I am a very proud owner of two beautiful cocker spaniels, 1 bitch and 1 dog. I am thinking of breeding but would like some advice as too whether this is the correct road to take. Lots of my questions need answering.

The first step on the road is to confirm that your two are very good examples of the breed. This is usually achieved by getting the opinion of several good judges of the breed at shows, if you don't fancy showing or feel you can't groom to do them justice an alternative is to speak to their breeders assuming that they are experienced enough to guide you. You will also need to confirm that they are a compatible pair in terms of their pedigrees. Next step is to have both checked under the BVA/KC eye screening scheme, some solid cockers are also hip xrayed. If all is good so far the bitch needs to be at least 2 years old and if you have not attempted a mating before I would enlist the help of someone experienced as your bitch can potentially damage your dog if she is reluctant or pulls away suddenly during the tie. I am not going to say you will not make any profit from the puppies as I am sure you will have heard of people doing so, allthough of course that should not be your motive in doing this, in a breed like cockers things usually go well enough during the welping, but it is possible for things to go wrong leading perhaps to a ceasarian section and possibly loosing all the puppies and ending up well out of pocket. Another possibility is being left handfeeding which is mind numbingly hard work. Incidentally I would not attempt this if there is not someone at home all day. You will need to sleep very near to the bitch and puppies from a few days before welping and for about 2 weeks after to ensure all puppies are feeding well, the bitch remains well and does not overlie any by accident. Vetting of future homes is also a sometimes trying time, people can be very rude if you turn them down, if they have the money they think like buying a fridge who are you to say no, my advise is to vet as much as possible over the phone before letting them into your house. If you have any more questions ask away although you will need to register to do so.

>> some solid cockers are also hip xrayed.

Isabel, why only solid cockers? Shouldn't all breeding stock be scored :-)

Statistics in the UK & overseas suggest that so far, HD is only a problem with some solid lines. Solids & particolours are now rarely bred together in show lines & they now have quite different breeding with some genetic problems more likely to be seen in particolours & some more likely to be seen in solids. The fatal kidney disease, FN, & eye probs like PRA are much more common in particolours not because of the colour particularly but because some widely used stud dogs of yesteryears were carriers of these diseases. Same thing applies to HD in solids - there have been some very high scores in some solids whereas particolours are generally well below the breed average (however compared to other breeds, only a relatively small number of Cockers in the UK have actually been hip scored)

Thank you for the feedback Jane .. very interesting :-) I picked up on the *solids* are hipscored and felt this implied that other colours were HD free, and therefore didn't need testing. I know some breeds 'claim' to be HD free, but I don't see how any breed can make such a claim, when only a handful of stock is tested. I didn't know that cockers suffered from PRA either :-(

Guest, we have lots of experienced cocker breeders and owners on Champdogs. May I suggest that you register with us and then you will be able to ask all the questions that you like :-)