Photos of our girls Daisy and Margot, they’re both a little crazy even for a cocker spaniels but with these faces you really can’t get mad.

Unfortunately can’t link to the charity donation her but if you’d like to it’s on my instagram travis_j_potter thank you all so much for your continued support :)

Back in 2013, my brother and I thought that the best Mother’s Day gift for my mom would be a little dog, who would become her daughter. My mom had always had it clear in her mind that she wanted a Cocker Spaniel, so we started looking in several places... One day, while I was at work, they found her in local petshop: a baby, tiny, golden, and very smiley, just as she always was. She cost $800 pesos, or so my brother told me.

I couldn’t wait to get home to meet this puppy who would become part of our family, and when I arrived, there she was, very lively and happy, playing with whatever she could find. She loved plastic bags, and a red scarf that I would tie to the upper post of a doorway so she could pull on it and bounce back. She loved the idea. My mom decided her name would be Molly.

I remember that at the time I was doing my internship, and I would tell my friend everything the puppy did: how she played, how she ate, how she slept. I would tell my friend, “I just want to get out of here so I can go see my puppy.”

Even when Molly was still a puppy/adolescent, one day, while playing with the plastic bag, she choked on it. My mom screamed and panicked when she saw Molly lying on the floor struggling to breathe. She thought Molly was going to die right there. When I came running, I immediately picked her up and, without really knowing what to do, I saw a piece of plastic inside her little mouth. I opened her mouth and pulled it out with my fingers. Immediately, Molly breathed again. That day, Molly became wary of playing with just anything; it became something that was part of her character.

She was a Cocker Spaniel, with huge ears covered in curly brown fur, almost golden. Around her nose, her fur was much shorter, but very fluffy. She had a little white spot that I thought looked like a tiny ghost. She was chubby, which made her even more adorable. Her paws were wide and very furry. Unfortunately, her tail had been docked when she was born, but she had a very funny and adorable little stub of a tail, plump and with a tiny tuft of hair growing from it. You could always see it wagging uncontrollably whenever her mom came near or whenever there was food around.

In terms of personality, Molly was very sweet and loving with her mom. She was a dog that I would describe as rather introverted. She liked having visitors at the house, but she mostly watched them from a distance. She actually liked visitors so much that whenever they crossed the door to leave, Molly would bark at them and pull on their pants, skirts, hands, whatever she could grab, just to keep them there a little longer. She would watch other dogs play with a smile, but she never went over to play with them. As for toys, even though she had a few, she was never particularly attached to any of them.

With me, it was a different story. Every time she saw me arrive home, of course she was happy, but as soon as I came near her, she would turn her back to me and go right back to whatever she had been doing: sleeping, eating, or simply being next to my mom.

She was always gentle, obedient, and very well behaved, but she was also grumpy; she wouldn’t take anything from anyone. You couldn’t scold her for anything. If I raised my voice at her, she would bark at me and even bite me. But what surprised me even more was that whenever my mom got angry with her and had to scold her, it seemed like the two of them were actually arguing with each other.

My mom would yell, “You filthy dog, you don’t do that!” and Molly, as if she understood every word, would answer every yell with a bark. And God help my mom if she got too close, because even with the respect a son has for his mother, Molly would still dare to take a bite at her.

Her role was to take care of my mom, to be by her side. Maybe when my brother and I decided to get her a dog, it was because around that time he had moved away from the city, and I was in a stage of my university and work life that left me with very little time to spend with her. And Molly certainly knew how to fulfill her role.

In the mornings, they had breakfast together. In the afternoons, Molly would tirelessly beg my mom for whatever she happened to be eating. She loved chicken, fruit, meat, sausages, and tuna, but if my mom was eating eggs, mole, pipián, or whatever else, Molly would still go ask for some, taste it, and surely ask for more.

At night, they would have dinner together before going to bed. And that was when I could always come into her mom’s room, and I loved bothering Molly in a playful way. I would push her, poke her, even bite her, and sometimes Molly would play along and bark at me. However, Molly was always a little strange: halfway through playing, she would sometimes give me a little bite with her teeth, which were definitely pretty ugly and sharp. I know she never meant to hurt me; she simply didn’t know how to communicate that she didn’t want to play anymore.

