Would like opinions on me agreeing to have a spaniel cross (don't know what with).   Are there any things I should be aware of?

Well one mans meat is another mans poison, there isn't a single spaniel breed I'd willingly live with (well if I had to maybe a Welsh or Field), so wouldn't consider a cross.

On the other hand if Spaniels float your boat and fit your lifestyle the dog may not take after the Spaniel parent and have traits quite different that you do not want.  For example strong guarding or herding instincts.

If the cross is another spaniel breed or gundog breed your more likely to get gundog type traits, which may be fine.

Hello Brainless, Not allowed to have it as it needs to live with another dog.   Back to the drawing board.

Hi

Firstly I should tell you that I am a huge lover and owner of spaniels, so I am totally biased in my views and opinions of them and their very unique characters.

The problem with mixing breeds is alot like cake making. When you put all sorts of ingredients into a cake mix occasionally you get the most fabulous taste and texture and think it is the most amazing thing you have ever created. The following day you replicate the mix with the ingredients in slightly different volumes and end up with something that is awful.....

Having a cross does not always mean getting the best of both worlds, as sometimes you will end up with the very worst traits of each breed and end up with a dog that does not suit your lifestyle. Also there is no guarrentee of how the genes will develop in each puppy so you may get one that looks just like dam but has all the behaviours of the sire, or vice versa.

The perfect balance is very rarely acheived, and very often the parents of these cross breeds have had no health tests and are also very often not the best examples of their own breed.

>When you put all sorts of ingredients into a cake mix occasionally you get the most fabulous taste and texture and think it is the most amazing thing you have ever created.

And how many cocktail mixes are tried and discarded before a good one is chanced upon? The difference is that the bad cocktail can be poured down the sink in disgust, but the bad mix of breeds will be around for years.

Shame! Most spaniels will be perfectly happy without 'having to live' with another dog, assuming their owner is of course spending time for cuddles / training / exercise / brainwork etc. Most of the spaniel crosses I have met have been pretty nice dogs, but then I'm biaised as a spaniel lover!

Most Spaniels I have met/owned have been much more people orientated than dog orientated. My Springer Spaniel would love to be the only dog and have me all to herself. She loves to go on walks on her own without the rest of them, but she is 12 yrs now so perhaps understandable, but to be honest she has been the same since she was a youngster.
But it would also depend what the x was and the individual dog.
Why have they said you must have another dog ??

Apparently it is a Sprollie, spaniel/collie.  It was one of four pups.  All very nervous, 3 have found homes, but not this one as she is the most nervous.  No matter what questions I asked I could not get a straight answer.  Pushed it a bit to see if they were testing me but they were adamant it must go with an older dog to learn how to behave.  It was laying in its kennel as quite as can be and ignoring the commotion around it.

Aw, sprollies are usually lovely dogs! What a shame they insisted on your having another dog. Surely a puppy should just need an experienced owner to socialise / teach etc?

> It was laying in its kennel as quite as can be and ignoring the commotion around it.

Well if the parents were not nervous then poor socialisation of the litter would be my thoughts, but I would not touch with a barge pole.

As a breeder one MUST only breed from temperamentally sound animals, and with that foundation correct socialisation will give you bold outgoing pups, the least a new owner can expect, and a firm footing on which they can build, and enough of a buffer if they don't get things ideally right with future training and socialisation.

I often quote how outgoing the dog three friends and I imported at 9 weeks who stayed in UK quarantine (solitary) for 6 months.  Of course I visited several times a week, but apart from kennel staff that was it.  Yet he was as bold as brass at his first show 3 days after coming out.

A pup like you describe with a lot of work may come around a little, but you will always have an uphill battle and the pup will not be as mentally resilient and adaptable, and you will have years of having to work with this disadvantaged dog.

Also did the pup have a lot of white on the head?  Deafness is soemthign that woudl worry me.

> Also there is no guarrentee of how the genes will develop in each puppy so you may get one that looks just like dam but has all the behaviours of the sire, or vice versa.

Absolutely, Raine was bought as a 'lab x' with the owners thinking she'd be a nice, easy-going family dog.  They didn't know what a belgian shepherd is and just disregarded that part thinking that the 3/4 lab part would be the dominant side.

Unfortunately as you've described, the complete opposite happened - she's a nervy, very sensitive, high drive, very hard work malinois in a rather lab-ish body!

Same with River actually - 50/50 lab/collie, looks like it too but in her head, she is every bit a collie and although it wasn't why she was rehomed to me, it did cause problems with her original owners.

> A pup like you describe with a lot of work may come around a little, but you will always have an uphill battle and the pup will not be as mentally resilient and adaptable, and you will have years of having to work with this disadvantaged dog.

If it's done right this is not necessarily the case - but it must be done right.  Opi was a VERY nervous puppy to start with, nervous dam and much like this pup very quiet and still when I went to see her (yes, I should have walked away but I was very green back then!).  For four weeks she would not come out from under her chair in puppy socialisation class and was nervous of strange people and very nervous of children.

I took her to a second round of puppy class and through the puppy training course too, worked very hard at socialising her to everything and everyone, and by 6 months out she was very confident - kids took maybe another year to really get her confident with but unfortunately one stupid child did chase her trying to force her to say hello (needless to say that child got an earful from me, she was old enough to understand at about 8).  But since then she has always been my most confident dog and remains so at 9yrs old, she has been a brilliant stooge dog for 4 years too and is still the matriarch of my little group.

It must be said though, I did know what I was doing when I was raising her - if someone is not 100% savvy with how to work a pup like her or this sprollie then they should walk away.  It's not a job to take on lightly and I know of several dogs like this taken on by people who were not savvy enough to do it, who as adults all have big socialisation issues still and will have for some time (if not for life).