What to Expect from an English Cocker Spaniel Rescue

English Cocker Spaniel

The English cocker spaniel is one of the best family dogs around according to the American Kennel Club. The nationally recognized club reports that this breed is one that’s friendly and loving, affectionate and active, and very merry. This breed loves kids and people in general, and it is a very hardworking dog. This is probably the reason so many people enjoy having a dog like this in the house. When outside, this is the kind of dog that might ward off or at least alert you to the fact that there might be other animals in the yard. This is a dog that can penetrate any kind of cover, finding squirrels, snakes, bunnies and even skunks or other animals that might be hiding in your bushes and around your house. You’ll certainly find it difficult to worry about the kids in the yard with a dog that’s going to find anything that could be hiding. Aside from that, however, there are always questions people have about breeds they may or may not be familiar with. This breed, for instance, is an English cocker spaniel. It’s slightly different than your classic cocker spaniel in that it has“English” in front of it. We kid; seriously, the difference lies in the fact that the AKC recognized it as its own breed in the mid-1940s.

Many who want this breed want to rescue or adopt one. And since there are many rescues around the country for the English cocker spaniel, people ask regularly what will happen to this breed after it goes into the rescue system and what that means for them if they make the decision to rescue one. We have some insight, straight from a nationally recognized English cocker spaniel rescue group, as to what happens to your dog when it is received by the rescue and before it is made available to the public.

Temperament Training

Dogs that are taken into rescues are studied and evaluated to ensure that their temperament is where it needs to be. Why does this happen? This happens because there are many dogs that are abused, that are neglected or that are not trained and they need to be evaluated to see how they will react around people, other animals and even children. A dog that is up for rescue or adoption should be evaluated so that potential families for the dog know whether or not it will fit in well with their family. For instance, an English cocker spaniel that has an aggressive temperament thanks to very poor upbringing might not be good in a home with kids. This is just something that rescues have to know and make it a point to learn.

Veterinary Care

One of the reasons it is so expensive to open a rescue for any animal is the veterinary care. It’s not cheap to take one animal to the vet, let alone many. However, many rescues have to be checked out by the vet because the rescue has no idea what kind of health history dogs might have. There are some that are surrendered by their owners for reasons that are out of their control, and those owners are more likely to provide the rescue with the proper veterinary paperwork required to show the health of the dog and its visits to the vet, but many do not provide this. A dog that is taken in by a rescue has to be checked out so that t can be determined whether or not this is a healthy dog and how much longer it has to live based on its overall health. Rescues do not want to send dogs to live with families that might not live long because they are terminally ill or even contagious.

“Fixed” Dogs

All dogs that go into rescues of this nature will be spayed or neutered so that they cannot be used for breeding purposes. Rescues are not in the business of offering dogs that breed to potential owners and make the decision to remove that as a possibility from the very start. This is something that most all rescues believe, though you might find a smaller rescue here and there that does not do this or believe in this.

Rehabilitation

The good news about dog rescues, too, is that they rehab all dogs before placing them in new homes. This is not to say all English cocker spaniels that find their way into a rescue are in need of rehab, but many are. Some might have injuries if they were hit by a car or attacked by another animal, and they might require some rehab to get them through this and make it possible for them to lead normal lives. Additionally, other rehabilitation might be necessary for specific instances. You can check with the rescue of your choice to see if any of the dogs that interest you have been through the rehabilitation process and why they might have.

Why are Dogs in Need of Rescue?

For the most part, rescues are in place to do just that; rescue dogs. English cocker spaniels, like all other breeds, sometimes go through hard times. Their owners die and they have no one to take them in. Financial crisis occurs in their home and some dog owners are forced to admit they can no longer care for their dogs. Some dogs belong to people who become too ill to care for them. Others have to relocate and cannot take their dog. There are many reasons why a dog might have to go into a rescue, and not all of them are bad. There is a misconception that many dogs in rescues are not well-behaved and cannot live in a civilized home and their owners just gave them up because of it, but that is not the case. It does happen, but English cocker spaniels are such intelligent dogs that very few of them are not trained. And those who are not trained are easily trainable once someone is willing to step up to the plate.

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

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