Looking for a cocker spaniel puppy as a family dog (myself, husband and two primary aged school children)
Ideally a female cocker if possible.

I've been searching all the reputable places but they always seem to be gone. I seem to be a step behind.
Any advice welcome.

thanks

Jo

The reason your a step behind is that litters are planned by any breeder worthy of the name, and waiting lists started at least 6 months before a bitch comes in season.

Then from season to mating is roughly 2 weeks, pregnancy 9 weeks, and 8 weeks before pups can be homed.

So your looking at 9 - 12 months to be reasonably high on a waiting.list for a chance of bringing home a responsibly well bred healthy puppy.

It is also the reason Puppy Farmers flourish, providing puppies on a large scale, cheaply/badly reared, and seemingly always available, especially in popular or fashionable breeds.

People fail to realise that this shortcut causes suffering, to the breeding animals and the pups, who may have avoidable hereditary issues, such as poor temperaments, and health issues not apparent until years later.

Casually bred litters from 2 pet dogs are nearly as bad, as the breeders don't often have enough knowledge to put together a good match, and rarely do any health testing, often being ignorant of the need to do so.

Ideally contact the breed clubs for your breed. They can help you avoid bad breeders.

Most will have a list of breeder members, or even puppy lists, for the few puppies not already spoken for.

Also there is no GOOD reason for a Pedigree puppy to not be Kennel Club registered. The cost is only £17. The reasons for non registration can be:

The parents are not registered or even purebred

One or both may have breeding restrictions on their papers.

The parents may be stolen.

The mother may be too young or old.

The bitch may already have had 4 litters.

Commercial breeders are required to have over 12 months between litters, and they may be fitting in unregistered litters in between, and overbreeding the bitch.

They may be trying to avoid paper trails to their activities by the authorities.

Are you looking for a working-type cocker spaniel or a show-type cocker spaniel? The two types are very different, both in appearance and behaviour. This website helps explain the differences.

This is great, thank you so much. I was expeting to be waiting a long time :-)
I started looking all over and soon found that the less reputable breeders had dogs ready to go and no waiting lists.
I've now been looking at KC registered I think that's why i am always too late. They all have their waiting lists filled.

Understanding the time line is really helpful, so thank you for that. Much appreciated.

thank you again.

Jo

Looking for a show cocker, thanks

Excellent advice Brainless!

Hello! I'm new to the forum and also looking for a cocker spaniel puppy.

I'm happy with waiting and everything, but one thing I'm trying to get an idea of is the average cost of a cocker spaniel puppy. If someone can provide some advice that would be really helpful so that I can prepare :)

The average price for 2019 of those advertised on champdogs(whom gave a price) was £899.

Thanks Lexy!

> The average price for 2019 of those advertised on champdogs(whom gave a price) was £899.

Hah!   If only.....

https://www.pets4homes.co.uk/search/?type_id=3&breed_id=116&advert_type=1
Have a browse on there re CURRENT Cocker Spaniel prices.

There are other websites of course, and if you are in the right place at the right time, perhaps a Rescue Cocker.

The cocker spaniel breed club would be able to give you a rough idea and not for those cashing in on covid. I'm suspecting working lines and show lines may some up at different prices?

> Hah!   If only.....

I said it was for 2019 NOT since Covid!!!!

DonnaFoulis: Average Cost of Cocker Spaniel Puppy.: during 2019 (fully health tested) was £1100. 2020 pre covid was £1250. Breeders in my group at the moment are seriously concerned that selling at pre covid prices will sell their newly purchased puppies at double that price and trying to 'out price' these people means high prices are being asked but pledges being made to donate a high percentage to 'doggy charities' which will be so needed to pick up the pieces in the not so distant future,,,

Hoggie: This has just occurred to me. If the breeders you know don’t feel they can find trustworthy buyers who will not sell on their puppies for double the price if they sell them at normal prices, why aren’t they just not breeding? Surely that is the easiest way to avoid it at the moment and eliminates all risk to puppies?

Personally DonnaFoulis I would avoid anyone charging these extreme amounts. To me it is just greed and not necessary.

I feel the same way. As we know many of the high prices are from those who are jumping on the bandwagon of market demand not because cost of breeding good healthy litters for the right reasons have massively increased I wouldn't want to play into that market even if I was able to afford such prices.

In the future if as I suspect prices will have increased ,  not due to inflation as normal or the way they are now, then we may have to reconsider true costs and appreciate changes that have been made by the decent breeders. That I would understand . 

I still cant see how prices of thousands often double or treble will be correct in the future. Lets hope not or I will not beable to consider a puppy in the future

Hi,

I'm also in the early stages of looking for a cocker puppy.  Our current cocker is getting on so feel now is the right time to start thinking about a pup.  A few posts have mentioned contacting breading clubs but i am struggling to find any info on the website.  Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks

https://www.champdogs.co.uk/breeds/cocker-spaniel/clubs

Thanks you.  Easy when you know where to look

Does any one know if the east anglia club is still running?  I just get a bounce back from the email address?

