I’m glad that you had such a good experience with your cocker. I have a Golden that was found as a stray (so I was told). The young woman who found him could not keep him at her home so she took him to her parents’ house where he was locked into a shed for 6 weeks. Finally somebody persuaded these people to turn him over to a Rescue organization where I adopted him. He was just bonkers when we first got him, bouncing off the wall. But, we have a big place and he settled in nicely here.
He’s a wonderful dog, now, with a few minor quirks. Mostly we have trained those out of him, and we think he’s the most wonderful dog in the world. He still does not like to be in a room where someone shuts the door and leaves him alone, however, and we’ve had him 8 years.
My special dog was a rescue, a Chocolate Lab out of a field champion line. Beautiful, smart, loyal and true. Couldn’t have asked for a better friend and companion, for 14 1/2 years. But, until the day he died he was terrified of fire, and would get antsy if he even smelled one. I’ve always wondered what he endured before he and I found each other.
Bless you.