Sgurr wrote:
Nonsense, Springers have been around for a couple of hundreds of years as we know them, they will be here in fifty, apply a bit of common sense in the choice of sire, heath tested if you like. It seems to me that people are unable to make a bloody decision without first consulting the Kc coefficient site, how did Selwyn Jones, Joe Greatrex, Keith Erlandson ever get on without it??!!
Look for a healthy sire, not overly close to y
Wright's Co-efficient of Inbreeding (the same one that the KC use today) was forumulated and used extensively from the 1920's with various stock breeds - so all the breeders you mention were in a position to be aware of COI and how to use it (especially those with close connections to the USA where Wright worked). Maybe they used COI but did not tell anyone else..... I think it is a given now that Erlander did outcrosses with Cockers (eg Gwibernant Llewellyn) and maybe the best reason to do this was to reduce the COI.
I think COI is a useful tool - Dawnspringer thinks it is a load of bollox. I have my opinion, you have yours.
I doubt coefficient even entered the heads of the breeders that developed the springer spaniel, do you think Keith Erlandson would have missed a chance to preach to the masses how much more intelligent, scientific and forward thinking he was compared to the rest of the spaniel world??!! I very much doubt!!!! He took Breconhill Brando to Conigree Simon on numerous occasions not because of coefficient but because he was the hardest going dog in the country at the time, he tells us this, the O'Vara springers were very closely line/in bred by Selwyn Jones to produce probably the finest kennel of springers there has ever been and to which, I suspect, every working/trialing bred springer today will go back to if you look back far enough, does such close breeding sound like coefficient was considered? You have your view and I have mine.
If you put a good, healthy well bred bitch to a good healthy, well bred dog that's not too closely related and both parents are free from hard mouth, noise, have good stamina, I think this is a sensible policy for breeding gundogs, I' d get a pup from someone who has the experience and knowledge of working spaniels and has chosen a sire to compliment the bitch than someone who breeds a bitch to a dog they have little or no knowledge of, or its ancestors because some computer program says this is the thing to do.
Unfortunately its something that should be considered, if you want Springers as a breed to exist in 50 years time, not that that is likely to worry you or I? However, its only a part of the decision when it comes to breeding, health and two decent (physically and work-wise) animals to put together matter just as much.
