving her treats and cuddles then WOAH what is that thing doing in there?! Yes that’s right folks, thermometer up the bottom. There were no grumbles just a slightly panicked look in her eyes, a ‘how could he do that to me’ look. Thankfully she left with lots of kisses, cuddles but with a slightly confused look on her face. We on the other hand left with considerably less money in our pockets and a goody bag of medication. Note to the furless ones, get to that poo before they do!!

“Piper is everyone’s best friend and tries to show other dogs how much she loves them with a dive on their head.”

You got a friend in me

” Oooo look a doggy”. The ears are twitching, the front paws are tapping, play bow position engaged and that little butt is wiggling into overdrive. 

Piper is everyone’s best friend and tries to show other dogs how much she loves them with a dive on their head. As you can imagine we are working hard on her manners, unfortunately chicken does not work here. Luckily she’s only had one telling off, it wasn’t a bad telling off and she politely backed off. Of course this hasn’t deterred her with other dogs just that one dog. I forever find myself explaining that she’s only six months old, very sweet natured but very, VERY excitable. Luckily most of the dogs we meet are patient with her. Maybe they know she’s a puppy, do they comprehend that? Who knows hey. I feel we will be working on manners for quite sometime.

She adores people and is thankfully polite around them as long as they don’t mind a bum on the foot and a little pooch leaning into their leg for some attention. 

Well in a nutshell that is us three crazies, warts and all taking on the world one step, lick and dog chew at a time. My advice to new furless paw-rents is perseverance, patience and chicken, lots of chicken. 

You can join Piper on her adventures on Instagram: piper_cookie_cocker