Thanks

masajackrussell; Inflated Puppy Prices/Trustworthy Buyers; Think the problem is no one quite knows what is going to happen.  Some people have returned to their normal practices and others have chosen not to so I suppose it is down to everyone's individual outlook on how they see their own life returning to 'normality'.  We have all been 'hood winked' by untrustworthy buyers who appear to have all the credentials required.  The examples I gave of 'selling on' on a previous post has not gone down well with my Group and I can assure you these individuals will be brought to heal and most likely ostrecised. Many would agree that the current pricing is unpresidented but lessens the risk of resale to
anyone the original Breeder has not vetted.  The original Buyer has no room to make immediate profit - there is none to be made. Not breeding at the moment will help at the moment but do you think it will create more demand as time goes on or less demand when a certain period of time has passed?  I just don't know either.

> <br />Does any one know if the east anglia club is still running?

I believe so, well they were in May..the secretary is Mrs Linda Crowley lindacrowley308@yahoo.com

Thank you.  I think the address on the club page is missing the 308

These ridiculously high prices are also furthering the despicable trade in stolen dogs.
At the height of the lockdown puppy scramble, one of my breeds most successful breeders placed an advert on Dogs4Idiots, suggesting a maximum price that a genuine breeder would charge. The advert was left in place for just 24 hours.
I really don't understand how charging such high prices can help in finding the best homes for puppies - surely nobody is saying that people who 'just get by' are so shallow that they might be tempted sell their puppies or dogs on? Pet owners are more likely to see their dogs as family. I actually find that it is the shepherding and working gundog people who are more likely to part with adolescent and trained dogs for the right price. (Though not all of them of course).

> Not breeding at the moment will help at the moment but do you think it will create more demand as time goes on or less demand when a certain period of time has passed?

Not breeding at the moment if you don't have a waiting list of well vetted owners is just being responsible. The demand for puppies is always high either way, if everyone just chucks their prices up it's going to cause even more problems and give breeding a bad name (or worse than it already has according to the adopt don't shop advocates).

> Many would agree that the current pricing is unpresidented but lessens the risk of resale to<br />anyone the original Breeder has not vetted.

I think the overall majority of responsible breeders would disagree with this point.

If a responsible breeder is truly worried about not being able to find responsible owners they just won't breed. Hiking prices does not in any way stop the unscrupulous from mistreating puppies. Those sorts of people will do it as that is just who they are.

There is no justification for hiking prices. It doesn't decrease the slight risk every breeder takes that they could possibly be making the wrong decision - nothing can wipe out human error. Money does not guarantee a decent home. Saying the increase is going to charity doesn't work, as by breeding without good owners in place you are just exacerbating the problem that the charities were set up to deal with. High price or not, there are people who are going to rehome their dogs, or abandon them, or sell them on to anyone for the same price if they can't get higher just to get their money back and it's not as easy to have a dog as they thought, or worse, start puppy farming them.

And where's the guarantee that the difference between the normal and hiked price is actually going to go to charity and not in the back pocket of the breeder? Not sure I would trust someone I wasn't very good friends with to stick to this, but then my good friends don't need to hike prices to find homes and wouldn't even dream of it.

Masajackrussell:  All very valid points and breeding already has a bad name due to the very credulous publicity of the Bad Breeders.  It hasn't changed the practices of those but now people are very much aware - brilliant IMO. No one knows what the future of breeding will be so again...there is no immediate, longterm or permanent solution. If the Charities depending on donation are so badly affected by the current situation - reported widely in the national news - then surely donations as the abandoned dog/puppy numbers increase, their funding will need to increase not decrease surely?  Something is better than nothing.

> If the Charities depending on donation are so badly affected by the current situation - reported widely in the national news - then surely donations as the abandoned dog/puppy numbers increase, their funding will need to increase not decrease surely?  Something is better than nothing.

Of course their funding needs to increase. I may be cynical but if a breeder didn't have a waiting list and was charging extortionate amounts I would not trust them to donate any of that to charity. And if you are breeding without decent owners in place you are adding to the problem so donating is just rather hypocritical no?

masajackrussell:  As reputable Breeders I imagine we all have waiting lists but you cannot predict whether the litter number born will be over the number of potential new owners you have listed (personally, I have no more than 6 at any given time).  I totally agree with your comment on this.  Yip morals need to be a personal thing so cannot guarantee that this will happen with every Breeder -  no crystal ball re this point of view or any other included in this thread.

> As reputable Breeders I imagine we all have waiting lists but you cannot predict whether the litter number born will be over the number of potential new owners you have listed (personally, I have no more than 6 at any given time).

This is why I don't close my waiting list. Everyone knows it is long and everyone knows they will have to wait a while if they want one of my pups. If they don't want to wait that's fine, it's their choice.

massajackrussell:  Yip waiting seems to be the answer from the majority.  Just hope it is not the wrong choice as time goes on. Time may decrease the number of Greeders, Hobby Breeders with open waiting lists will become less and less as their Litter numbers are very small to preserve their gene pool and all the crossbreeding will continue .  No right nor wrong answer.

> These ridiculously high prices are also furthering the despicable trade in stolen dogs.

I've wondered if perhaps some of these dog thieves are stealing to fund wanted adverts at the moment with many offering pre covid puppy prices+ for adults. Some of the dogs I've seen that have been stolen from kennel break ins if you look online the breeds often seem to have quite a few wanted adverts.

JoStockbridge: Dog Theives.  Having watched the govt debate on this just the other day. I didn't see any discussion re advertising sights checking credentials of their posters...only a call to increase number of prosecutions for those theives apprehended and an increase to the fines given,  Tail wagging the dog IMO. Brings so many questions about where do we start regarding 'poyniant debate at govt level?