Page 154 - Showsight March 2013

At Your Service
By Elizabeth Neff & Sandy LaFlamme
One of the most endear-
ing traits of the Eng-
lish Cocker Spaniel
is not how much we
love them but how
much they love us.
This breed does love to be worshiped but it
is their love, loyalty and total devotion to
their human that makes them so irresist-
ible. This is why I tell people who are con-
sidering adding an English Cocker to their
family that they are like potato chips—it is
very difficult to just own one. They move
in, take over, and we could never live with-
out them again.
English Cockers do enjoy having a job,
although they are not obsessed with it like
other breeds. Some love to do agility, some
love obedience, others have a great apti-
tude for tracking or hunting and even the
best show dogs often exhibit a great apti-
tude for hunting and have a natural birdi-
ness. The pet parakeet is never safe when
an ECS shares their home.
One of the greatest jobs and most
rewarding for dog and owner is Therapy
work. The English Cocker is a naturally
empathetic creature and there are count-
less cases of ECS Therapy dogs being able
to bring the people they visit to a much
happier place.
Megan Belle, a beautiful blue Eng-
lish Cocker owned by Stanley and Gerry
Pajkos, is a big hit at Nursing Homes. She
always appears in costume and the resi-
dents can’t wait to see what her latest attire
will be when she and her owner arrive for a
visit. She brings great joy to the residents as
a Certified Therapy Dog, a job she has been
doing since she was just 18 months old.
One lovely black girl named Daphne
specialized in Alzheimer’s and Dementia
patients. She was on the floor of a nursing
home visiting the Dementia unit and the
nurses asked her human to stop by to see a
gentleman with MS who had slipped in to
such a depression that he had not commu-
nicated for months. They lifted Daphne on
Courtesy of the Family Resource Center, Macdonough Elementary School, Middletown, CT.
154 • ShowSight Magazine, March 2013