askiro

As previously mentioned Peter Coombes died a few years back, also he stopped breeding a fair few years prior to that. So finding badgercourt lines are like hens teeth, saying that Jeremy Organ was a friend of Peter's and has built his lines (Edgegrove) including strong badgercourt lines. Also some Irish lines contain Badgercourt lines. These are tried and tested dogs in trial/field that have been bred from, not people puppy farming off the back of successful kennels. Be warned.

Hi. as said there isn't any such thing as a chocolate springer, its liver and white or black and white. O.K education over, theres not that many well bred springers with a lot of colour on them these days, but Misselchalke Lad has plenty of liver on him and i would highly recommend him. Also Will Clulee has Larford Cannon which is % liver. look on net for contact numbers.

The big question will you get a pup from a top class kennel .? obviously the best bred cockers are in the greatest demand, so are very few and far between. The pups from these kennels, if from top class bitches are usually prebooked by top trialing men, and with a kennel trying to make a good name for itself thats where they go. My advice would be to look for a nicely bred bitch , the bitch line is the most important, because anyone can use a champion on a mediocre bitch to buffer the pedigree. look for a dam whose dam is a FTW or Champion, put to a top class sire and whatever the breeding, y

hi Theres a few very good gundog trainers around the Swansea area, my suggestioons would be Mike Shefford (www.houstykennels.com), or Dai Ormond(www.waterwynch.co.uk) both these trainers have lots of training facilities at there disposal so could help you train to a very high standard. Another chap who maybe able to help is Alan Gwynne. regards Rob

Hi If i was you i would leave her at home, and just beat with a stick. Believe me no gamekeeper wouldn be happy if a dog was running loose and flushing birds left right and centre. The idea is to steadily put the birds over the guns, giving them a chance of plenty of shooting. if all the birds flush at once they will get very little shooting. With the bitch being 5 years old, she maybe a little bit old to learn new tricks. My suggestion would be to beat without a dog for a season, and if you do enjoy it , (it can very hard work) get yourself a part trained dog ready for the following seas

Hi My suggestion would be to leave the retrieving for a while and get the RECALL instilled into the pup. I suggest when you recall the pup say its name or "TO ME", and if the pup doesn't do this immediately go after him and give him a couple of sharp tugs around the scruff repeating the command. When he is returning instantly then try a retrieve with the "TO ME" command. If it doesn't work go back to the recalling exercise. believe me it will work eventually, also try to do this in a confined area so you can catch hold of the pup if necessary. Rob

HI I isn't cheap to breed a bitch, if done properly,Vet checks, worming, chipping etc. but the biggest cost is usually the stud fee. I also see that you are in Scotland, where docking is banned . You may find it difficult to sell the pups on, too shooting people with a full tail.Another thing to consider before mating. If you do decide to breed your bitch, wait for the bleeding to reduce, and look for a pink mucus to show. also press down towards the base of the bitches tail and see is she pushes back, this is an excellent sign of when she should be mated. This happens from around the tent

hi. i find the best way to stop whining is to blast them with a hose. While in the utility room get a water pistol and blast the dog with a gruff command of "QUIET". and when in the run, try and set up a hose pipe to point towards the dog, by cable tying it high on the run, an if the dog barks give him a blast without him actually seeing you. It won't take to long before they get the message. And with the bone thing, all dogs need bones for conditioning/teeth cleaning. It will not encourage the dog to become hard in the mouth. rob.

Hi reading your reply, i believe the dog will do well to have a month off training as well, just make sure that nobody else teaches any bad habits. I must agree with the post "sending the dog away for training", its the handler that needs to be trained not the dog in many cases. I would suggest you give the dog a month off until the lighter nights, then book some 1 to 1 sessions with a trainer, down your way would suggest Nick Gregory, Nick Cox, Or contact Chris Bridgewater (Meon Valley) and she will know even more trainers. No need to rush the training. Rob

i'm replying to the dockings message, i would doubt that a vet would dock you pups, because you need to produce documents to prove that the dam and sire are from working stock, and also you need some sort of certificate to prove they will be used in the field. As you will know, the docking of show dogs is illegal and can carry heavy fines or even imprisonment, so i would be very careful about docking the ppups. Rob

Hi. i agree with the previous comments on using show strain, not only do they have more inherant problems , Eyes and Ears etc, they also lack pace and drive. the other thing to consider is further down the line of breeding, some unscrupulous people may sell there pups falsely as pure bred working strain. This has happened in the past with sprocker type pups. And as for the price of pups, i am also from south wales and the only pups sold for £700 plus are bred by Dai Ormond(Rowston) and Peter Jones(Maessyderwen). so i must agree very excessive price for what they are. My FTAW cocker

Hi Rhys. i see you have nowhere to work your dog. If you can get transport to Lisvane in Cardiff, Not far for you, i can put you in contact with a small shoot where you can Beat and Pick up. If you fancy it, let me know and i can make arrangements for you. It may lead to a bit of shooting for you. Cheer Rob

Hi Baz I've trialled along side Ben Wong a few times, but he has now moved back home. So he won't be breeding anymore. He mainly ran his dogs inscotland but did travel south for the odd Open trial. He qualified for the championship several times and John Edwards , who likes a hard going dog ran a dog for him as well. The lines should be top class and have plenty of go. cheers Rob