Other nights, I would just rub her belly, and when she felt ticklish, she would move her little legs like a motorcyclist trying to start a motorcycle that won’t turn on: several strong little kicks into the air. There she was, lying on her back, belly up, with her enormous smile.

When Suki arrived, Molly seemed happy and curious about the new member of the family. But when she realized that Suki wasn’t just visiting, she seemed sad and annoyed. She didn’t even want to look at us. But even though they were never extremely close friends because of their eight-year age difference and their completely different personalities, they did become friends.

Strangely enough, Molly learned things from Suki. She learned to smack her lips when she wanted something to eat (which, apparently, she considered an absolutely essential skill). She also learned to ask to be covered with a blanket. Suki is a very cold-natured little dog, so we understood it; Molly just wanted to imitate her.

As time went by, Molly could hear less and see less, so whenever she had to defend the house from those evil creatures passing outside her home, known as neighbors, she trusted that Suki knew what she was doing. Suki would bark at the slightest provocation, and Molly, even without knowing what she was barking at, would bark twice as loudly. Sometimes she would keep barking even after there was no one left to bark at.

One day, we found a “little lump” on one of her nipples. We took her to the veterinarian and, after some tests, she had to undergo a first surgery in which they removed all the nipples on one side of her body, so that once she had recovered, she could undergo the same surgery on the other side. Her mom took care of her day and night during each of these surgeries.

We brought a mattress downstairs. We blocked off all access to couches and chairs because Molly was perfectly capable of climbing onto them, and there was a risk that she could open her wound.

Despite the surgeries, Molly was always smiling, perhaps because she was the most spoiled one in the house. We joked that Molly had gotten liposuction; she suddenly had a waist she hadn’t had in years.

From then on, any little lump was a red alert for us, since the post-surgery tests on the previous lumps had shown cancer.

A few years later, at the beginning of 2026, we found a lump on her back, and the house once again became, in her mom’s words, a dog hospital. The lump was removed, and fortunately it was only fatty tissue. And Molly, as always, was smiling and happy, wandering around trying to climb onto everything, begging for food, barking every time Suki did. With her back covered in stitches, she seemed not to feel a thing.

Unfortunately, a few months later, one night her mom woke up because Molly was lying on the floor, unable to get up, lying in her own pee. Her mom took her to the veterinarian and then to another veterinarian. The tests and examinations were very conclusive; this time, the cancer had given no warning. It had not been visible.

A tumor the size of a golf ball, lodged in her kidney, attached to the aorta and pressing against her bladder, inoperable and untreatable.

Molly was prescribed fairly strong painkillers to help her cope with the pain and improve her mood during those days. They allowed her to keep the same sweet, loving, smiling personality she had always had. She wanted to eat everything, but we knew she wasn’t okay.

Her mom, with all the love she has for each one of her children, made the hardest decision that anyone who has ever had, or has, a dog fears having to make: euthanasia.

Molly left us last Saturday, August 29, 2026. I was the one who held her until her last heartbeat. The initial anesthesia put her into a deep sleep almost immediately, and at that moment, she snored loudly, just as she always did when she slept. She gave me one last laugh, which faded into tears before the final injection and her departure.

Today, when I walked into her mom’s house, I saw the couch where she used to sleep, empty. The window where she used to stand and bark endlessly now only has an unpleasant and beautiful crust of drool and grime that she left behind, marked there by her little nose.

She is no longer lying under the chair where her mom works. She is no longer under the table begging for food. She is no longer lying uncomfortably next to Suki’s little butt. She no longer comes to visit me at the workshop just to give me an ugly look and turn her back on me. She is no longer going to steal Suki’s food.

But Molly is in my heart today and always, in our brother Marco’s heart, in Suki’s heart, in my wife’s heart, and, most importantly, in the heart of her mom, Cocol.

For Molly: thank you for all the love and companionship you gave us. I love you, little sister, and I know you will always be watching over your mom. Someday we will meet again, and it will make me happy to see you.

Can’t let the bigots get the better of us

Vorrei iniziare a correre con il mio cane, un Coker spaniel misto setter, il problema è che essendo da caccia e fiuto tira di brutto quando sente odori e può essere faccia zigzag, non sono mai andato a correre con lui e nemmeno da solo in realtà ma vorrei unire l’utile al dilettevole, avete qualche consiglio da darmi o qualche trucchetto?
Voi correte con il vostro cane?

