The future of working gundogs

[trekmoor]

Absolutely nothing whatsoever, apart from the first line and one other!

I agree...... All the same a good rant from time to time does me the world of good !

Wullie

[James]

Perhaps the owners of the stud dogs should say no, offer sensible advice? Last I heard it takes two to make a pup.
How many of you drive 5 or 6 hours to shoot over your dogs? Not competition, even I've been stupid enough to drive 4 hours to compete, even flown 4 hours to watch a Working Test, just plain shooting for pleasure not training for Trials?

Quite a few! isn't that right James.

Yep, but it seems unless you post it all over facebook it didnt happen lol.

[beechessam]

Perhaps the owners of the stud dogs should say no, offer sensible advice? Last I heard it takes two to make a pup.
How many of you drive 5 or 6 hours to shoot over your dogs? Not competition, even I've been stupid enough to drive 4 hours to compete, even flown 4 hours to watch a Working Test, just plain shooting for pleasure not training for Trials?

Quite a few! isn't that right James.

Yep, but it seems unless you post it all over facebook it didnt happen lol.

And then you probably should have!

[James]

Quite a few! isn't that right James.

Yep, but it seems unless you post it all over facebook it didnt happen lol.

And then you probably shouldn't have!

Very true

[westcountry]

Going back to the original question,I would have thought it was the other way round in that trialing dogs(spaniels) are raising the standard of the breed. Dogs with major faults such as hard mouth,noise and unsteadiness are never added to the gene pool. A trialing dog could do a days picking up or a days beating. An average beaters dog dont know what a stop whistle is. I think the trialing dog could easily do a days work but the average shooting dog couldnt get through a trial(my own included)
Just my take on things.

[Judy]

But the show people would argue that they are the ones keeping the dog the right shape, correct angulation etc., etc..

[munstyman]

But correct shape in isolation of the show ring. They lost sight of function and purpose. The KC's world wide should review all the `working' groups and remove all those being shown that would not be able to do the work of their current group and put them into a more appropriate group of utility or toy ( as has been said of the gundog group winner ) They want fit for function, time they stepped up to the plate.
As for Trials, they could introduce a height stick and weigh in, and tighten up on the breed standard for the measurement for Cockers and Springers for a start

[Naj]

But there are American cockers that work to the gun.

[trekmoor]

Precious few and to what standard ?

Wullie

[munstyman]

With that much feather Naj ? If it went anywhere near bramble it would take a day to extract it with a brush cutter Anything more than a 1in 20 slope out of water and the legs wouldn't carry the weight of water in the coat. The only way it would catch a runner is if the bird saw it coming and died laughing
Just checked the Breed standard - Merry, free, sound, keen to work. That was the only reference to `working' um not like the KC is being vague or anything then? The FCI one isn't much better

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Cocker_Spaniel



Ch. Obo II, considered to be the foundation sire of the American Cocker Spaniel. What have they done?