Well I'm also a member of a gundog site.  A Cocker person asked when should they breed from their dog if they were going to breed.  Does it matter if they bred from it if it was only just one on first season and what health tests they should do.

I stated that I felt the least they should have is eye testing and hipscores.  I have been told that there is no need for hipscoring as working cockers don't have it!!!!  Is there a desperation smiley?  How do they know if they don't bother testing. 

I'm sure that I'm not the only person who has seen a dog that can go all day and move beautifully whose hipscore is awful and some dogs who move terribly with fantastic scores.

Why do many working people think that because their dog works all day it has no problems?  A dog with a strong working brain that wants to please it's owner will do no matter what in my opinion!

We didn't think we had an eye problem in our breed until one of the pups from the first litter got glaucoma at almost 9 years of age!  Actually luckily for us I don't think the breed does have a true problem just unlucky with some of the first imports who were eye tested yearly for the normal eye problems and not via gonioscopy as we did not know that we had this risk!!

frustrating isnt it....i only hope it works better for you than it did for me...there was a comlete nutter on the board i had probs on and he must have googled and worked out who i was and started sending me really worrying messages about my hounds and it all got so scary that i had to ask the board owner to remove all the thread!!