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length of time for nightly relief was increased by 10 minutes every day, so by about 12 weeks old she was able to hold her bladder the whole night. Using the crate training method to house train Cassie certainly worked, and by about 3½ months old she was asking to go out herself. At 4 months old the crate was packed up and she had a basket all of her own.
We took her to the vet after about 3 days, and she had her first set of vaccination jabs as well as a course of worming. The worming medicine was in the form of granules that are put in her food, and she ate the lot!
At 10 weeks she had another set of jabs and another course of worming. By 12 weeks old her jabs had taken effect and she was ready to face the world.
12 Weeks to 4 Months Old (Mid
December 2000 to Mid January 2001)
We were now able to try and get her socialised. We wanted to take her to puppy socialisation classes, but couldn't find any in our area. Instead we tried to expose her to as many experiences as possible, different people, other dogs,
animals, children, you name it, Cassie was plopped in front of it. At no stage did she show any signs of
 The first few times on the lead were a bit stressful, with a little puppy rolling, jumping, doing anything to get away, but after a while she was walking quite nicely. We didn't take her for very long walks at first, only about 10 minutes, but this was increased the older she got (apparently if cockers get too much exercise when they are very young, they get 'leggy').
By 4 months old Cassie was totally house trained, sitting on command, going down on command, staying and coming etc (always with a little reward at the end). We were reluctant to let her off the lead when in the park until we met a couple with another puppy cocker, one month older. They'd trusted theirs and she was fine, so we decided to try Cassie. We were very nervous, but Cass did great, staying close to us and not running off too far.
 Our major problem was that of play biting. We tried to discourage her from doing it (shouting no, stop playing, ignoring her, etc), but she would keep doing it (and those puppy teeth were bloody sharp!). The more she was scolded, the more fun it seamed to be. By Christmas 2000, my hands looked like something from a Freddy Kruger horror film. So we were relieved when we saw that first puppy tooth on the carpet.
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