Dogs that scream "quality" at you.

[Alice]

Frank Geraghty' s FTW clumber Molly is a Flintwood, Flintwood Snowflake Macgiriaght. She's getting on a bit now but is still the highest-achieving clumber in the UK.

I saw an 8 month old lab bitch being kept as a pet recently who I immediately thought 'WOW' about in the same way, Wullie. She was being passed about between a guy and his ex-missus who are nice people but not 'dog' people. Just as Nick and I had made up our minds to make him an offer for her, he told us she'd gone back to his ex, supposedly for good this time. Gutting!

[crackerd]

Bravo for your enlightenment, Wullie. Next thing you'll be glomming onto a Sussex what got that coruscating thing afield



and then a spinone - they're also generally "softies" who need but a consistent hand and willingness of a trainer in persevering to "turn on" what they've got going inside. Which is a "motor" (and a good gob) that ain't plodding a'tall.

MG

[trekmoor]

Bravo for your enlightenment, Wullie.

MG

I just say what I see Mike and in that clumber I saw a potential for real quality ,in the very few others I have seen I did not.
I'm almost twitching to get my mitts on that dog ! I was considering spending 60 miles worth of fuel today in order to take him out to assess him a bit more. My wifes car went into the garage this morning so guess whose car she's now using ? Then to top it all my cars engine warning light switched on ..... when my wife gets her car back from the garage mines will now have to go in for repairs too !

I had a wee "shot" at assessing the clumber on Sunday. I think he has had previous training. He doesn't seem to have been too roughly trained although he was a bit "cowery" ....it was hard to decide how much of that was due to previous training and how much was due to the sudden total changes to this dogs previous life. He is not a "hard case." He seems rather sensitive.
Got a feeling it was love at first sight for both of us.

Sussex and Field Spaniels are even more rarely seen than clumbers around here and I have only seen one spinone at work and was not impressed by that one. The other spinones I've seen were still in training but they certainly didn't set the grass ablaze as they hunted or retrieved.

Unfortunately people look at poorly trained or poorly bred dogs at shoots and think, "I don't want one of them !" I encounter this again and again with the brittanies and even the other HPR breeds I take to shoots. Gamekeepers, pickers-up and beaters all ask me (as they roll their eyes) " What the hell possessed you to get one of them ?" It usually takes a while before I eventually get told ..." Well I suppose that one's O.K. !" It's much the same story with clumbers or with any spaniel breed other than springers and cockers .... and only ten to twenty years ago cockers were deemed a bit "iffy" too. This breed has just about as many fans as the springer has at shoots now. It gained it's popularity by proving it could do the job....although it often does it in it's own way !

There is no reason why clumbers should not follow that same path ....provided they are bred as specifically for work as they are for shows. Our show clumbers are an embarrassment to the name of "Gundog." They are far too large and heavily built , they have a high rate of bad hip scores and their eyes could stand a lot of improvement too . Our K.C. allows them to weigh as much as 80lbs. I'm told. That is an utterly ridiculous weight for a spaniel . The poor dogs can hardly manage a waddle around a show-ring. I see the main problem to the producing of more good working clumbers as being a rather small genetic pool of dogs with good working ability.

Wullie

[heidrun]

Here are a couple more shots of the clumber bitch. Her eyes are absolutely nothing like show clumbers' eyes.




And this is my clumber.

[trekmoor]

Very nice. The one thing I wasn't too keen on about the dog I saw was that his eyes showed some of the "red" at their bottoms. That makes a dogs eyes seed collectors.

Wullie

[Cass]

Very nice. The one thing I wasn't too keen on about the dog I saw was that his eyes showed some of the "red" at their bottoms. That makes a dogs eyes seed collectors.

Wullie

Many of the American cockers here have that trait. I think its nasty looking. Just goes to show how their breeding has rendered many of them useless for hunting. One jump into cover and the dog would be missing at least one eye.

[trekmoor]

Hi Cass ...by "American cockers" do you mean working cockers bred in America or the show type of long haired cockers ?

Wullie

[crackerd]

Probably means both, wullie. Cass is a tad misguided on the breeding though - it's not what "rendered them useless for hunting" but who? The show fancy, just as they've done with your cockers splitting from field-bred over there.

Many of the American cockers here have that trait. I think its nasty looking. Just goes to show how their breeding has rendered many of them useless for hunting. One jump into cover and the dog would be missing at least one eye.

Little education for you, Cass, as a first-time gundog owner. Haw (the red) in a spaniel's eyes is perfectly acceptable - and working in cover they're more likely to get something in their mouths



than in their eyes anyhow...

MG

[Judy]

I beg to differ, haw is completely unacceptable for a working dog in the kind of cover we have in the UK, I have spent ages over the years helping people get the seeds and dross out of dogs' eyes and their eyelids have been nothing like as loose as the average show Clumber's, nor your Sussex's eyelids.

We all know how much getting something in your eye hurts and it has to be as bad for them.

[crackerd]

Maybe your seeds, like your saracasm, are a little more plentiful and "biting" than our'n, Judy - but says here haw is acceptable and moreover hasn't led to the first extraction from a spaniel's eye in what, 20-odd years of having them. And having them work all the while. But best of luck in digging them out if your dogs are continually bothered by them.

MG