I have two working cockers, I bought my female first she is KC registered with a great pedigree. After a year I then bought my male working cocker from a different breeder again KC reg with a great pedigree. They are pets and not for breeding by the way.

They are both fully grown now, but my female is really long, infact when she walks her body moves like a snake, I call it her sexy wiggle. She is about 36" from nose to bum. My male is quite a bit smaller, but on meeting other working cockers he seems to be the right size.

I saw my females mother when I bought her, she was a little bigger than my male, but not her father.

Is it normal for working cockers to come in different sizes, is my female just a big dog, or do you think she is not a working cocker?  I love my dogs and would not part with them, but I do have this worry at the back of my mind. Can you put my mind at rest that she is just BIG for her breed.

There is a great deal of variation in the sizes of working cockers.

When cockers were originally developed, cockers and springers were pretty much one and the same breed, defined only by their size. As the two breeds have split, a number of other breeds have been added to the mix and have contributed to the wide variety of colours available in the cocker that do not appear in springers. English setters would seem a likely candidate.

Over the years, working breeders have done little to achieve a consistency of type and size when compared to the show dogs. Some lines are more consistently small than others and vice-versa.

The field trial rumour mill is full of stories of dodgy goings-on with regard to even fairly recent breeding of working cockers. If these rumours are to be believed, many cocker pedigrees aren't worth the paper they are written on. However, even if true, the size of the dog is not necessarily an accurate guide as some of tiny ones run like springers, and many of the larger ones have a true cocker action and temperament.

A great many working cockers are line-bred due to the fairly limited number of succesful stud dogs available until a few years ago. If the dog they are line-bred to has dubious breeding, or just throws back to the very early outcrosses, then divergences of size, type and action can become fixed in the line. Thus it is perfectly possible to buy a cocker that ends up a springer type from someone who has acted with complete integrity in breeding their litter.

The bottom-line is not to worry about it, and just enjoy both of them.