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Location: UK
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 16
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My Cocker Spaniel is acting very strangely - please help
I sometimes read around on here but aren't a frequent poster. But I thought of Dogsey as a place to come for some advice so here I am.
My (working type) Cocker Spaniel bitch (in tact) will be 6 this year and was bought as a puppy from a reputable breeder and was reared with our then (just over 12 month old) Border Collie bitch (also in tact).
99% of the time they get on brilliantly and just every now and then will have a fall out - the Cocker has always been top-dog and the Collie has always been the more submissive one.
This hasn't changed. But recently things have been on the change regarding the Cockers general behaviour. A few weeks ago I thought we were going to lose her (and was about to call the vet out at 10pm but the old tea towel tournoquet trick worked so we didn't need to in the end). Totally out of the blue, while eating their supper, the Cocker wandered over to sniff the food in the Collies bowl (as happens frequently) when out of the blue the Collie just turned on her, floored her, tonnes of screaching later and seemingly 10 pints of blood later, the Cocker was a quivering wreck with a large amount of blood loss out of what ended up being a tiny scrape on the inner side of her leg. Anyway, wasn't half as bad as it looked/sounded an my vet nursing skills from back in the day came in useful and we didn't need a vet. Phew.
They've been a-ok with one another since this "incident" and like I say that was a good 3 ish weeks ago now. Wound healed up in next to no time. All OK again now.
Then today, totally out of the blue, while we had a guest round (someone they know and have met before) I just knew something wasn't right. Mind you, it was 30 mins after the guest had arrived too so wasn't anything new about her arriving either. The Cocker just didn't seem right. Tail down, tight in to her bum, tense appearance, staring at the Collie. Then a little growling. I called her over to stop anything escalating but she just wasn't right. Could tell she was tense and kept staring at the Collie (who seemingly had done absolutely nothing wrong whatsoever). Now I know the Cocker gets jealous of the Collie getting any attention but usually things are A-OK when they're both in getting fussed together so I made a big deal of fussing the Cocker lots - getting her to look at me and not the Collie, etc, etc. But still things weren't right. She remained tense. The Collie could tell too and averted her eyes totally, shrunk into a small ball with her back to the Cocker and barely looked up for quite some time so we continued chatting amongst ourselves but I couldn't help feel a little tense about the situation and couldn't help keeping my eye on the Cocker/Collie situation.
Then things seemed to ease off a little. The Collie started moving around again, Cocker seemed back to normal and all was OK again. Then it'd start again, seemingly with zero reason. This continued for some time. Our friend left around this time and so I continued to keep a close eye on things. My hubby then goes into the kitchen to start preparing the veg for tea. The Collie, who adores him, wandered off with him and lay in the kitchen while the Cocker (who adores me) remained in the living room with me and our daughter. Then the next thing I notice was the Cocker kept getting tense, out of the blue, and started staring, perked ears, at the door between the living room and the kitchen as if listening for the Collie. The hubby assured me the Collie wasn't budging from her chosen spot on the floor in the kitchen with him. Then the Cocker started prancing towards the door as if to check and would come back to her bed on the floor near me. This continued for a good 5 mins or so but as the Collie wasn't budging the Cocker seemed to ease off a bit so I started to take a little less notice. Then the next thing I notice (first time ever for this), was that when my daughter was going to stroke the Cocker and indeed actually stroking her, her tail would stop still and her body looked all tense just like it does when she is having an "issue" with the Collie. She looked at me and kept staring at my daughters hand and I just had this awful feeling that something was seriously wrong. So I put my hand down towards her so I was nearer to her myself and politely asked my daughter to go and pick something off the floor (i.e. to get her away). Then, while knelt on the floor conveniently ready to grab her collar, I asked my daughter to come back over to stroke her again. Exact same thing happened again. I'm absolutely gobsmacked by this as the Cocker adores fusses from anyone and I have never, ever seen her tail even stop wagging frantically when anyone strokes her, never mind go into one of the trance/stares/not happy poses like this. I don't even want to consider what may have happened had I not been on red alert.
What the heck could be wrong?!
I know this is totally vague but if anyone has ever experienced anything like this before I would appreciate any advice going as I'm totally baffled.
After these two strange freezes with my daughter stroking her (who is five, by the way, and whom has grown up with the dogs), I didn't want to risk anything so we popped them outside in the garden which they spend a lot of time in while eating/preparing food/etc (they're totally at ease out there, have their own outdoor compound, beds, etc) - obviously kept a close eye on them together and they were absolutely fine - not a jot of an issue as if there ever had been an issue.