Thanks all of you for the info.
After reading about the more famous members of my dogs families , including "Charlie" I have come to the conclusion that it's a very good thing that I like hot, hard going dogs ! Imagine having my 3 all in the same house. Nae wunner I have got nae hair left and that my teef are falling out too !
Beechessam, Dax was just next door to be being a rescue dog when I bought him .He was in a very bad condition. I bought him at a few days less than a year old and three things persuaded me to buy him. (1) He had been seen months earlier by David Hamilton and I trust his judgement. (2) He very obviously liked retrieving ....but would not return to his owner with retrieves. He circled past his owner, tail down and came to me, a man he had never met instead.
(3) His bones were sticking out all over, his coat was falling out in lumps, he had an all over skin rash and his whole back-end was caked in sh*t. I was holding him just after his retrieve when he'd returned to me rather than to his owner when I got a good look and feel at the state of the pup.
I knew I couldn't hand him back over so I paid £600 for him then drove home thinking I had maybe thrown the money down the drain. Dax recovered after a few weeks of better feeding and several medicated baths. Dax repaid me many times over.
He was an exceptionally easy dog to train."Dax" is softer in temperament than either Charlie or Billy but he is not "soft" while working or being trained. He greatly enjoys hunting and has a different sort of pattern to my other cockers, Dax does a very natural , flowing sort of hunt with fewer of the little detours most other cockers take as they hunt.
He is very good in cover but has a bit more common sense when entering it than either Charlie or Billy has. Dax will use a ready made tunnel into cover if one is available. Billy and Charlie are forever cutting themselves when entering cover , Dax rarely does yet if there is game in there Dax will flush it .....or peg it !
Retrieving he loves with a vengeance and he also loves water possibly more than any dog of any breed that I have ever owned. He is very good and very clean in the house and he is quiet when in the kennel and run.... this rather surprises me when I think of the sh*t that was caked on him when I bought him.
He is very good with children of all ages and likes all adults too ,his temperament is excellent at all times with the exception of when he is eating, I think his puppyhood experiences taught him that food must be defended against other dogs if he wanted to eat at all ! Any human can remove food from him however.
He also does not like giving up any retrieve, especially game, if another dog wants to take it. Twice now he has fought Labradors to keep his birds and twice now he has returned to me with only half a bird in his mouth following disputes over a bird's ownership. Yet he gives his birds to me with no problems at all.
Dax is the dog that about 3 years ago winded something among the very large incoming waves on a stormy beach at Arbroath I was walking along with my wife. Dax swam out into those big , crashing waves and returned to shore "carrying" a dead seal by a flipper ! Time and time again the waves went right over him but he never let go of his "retrieve." He was only stopped from bringing the seal to me by the fact that once it was no longer supported by the water he could not carry it ....but he certainly tried to !
His faults are few , I would like him to surrender birds to other dogs but he will not do so if he is pestered by another dog during retrieves Dax will clamp down.
I would like him to be less possessive of food but readily excuse his growls should another dog move too near to his dish, his early experiences taught him to be possessive of food . Which is probably why he is possessive of game when near other dogs too ?
He is a randy little devil but only if the bitch is in season , he does however like to have a good long sniff at any bitch he meets just to make sure he isn't missing anything.
All of his other faults such as pegging and running in are down to my training and the work I do with him as a picking up dog at big shoots.
He is a smashing little dog and I am very glad that I took the chance and bought him. Any of my friends are happy to have Dax for a week or two in their kennels when I go on holiday ..... wish I could say the same about Charlie !
I have never competed in trials with any of my spaniels, only in tests. Dax has won a Novice test which is certainly no big deal. I was more pleased when he competed in a retrieve based test (no hunting) last year. Dax was only about 2-3 marks off beating all of the Labradors present and the retrieves were not "easy" ones.
As I have said before on this forum ,just about any keen field trailer could have done well with either Dax or Charlie ....it's not their fault they've got me as an owner !
A few pics.
Wullie
..... Now....if I mated Dax to Libby they are both tri-colours and should produce some lovely tri-coloured pups . Some of those pups might not need to be docked as Brittanies are one of the breeds that often produce tail-less pups. 
