There’s no right or wrong answer to breeding lemon/white to lemon/white
Today, the colour is popular, as I posted before, years ago that really wasn’t the case. Maybe because of this popularity a lemon and white bitch is seen by some as a cash cow (but only if you put her to certain dogs and that is becoming difficult so wouldn’t bank on that for making money without a lot of homework first lol, seen the results of someone who didn’t) . But – no good breeder that I know charges more for the colour and I certainly haven’t and wont do in the future.
You will always get breeders that breed for colour only in every breed dictated to by what’s fashionable at the time, possibly to the exclusion of other important points. To me that is wrong and a slippery slope.
However, the lemon and white colour along with white and black was common in a few Scottish bloodlines (I’m not saying though it didn’t pop up elsewhere). As is common in dog breeding, when you have a good line you line breed. Add to that lack of motorways etc in days gone by, you tended to find lines clustered among the local area. Really, only comparatively recently have these lines moved across the country and of course the original breeders of these lines are now long gone barring (at least) one (Anahar).
Now, while Im sure that colour wasn’t the be all and end all, it is easy to see these lighter coloured dogs in the countryside. Think of fox hounds – each pack line breeds to its own and each pack is slightly different in type and colour. Some hounds are mainly white with tan, others are darker with the dark hound blanket markings over their backs. I am sure this is to do with the geography of the area in which they hunt. So, it follows that up here with green and grey, mist etc, these lighter cockers are high visibility.
You also have to factor in personal preference – its human nature and it would be naïve to discount it. Maybe it shouldn’t be that way but its personal preference that attracts people to the cocker and again to the type they go for.
If you have a well pigmented lemon and white, (even the whitest of lemon roans can have dark eyes as can be seen in the pictures I posted in the photo section under Lorne), there is absolutely no reason why you should not breed to another lemon/white if that is the best dog for your bitch. As I said before, if you are line breeding, particularly to these old almost extinct lines(in their pure form), then chances are the lines you want will be a parti-colour (but not always). In the same way, if you wanted to line breed say the Wernffrwd lines (using them as an example as I personally love these little Welsh dogs) , chances are you will start with a black or liver bitch and mate to a black or liver dog as I don’t think I know of any from these lines that arent black/black with white or liver.
As light eyes are not generally liked, a genuine breeder will know when the eye colour is starting to lighten and will make the next mating to a white and black or blue roan or a black if suitably bred. As a point of interest my own Lucille is 3rd generation lemon/white to lemon/white breeding and her eyes are so dark you can only see the pupils when the light shines at a certain angle into her eyes. While it has to be acknowledged that these dogs are not being bred for the show ring but for their ability and other relevant points, lack of pigment does concern most. As is common knowledge, working breeders don’t follow the parti to parti or solid to solid breeding pattern of the show cockers, but in practice, this does happen as can be seen from above if line breeding for certain lines but its not a big issue for us.
It could be argued that most of today’s successful trial dogs are black or liver but I think this is because they are from successful sires who are producing the goods and are the darker colours, not because of a dislike for the lighter parti’s. There have been lemon roans/whites made up to FT CH – W Dotterell and Serin, M Sorceror, Findlays Flyer, R Gold of M in the last 15 years or so which shows that triallers appreciate a good dog regardless of the colour and not because of it (Reiver I would call gold in colour so along with him is C Goldstar and Gusty Silvan off the top of my head for recent FT CH)
