This article was written for the Gundog Journal who didn’t publish it … perhaps it is too political. We have reproduced it here as we feel very strongly about it.

Over the last twenty five years that we have had cockers a lot of things have changed. There are now many, many more of them about, the “type” of cocker has changed, trials have changed, training methods have changed and the uses that cockers are put to have changed. However, at the risk of sounding like a dinosaur, I am not sure that all these changes are for the good.

Throughout the early part of the summer our older, trained dogs take a well deserved break after a long autumn on Grouse and winter on pheasants. Weather permitting, they will spend their time loafing around in the sun, going for free running exercise and splashing about in nearby becks.

Whilst our pups are growing up we do quite a lot of retrieving with them. Our aim is to get them keen on retrieving and indeed hunting for a retrieve at an early age. Most spaniels nowadays are naturally good retrievers but it is surprising how many people seem to struggle to get young dogs retrieving cleanly and efficiently.

The most commonly asked question I am asked about training cockers is “at what age do you start?” I always evade answering the question. My stock answer is when the dog is ready. Some are screaming to be challenged at six months and some are not ready when they are approaching a year old. The truth is that only the owner really knows when the dog is mature enough to start taking the training. 

If you are thinking of mating your bitch it is important to plan certain aspects in advance. The choice of a stud dog is an obvious one but also the likelihood of finding good homes for the pups is perhaps more important.

Over twenty years ago a moorland keeper who was a friend of ours acquired a small, solid liver cocker dog that was almost inevitably named Bisto. In those days cockers were fairly uncommon and he suffered numerous comments about what on earth he intended to do with it. By the time his wife got a very attractive blue roan bitch, most of the hardened dog men in the area had a begrudging respect for the small liver dog that worked tirelessly all day on pheasants and grouse. We too were converted …