Spaniel puppies

[pinkandsparklytoo]

So today I've been to look at some spaniel puppies and managed to narrow the choice down to two... The all brown boy one is the one Ds wants and the other with the blue eyes is a girl. Unfortunately I can't afford both :-(

[starshaker]

I have 2 cockers and both are complete pampered babies. Both as affectionate as the other. The love nothing more than snuggling on the sofa

[pinkandsparklytoo]

We decided on the little brown boy one. We will be picking him up a week on Sunday. Ds is very excited and he is not the only one

[DramaAlpaca]

Ooh lovely! So excited for you. Enjoy your puppy cuddles.

[dingit]

They are both adorable. We had a black and white female cocker when I was a kid. Trainable? Hahahaha

[Ditsy4]

He is gorgeous and your son will remember that you allowed him to chose.

I would like a dog in a few years and although I have always liked big dogs I will have to chose something smaller. Cockers are on the top of my list at the moment. Is there anything health wise I should be aware of ?
I know they need quite a bit of exercise and one of the reasons I want one is because they are quite fast walkers. I like walking.

[TrionicLettuce]

Ditsy there's a good page about known health issues in the breed here on the breed club website.

Prior to breeding both parents should have had the following tests done:

• Hip scoring
  
• BVA eye test (repeated annually)
  
• BVA gonioscopy (repeated every three years)
  
• DNA test for familial nephropathy
  
• DNA test for prcd-PRA (progressive retinal atrophy)
  
• DNA test for adult onset neuropathy
  
  If either are from working lines they should also have had a DNA test for acral mutilation syndrome.
  
  There are other conditions which are either heritable or potentially heritable which can't currently be tested for (there's a list of them near the bottom of this page) so the breeder should have thoroughly researched the lines they're using to be as confident as they can possibly be that none of those conditions are present.

[Shriek]

all i can say is i'm very unimpressed with a breeder that lets you dangle puppies this way with fingers distorting their elbow joints!! What are they thinking of. not impressed. Rings alarm bells

[pinkandsparklytoo]

Rereading the thread and it seems there are a lot of things I didn't ask the breeder that I should have. The puppies are Springer cross Cocker and the parents are both working dogs. The breeder wants £400 for the dog but I'm not sure it will be either vaccinated or microchipped when we pick it up. It wasn't clear when I asked. If sometime could write an email for me to send to the breeder with everything that I need to have asked in it I would be very grateful.

[DramaAlpaca]

pinkandsparklytoo I've messaged you.

[TrionicLettuce]

The breeder has to have the puppies microchipped before they go to their new homes, it's now required by law. Have a read of this microchipping factsheet. Are the puppies docked? If they are then the following paragraph about exemptions will be relevant:

The first exemption is where a veterinarian has certified the dog as a working dog and docked its tail in accordance with the Animal Welfare Act 2006. In such cases the time limit for the dog to be microchipped and details recorded with a database is extended to 12 weeks. The dog can be passed on to a new keeper once it has been microchipped.

Both parents should have had a BVA eye test, a BVA gonioscopy and have had their hips scored. A hip score is presented as a single number which is the result of adding the score for each hip together. The overall score for each dog should be well under the breed mean score (13 for cockers, 14 for springers) and the two numbers should be fairly even, i.e. you don't want one hip with a considerably higher score than the other even if the overall score is lower than the breed mean.

There are differing DNA tests for each breed which should also have been done. Even if it's not possible to produce affected puppies when crossing differing breeds it's still important to know whether any of the pups could be carriers for anything. The cocker parent should have had DNA tests for progressive retinal atrophy (prcd-PRA), familial nephropathy and acral mutilation syndrome. The springer parent should have had DNA tests for PRA, fucosidosis and phosphofructokinase deficiency.

The breeder should have official paperwork for all these and be happy to show them to you. Alternatively if both parents are registered with the KC and you know their full names you can check their health test results here on the KC site.

As previous posters have said the breeder should have thoroughly grilled you. I'd expect them to have asked about your home and lifestyle, what you feel you can offer a dog, why you picked that breed/cross, why you picked that particular litter, what it is you want from a dog, what (if anything) you want to do with them in the future sport/competition/working wise.

This Champdogs article about buying a puppy is a good read, as is their list of questions to ask a breeder.

[CalmItKermitt]

Thank goodness you can't afford both!

Out of interest, would the breeder have let you take two?