Breeder defends cocker spaniels

A Wairarapa breeder has leapt to the defence of the cocker spaniel labelled the world's most aggressive dog in a new Spanish study saying the findings are "unfair".
Carterton's Dionne Pugh has been breeding cocker spaniels for 18 years and hopes the bad press won't taint the image of "what has been a very lovable breed for many generations".
Veterinary medicine researchers at the University of Barcelona analysed 1040 cases of canine aggression brought to a nearby veterinary teaching hospital between 1998 and 2006, Australia's ABC news reported.
Of those cases, the majority were attributed to English cocker spaniels, rottweilers, boxers, Yorkshire terriers and German shepherds.
Probing the data further, the team discovered English cocker spaniels were more likely than other dogs to act aggressively toward their owners as well as unfamiliar people.
However, the reason for any individual dog's aggression may be a combination of genetics and poor training, the scientists said.
Mrs Pugh said there were "thousands and thousands of cocker spaniels worldwide in family homes and a lot of the behavioural problems in dogs stem from the way they're treated in the home".
She said cocker spaniels are typically very affectionate, loyal, good family pets that did well in obedience training.
"Owners have to take responsibility no dog is naturally aggressive it's all treatment and training. For every one that is aggressive, three or four are really soppy dogs.
"I think that the English cocker spaniel is being treated unfairly because, for example, there could be a high percentage of cocker spaniels in that region where the study took place," Mrs Pugh said.
She said there were other counteracting variables which made it difficult to conclusively pinpoint the breed as the most aggressive.
When asked for general comment on the issue Carterton dog trainer Debra Kiernan said she was aware of studies that found, within the breed, cocker spaniels could be prone to aggression and "weren't the nice little family dog they used to be when there's a serious problem they can be nervous, sensitive and protective".
She said cocker spaniels displaying these negative traits were not good around children.
"They can also suffer from idiopathic rage syndrome where rage comes from nowhere and no particular button is pushed but they're not the only breed that suffers from the syndrome," Ms Kiernan said.
As a trainer, she said she had never dealt with an aggressive cocker spaniel but said she was anecdotally also aware of problems within the breed.
Ms Kiernan also suspected that, after the burgeoning popularity of the breed in the 1980s, unscrupulous and careless breeders may have bred too many cocker spaniels "without taking proper account of the temperament".