I need some advice for how to deal with our 22 month old cocker spaniel.

Around 10 days ago we got up in the morning and found that he’d been sick overnight. He seemed himself other than refusing his breakfast which was concerning as he loves his food. I put it down to him having a sore tummy and kept trying throughout the day. He ate a small bit at around 3pm but growled at the bowl as he was eating it which was completely out of character. He didn’t eat the rest of the day. The next morning again he seemed like his normal self but still wouldn’t eat his kibble so i tired some chicken and rice and he gobbled it down with no problem. A few hours later he was sick again so we took him to the vet, they did some scans and X-rays and sent him home however he deteriorated quickly started vomiting blood and having bloody diarrhea. Long story short he ended up spending 4 nights at the vets on IVs, opioids having multiple scans. They never really got to the bottom of what caused it but seemed to think some sort of GI illness and secondary pancreatitis.
He got home on Thursday evening and we were told to feed him a bland diet. We gave him some chicken and rice and he ate the chicken refused the rice but started growling at his tail either whilst eating or a few minutes after. This has continued ever since. We gradually started introducing his normal kibble mixed in with the chicken and also using bone broth to soften it for him. It has improved slightly and we are feeding him smaller meals throughout the day instead of two bigger meals and usually for at least one of those his hackles go up and he does a sharp turn and growls at his tail either during or after eating and sometimes a few minutes later he’ll go into his crate and do the same thing.
Tonight I tried giving him a lick mat with some soft kibble on it and he did the same thing. I initially thought he possibly had some residual gut pain after the illness however it’s been a week since his last episode of vomiting and diarrhoea and he is otherwise back to his normal bouncy self and his appetite is normal.

He’s been checked and has no issues with anal glands or injuries to his tail or back end. We’ve raised it with multiple vets and they’ve been no help. We have a young child in the house and obviously don’t want this to continue and have resorted to feeding him outside where he’s away from the family. When he does it I can interrupt it easily and he’ll stop or sometimes if I throw some kibble for him to sniff afterward it distracts him but I also want to be able to put his meal down have him eat it as normal again without all this extra management. 

I can give him random bits of kibble throughout the day as treats and it doesn’t happen then, just with meals. We’ve also tried different bowls.

I have a 1 year old cocker and i’ve been keeping her hair long. When she gets groomed just being shaved in the hard to reach spots for brushing, and light trims all around.
She has very scruffy hair (first pic). I thought her hair would grow out and kind of blend in together but it hasn’t. How can i keep her long coat but make it look smooth and neat like the second pic.
Is this a grooming thing or a brushing technique?

Hi there,

I found the first time 3 fleas when washing my cocker spaniel. I wash her weekly and I also groom her myself. The flea comb didn't even show it, so frustrating...

Important: she got seizures from the oral tick & flea treatment and I cannot give it to her any longer (vet approved).

Question: What has helped you to get rid of them naturally 1) on your dog and 2) in your home? Any UK available products are also welcome.

PS please don't reply with "take Simparica/Bravecto/Seresto". Thank you :)

My boy is a big chewer. He goes through a beef tendon real quick, he tears through ALL of his stuffies (he doesn't eat the fabric, he just likes to destroy lol). He loves a yak stick, but I wanna explore other options. I've looked on multiple websites and I have a really hard time making a decision.

Bonus points if they offer novel/exotic proteins.

Bonus points for ✨️ variety ✨️

Special brownie points for showing me your beautiful cocker babies. They're the best dogs.

♡

A day filled with wholesome interactions 🥰

Shes really old, but still has to get out and be busy or she still drives me nuts. Went for a nice long walk, then played in the lake, then off to bed for a nap after drying off.

Ive been a lurker with a few comments for 6 months.

I have never owned or trained my own dog till now.

I received this beautiful cocker spaniel and I am teaining him for birds. Any advice I haven't heard or read about?

I wont be upset in the least if he dosent turn into a good bird dog will be nice having a loving companion to walk the trails with while I shoot some birds

I am looking to find a breeder that I can trust to get a well bred, purebred, English cocker spaniel. Hoping to adopt in a few months. I am not interested in the American variety. I’m not sure where to look. I’m in the US. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

does anyone have an advice or tips on how to tell the groomer to groom my cocker, just wanted to hear some ideas ☺️

I wish she could look the way she did as puppy ( see the last pic)