Activities for Cocker Spaniels

As a breed, the cocker spaniel is known for its gentle and affectionate personality. With their calm and patient demeanor, cocker spaniels make excellent family dogs. These dogs are intelligent and therefore easy to train. Doing activities with your cocker spaniel is an important part of bonding with your pet and develop your dog's sense of companionship, loyalty and trust. Activities are not only fun for your dog, but can be enjoyable for you as well.

  1. Retrieving Activities

    • Cocker spaniels, like most dogs, enjoy activities that involve retrieving items. Fetching games are a great way for your cocker spaniel to get exercise and also for you to work on obedience with your pet. You can purchase items to play with from a pet store, or simply use objects that you already have lying around your house. A Frisbee, tennis ball or even a stick that you picked up outside is ideal for playing fetch with your dog. To play this activity with your dog, simply throw the object for your cocker spaniel to retrieve and bring back to you.

    Flyball

    • Flyball is a popular sport event for dogs. Flyball combines an obstacle which your dog must complete, followed by a box where the dog retrieves a tennis ball to bring back to their owner. This activity is excellent for developing your cocker spaniel's agility and endurance. Flyball is also a great way for your puppy to be able to meet and socialize with other dogs. You may even decide to begin doing flyball competitively with your cocker spaniel.

    Cocker Spaniel Tug of War

    • This classic game is a popular favorite amongst cocker spaniels as well as people. As your cocker spaniel grows from a puppy to a dog, you may begin to find that your cocker spaniel starts winning the tug of war matches more and more often. Use a piece of tough, thick rope to play tug of war with your cocker spaniel. To start this game, simple allow your dog to pick up the rope in its teeth and start tugging.

    Treat Hide and Seek

    • Cocker spaniels are natural hunters and enjoy seeking games as part of their natural instinctive behavior. As well, your dog will be happy to discover a treat as part of the reward for seeking out the hidden item. For this activity, first command your dog to sit and hold still. Hold a treat in your hand, let your puppy sniff and smell it, then hide it in close proximity for your dog to find. When starting out with this activity, let your dog see where you hide the treat. As your dog becomes more adept at finding the treat, increase the difficulty by hiding the treat in less obvious places.