Our show Cocker has working dog in her pedigree

[wrenside]

she is beautiful and here to stay, we really don't care about her ancestors just hurt we've been lied to as we trusted the breeder. The silly thing is that we wouldn't have cared, I'm quite proud that shes an eighth worker

That's the spirit!   Now that you have your pup it's important to make sure her life is as happy and healthy as possible   Because she has some working blood in her you might find that she will need slightly more mental and physical stimulation than your show bred cocker   She might also be a little more interested in furry and feathered animals out on walks etc... so you might want to go more down the root of using a stop whistle for training etc.. (I'm rambling!!   )
Anyway, enjoy your pup and it's great that you've done some research into her pedigree to find out what type of dogs are in her lineage so that you know what you're dealing with! (worker pups can have the devil in them sometimes   )

If the sire and dam haven't been health tested then that's a bit of a worry   The best thing you can do now is keep your fingers and toes crossed and hope that she's a lucky pup and won't develop FN or go blind early with glaucoma.

I think that you should try and inform the breeder you got your pup from about the responsibilities of choosing suitable pedigree lines and also about the health tests that should be carried out on all breeding dogs.  
Unfortunately there are still a lot of very uninformed breeders out there, so I think that it is a good thing for puppy buyers to give feedback about the standards a buyer expects    

Have a fab time with your pup, I just had a look at a photo of her and she's scrumptious   (you can post her to me anytime you want    )

Mary xxx

[mark1]

Thank you. Some really good points made there and put across in really nice way. It's early days but she is a real character and very smart, she's almost clean (11 weeks) and responding really well to the clicker. The dad is eye tested and we will get her tested yearly. We live on the edge of a nature reserve so if shes keen on fur and feather she will have lots of opportunity. I have had working dogs in the past (Russells and whippets) so have no probs with working dogs just feel I'm past they're energy now   I really feel she'll be fine and she seems calmer than Molly if anything...maybe she's saving it up  

[vixen]

Mark, just because your pup has some working blood in her, it doesn't mean that she need terrorize the local furries and feathers
My two girls  have all working blood in them   all close relatives either trial or work.  We back onto a canal and since they were old enough to go along it, they have seen ducks, moorhens, swans etc at very close quarters    They look but don't pursue   as they were taught from a young age.
I have found their working blood makes them very biddable and a pleasure to live with.   Hope you enjoy Poppy  

[Karma]

It absolutely is frustrating to discover you've been misled... 

When we got Honey, we didn't know that there were working and show cockers, we just thought a cocker spaniel was a cocker spaniel...    The breeder didn't mention anything about working cockers, though at one point she did say that she could have got them docked, as the sire's owner had a gun license... 
But to actually deliberately mislead you is far worse - changing the FT CH to SH CH is actually fraud... 

Honey is 3/4 Working, and to be honest, I wouldn't change her for the world.     She is very clever, so we do constantly have to think about ways in which she can use her brain - we do a lot of clicker training and we do obedience and agility lessons.  But I think one of the very simple things we did from an early age was to put her biscuit in something (loo roll inner or envelope) so she had to work to get it out... 

With any dog, good recall is very important, but I think more so with a cocker with working blood, as if recall isn't fully in-grained they could easily go deaf when they get a good scent to follow.  I don't use a whistle with Honey, but we did work very hard at recall, and I can pretty much recall her from anything...   

And while Honey could go all day when out and about, she is very chilled in the house... 

Enjoy Poppy   

[mark1]

Thanks for the encouraging words both. 

[Crazy Cocker Gang]

she is beautiful and here to stay, we really don't care about her ancestors just hurt we've been lied to as we trusted the breeder. The silly thing is that we wouldn't have cared, I'm quite proud that shes an eighth worker

why, you wanted a show cocker 


as I said I would be seriously annoyed if one of mine had show in them, I wouldnt of bought a pup with any show in its breeding.

I hope now you can understand why breeders need a good knowledge of the breed, the lines they want to use, health tests required etc 

I did notice this litter is not tested for FN nor hip scored, also no mention of yearly eye tests 

To answer your question is we wanted a show type because we felt it suited our situation, nothing against working cockers but that was our choice

Thats not what I meant 

I am a huge believer in that certain dogs suit certain people and the biggest thing when someone is choosing a dog is that they choose the right breed/strain for them 

I think its great that you looked at your situation and decided a show cocker was best, that to me really is what its all about 

My question was about why you would be proud or wouldnt of cared about the working lines in her 

Im actually annoyed on your behalf (if that makes sense) because you knew what type of home you could provide and what type of dog you wanted and were sold something different 

Of course Poppy could inherite all the show traits and you could have the dog you wanted, but she could also inherite a lot of the worker traits and you end up having to make lots of changes to meet her needs (which im not saying you wouldnt do) but why should you have to.

