Where do I look?

[AndWhat]

After a long time with no dog in the house, it’s time for us to get a new member of our family. It’s been 9 years since we got our last dog and she came from an accidental litter which we came across.
We are looking for a working or cocker spaniel in the north west if anyone could point me in the right direction thanks

[iusedtohavechickens]

Pets4homes and you can filter just kfc reg ones if you want to x

[Wolfiefan]

Not pets for homes. Or any other similar site.
For show lines I would always go through the breed club. Is there a club for working cockers?
At the moment Covid has led to a massive hike in prices and a horrible proliferation of puppy farmers and people cashing in.
Do you know what health tests need doing prior to breeding? Can they be done under lockdown?
Breed rescue?
Unfortunately I think many rescues will be inundated once people have to go back to working out of the home again.

[Soshelpplease]

Pets4Homes IME is the last place to look even with a filter on the basis that there’s no monitoring and no responsibility for puppy farming or dodgy breeding at all. Could lead to costly expense regarding health & your finances longterm.

Kennel Club? There must be an official Facebook page for the breed too. Make sure it’s a UK site if you’re in the UK.

[GrumpyMiddleAgedWoman]

By 'working or cocker spaniel' do you mean a working spaniel, either springer or cocker, or...?

ChampDogs is a good place to start as at least one parent of the litter will have been health tested. I've known some very good litters be put on ChampDogs.

Pets4Homes isn't where you will find the A* breeders, but you can find some decently bred litters there: you will just have to do more due diligence to weed out the puppy farms and the people who haven't much of clue what they are doing.

If you specifically want a dog from working lines (and I assume you know what you're getting into, I love working line gundogs, can't imagine owning anything else, but God, are they hard work as puppies...) you could maybe approach some gundog trainers in your area and see if they know of any litters due or planned. Responsible breeders should not be hiking their prices to the insane heights seen this summer, but have a clear idea about what you want to pay.

And please, please be aware that working spaniels are being stolen in ridiculous numbers at the moment, so check very carefully the origin of the dam of any litter you look at. That's one good reason to get recommendations from a gundog trainer who will know his or her client base and shooting buddies, and their dogs.

[reindeesandchristmastrees]

there are lots of dogs who need a home. Please think about adopting. There are specialist spaniel rescue sites if you really want a spaniel but lots of rescue organisations even have puppies. Sadly I suspect they will be full by Christmas as lots of people got puppies in lockdown and not everyone is prepared for the work that is involved in keeping a dog

[AndWhat]

Sorry rogue ‘or’ I meant working cocker, we’ve had other working and gun dogs before from puppy and adopted, and I really love the spaniels. I came across pets 4 homes but it just didn’t sit right and will definitely keep away now. I’m happy to adopt but haven’t come across any in our local rescue at present.
Might approach the local gun community and put the feelers out

[GrumpyMiddleAgedWoman]

There are specific spaniel welfare organisations like English Springer Spaniel Welfare. A friend fosters for them and they have dogs through quite often.

[iusedtohavechickens]

@Soshelpplease I looked through kennel club which directed me to the breeder who then sent me the link for pets4homes where they advertise their pups with pictures. I went through kennel club first then got the pictures of the pups on pets4homes x