Where did you get her? That sounds like a pretty common problem that collies and cockers are having right now. The problem is that they're too bloody popular. The more popular a breed is, the more irresponsible "backyard breeders" come out of the woodwork and start puppy mills to churn out as many dogs as they can.

The reason I ask is because a responsible breeder should have had you sign a contract when you got the dog. The contract should have included a clause saying that the breeder will take the dog back *for any reason* In fact, most responsible breeders INSIST on this - - they retain the right to sue if you DON'T take the dog back to the breeder.

I participate in Basset Rescue as a runner. It's an organization that finds basset hounds that have been given up to shelters or that have been neglected by their owners and places them with responsible people. A runner just means that I don't take the dogs in (a 14 year old basset and a disabled father kinda prevent dealing with other dogs) but I transport them from whereever I find them in and around the St. Paul, MN area to Madison, WI, where my particular basset rescue organization is based.

Participating in Basset Rescue has taught me TONS about the puppy industry. For example, a dog should NEVER be bought from a pet store. Pet stores generally buy exclusively from puppy mills, so buying a dog from them supports puppy mills. If you've never seen a puppy mill, picture about 40 cages only slightly larger than a good sized rabbit cage. Each cage holds 3 to 5 dogs. The floors of the cages are generally wire, which causes deformations in the dog's feet. The dogs are undernourished, neglected, and often have serious lifelong health problems as a result of their early experience in a puppy mill. The breeding dogs in these places are basically constantly pregnant. They generally die quite early of diseases caused by their constant pregnancies.

Perhaps the worst part about this industry is that genetics are completely ignored. Responsible breeders work to irradicate negative traits such as aggressiveness, diseases (glaucoma, etc). The irresponsible ones breed anything at any time, which means that some poor sap ends up with a dog that has a genetic predisposition to biting or to getting a serious illness.

my point in all this is that Cockers were NOT a snippy, aggressive breed. Irresponsible overbreeding has caused many aggressive strains of cockers, however, and it sounds like you got one of those dogs. Whoever bred that dog may be operating a puppy mill, which may be illegal in your state (in other words, report them to the SPCA)



It's stuff like this that makes us Basset owners very glad that our dogs are stubborn, drooling, shedding, and too intelligent for their own good. Those traits mean they're not very popular with most people, which keeps the irresponsible breeding down. We hate it whenever a basset is featured on TV (maytag repairman anyone?) because that increases the likelihood that demand will increase, as it did with collies after Lassie, and with chihuahuas after the Taco Bell dog.



It's stuff like this that also makes me wonder how the devil we as a country can pass loads of laws making sure convicted murderers have the unalienable right to cable TV while avoiding legislation that would ease the plight of millions of dogs every year.