Cocker who bites a lot and snaps at face

Question
Hello i have a 7 month old cocker spaniel. she is a great dog. very smart. She will bite at your hands quite a bit and she will also lunge at your face and snip at you. She is not an aggressive dog at all. I think she thinks we are playing or that is how she tells me she wants to play. My wife called the vet and asked about it and said that we can have a specialist come out and watch her behaviors. They also said that she could have a mental problem that can't be reversed and if that is the case we have to put her to sleep. What is your knowledge on this and is this overdoing it. I don't even want to think about putting her to sleep i just think she is a puppy and wants to play and needs to be trained that it is not good to do that. She is alone all day while we are at work. so when we come home she is VERY excited... Please give me your expertise

Answer
Your vet is wildly over-reacting.  She's 7 months old and can be taught not to do this quite quickly.  I would advise trying to get a dog walker mid-day (or doggy daycare) because a ton of behavioral issues are caused by boredom and pent up energy.  And she absolutely needs a minimum of one hour per day walking.

Now, as to the hand nipping etc. I have a couple of questions.
1.  Does she ever growl while doing this?
2.  How trained is she and what commands does she know?
3.  Does she do this at any other time other than play-time?

The very, very first thing you do is when she does this - stop, get down on her level -be very still and STARE into her eyes and say NO in a quiet but very firm voice.  Do not lose eye contact and keep saying NO until she breaks eye contact.  When she does - it registered and you won.

What she's doing is what dogs do with each other and she needs to learn that's a no-no with humans.  By being still physically and eyeballing her and saying NO you're behaving like the alpha leader/pack leader.

So if you'll answer my questions and try the "stare down" we can go on to a few other tricks to control unruly puppies.

And you need a new vet.
Delores