I just feel like breeders like this play on the fact that people will fall for their pup and by the time they find out its not what they actually wanted/sick etc they wont return it as its become part of their family. The breeders gets off with no repercussions on them and breeds more.

Although its great that you are willing to commit to Poppy and meet her needs no matter weather they are that of a show cocker or that of a working cocker others wont be 

[wrenside]

The breeders gets off with no repercussions on them and breeds more.

Although its great that you are willing to commit to Poppy and meet her needs no matter weather they are that of a show cocker or that of a working cocker others wont be 

This is where buyer feedback to the breeder comes into its own 

I expect to have feedback from the owners of the pups I've bred, in fact if I don't hear anything from the new owners then I contact them to get an update on how the pup is health wise and also how they're coping with the new addition. I've covered myself by knowing the pedigree behind my dogs very thoroughly and I do the health tests, however I still want to know if anything has gone wrong with a pup or if the new owners aren't coping well because I'm in a good position to offer help 

If I ever buy a pup that isn't what the breeder told me it was then I'd be on the phone asking some questions  (but then I'm that sort of person!  )

Good luck with your pup 

Mary xxx

[Crazy Cocker Gang]

The breeders gets off with no repercussions on them and breeds more.

Although its great that you are willing to commit to Poppy and meet her needs no matter weather they are that of a show cocker or that of a working cocker others wont be 

This is where buyer feedback to the breeder comes into its own 

I expect to have feedback from the owners of the pups I've bred, in fact if I don't hear anything from the new owners then I contact them to get an update on how the pup is health wise and also how they're coping with the new addition. I've covered myself by knowing the pedigree behind my dogs very thoroughly and I do the health tests, however I still want to know if anything has gone wrong with a pup or if the new owners aren't coping well because I'm in a good position to offer help 

If I ever buy a pup that isn't what the breeder told me it was then I'd be on the phone asking some questions  (but then I'm that sort of person!  )

Good luck with your pup 

Mary xxx

yep but your a good breeder 

unfortunaltey the majority are not 

[wrenside]

I agree that the majority are not good breeders 

But Mark's breeder might just be ignorant of the responsibilities needed for good breeding. So I don't think it would hurt for this breeder to be informed of their "mistakes" so that hopefully in the future any pups they breed will be bred more responsibly IYSWIM 
They chose a stud dog that had been BVA eye tested, which could indicate that they have at least a basic grasp of what's needed for breeding a litter properly. So maybe a bit more education is needed!  On the other hand they could just be bad breeders 

Mary xxx

[mark1]

We spoke to the breeder and to be fair to her, the reaction was very good. She said that she had bought the stud dog from a trusted breeder and had checked the pedigree to make sure his lines were compatible with the bitches but had looked no deeper, her mistake, and that SH CH was on his pedigree at that point.
She has withdrawn him from stud, informed all other people who bought a puppy and offered to take Poppy back, give us a full refund and cover our expenses. Obviously that was never going to happen as Poppy is part of the family now but we are glad that we gave the breeder some feedback and it was certainly more educated feedback thanks to the input from contributors of this thread i   Cheers

[wrenside]

Well done Mark    I'm so glad that she took your feedback on board, and has reacted in a responsible way  Hopefully she'll do her homework even better before she plans another litter. Did you mention health testing to her? ie: Optigen and FN. If not, I would just point her in that direction if you can, or failing that tell her about cockersonline so that we can give her some more info and help if she wants it!! 

Mary xxx

[LoubieLou]

I know this is a really old post but wondered if Mark got his dog anywhere near Nottinghamshire. We had a similar situation with our dog who shares many of the same dogs as you list in your pedigree. He has turned out to be the most amazing dog ever, but we were also misled!

[Jane S]

Mark is no longer a member of this forum but from what I remember, yes the breeder was from that area so you did probably buy from the same place. I'll close this now but can tell you the breeder's kennel name if you want to send me a PM.