> 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)

That was not the case, but it's a good thing to bring up. We bought Lady from a small family living on a farm. They had just the two cockers and breed them together every so often. The dogs seemed to be family dogs first and breeding dogs second -- they had free roam of the property, and the puppies had a makeshift roaming area in the kitchen. Compared to what we've seen with other cocker spaniel breeders with similar setups, these cocker spaniels were among the most well adjusted. (We have a friend who breeds them out of her home, and hers are obsessive compulsive in the way they chew their front paws raw; our vet told us that Lady was the ONLY cocker he treats that did not growl and snap at him when he worked on her [Lady's enthusiasm for new people overrides this tendency]; and one of Leen's model horse friends grooms dogs for a living and has said she has to tape shut the mouths of every cocker spaniel that comes in.)

Basically, from what I've seen and read, I think the overbreeding of the cocker spaniel has spread beyond puppy mills, at least in the New England area.

Not that all cocker spaniels are bad. People more able to handle those kinds of issues than we were could find them the best dogs in the world. Lady very nearly was for us.