Happy Birthday Eko 🎈🎈🎈

I can't believe that our sweet crazy boy is 5 years old today, where has all that time gone?

Photo Description - Head and shoulders shot of Eko the Golden Cocker Spaniel wearing his birthday hat and bandanna, the hat is navy and pink, it has 4 candles on top and has the words "Party Animal" across the front. The bandanna is navy with the words "It's my Birthday" on it

Eko came to us a year earlier than originally planned, but that was ok as I really wanted a puppy from his mum Juno, we knew her well and she'd had all the relevant KC/BVA health testing done to ensure any puppies born weren't

Jackanory Part 16 - When Boris met Eko

The first time Boris met Eko 💗

As I recall Eko was around 5 or 6 weeks old when we took Boris to meet him for the first time

Only a few weeks previously Boris had been brutally attacked by another dog whilst working as my Assistance Dog and it had badly knocked his confidence around other dogs, which was worrying as we'd had Eko booked since long before he was a twinkle in his daddies eye

Would Boris be able to cope with a new pup in the house at this critical time, would Boris ever be able to return to work as my Assistance Dog, at this point we had no idea what the future would be

Jackanory Part 15 - Glitter Highlights?

I've recently noticed that Eko has developed some white eyebrows and I think they're so adorable. When he was born Eko was a beautiful shimmering light gold with a pink nose and two tone coloured paw pads

A recent photo of Eko the Golden Cocker Spaniel laying on grass and looking at the camera with his tongue out and showing off how his eyebrows have recently started changing colour

At only 4 years old I'm inclined to think Eko is changing colour to a more roan like appearance, rather than going grey because of his two tone paw pad colouring

 

Jackanory Part 14 - Don't Feed the Trolls

Found this old post of Eko as a puppy, when I wrote it I was very angry but decided not to post it and feed the Trolls at the time, hence why it's now part of our Jackanory Stories

OMG the keyboard warriors are out in force again, yet again I've received unsolicited training advice to use a prong collar on Eko to teach him to respect me

There's absolutely no need to train dogs using fear, force or dominance with e-collars, prong collars, choke chains, rattle bottles, discs or any other of the many adversive training methods out there

Jackanory Part 12 :- Love at First Sight

Welcome back to our Jackanory Stories series where you can catch up on the many parts of our life when we weren't blogging, you can search this series at any time just by using the word Jackanory, oddly they come up in a totally random order but they're all there, plus the odd unexpected post that we may have referred to our Jackanory Stories in

Today we travel right back to the beginning of Ekos life, to the very first time mum saw a photo of him at only 24 hours old and fell head over heels in love with him. Back then Eko's name was Wash as he was part of the Fireflies litter

Asking a few simple questions could save you heartache in the long run!

This post is a copy of an email of a genuine equiry I made with somebody who professed to be a "responsible" breeder on their website... I was shocked by the reply I got, and the "As it's not compulsory, I don't have too attitude"!!!!!! Plus they never replied back when I explained  the questions I had asked in more detail...   A Guilty Conscience, I certainly hope so!!!

31 May
Dawn Hart 

####..... Couple of quick question about your pups for sale.... What are the BVA/KC Hip scores of both parents and all 4 grandparents??? Do mum and dad have current Eye Certificates, and were the x4 grandparents screened when used for breeding??? Last but not least what is the C.O.I. of the pedigree??? As I'm not a fan of line-breeding due to recessive genes!!!!!! I'm may be interested in a pup, but have seen a few lately that were't quite bold or placid enough... Thanks Dawn

31 May
######## ########
 hi dawn, in answer to ur questions no none of my dogs are hip scored as u dont hip score working lined springers, no at the mo mine dont have current eye tests as its not compulsory to have the tests done in working lined springer (at the mo) as it is with show dogs but i am in the process of getting all my dogs heath tested as im all for it just havnt got around to it up to now... as for the grandparents i have no idea if any are tested... and as for C.O.I. i have no idea what that is??? and as for there charactors there only just starting to show them so dont no yet what they are yet... hope these answer ur questions... #### x

31 May

Dawn  Hart

Ok  #### thanks for that, will do some research on Hip Dysplasia in working Springers as had 2 dogs with it in the past and it's a nasty thing!!! The tests aren't compulsory for show or working dogs which is a bad thing in my opinon.. But the law needs to change, making breeders responsible for the lifelong health of there puppies *which will hopefuly put a stop to puppy farmers...* Health Testing is used to help eliminate hereditary diesases, by not breeding from affected dogs!!!!! My Cocker is a working Cocker not show, and all his relations were tested for P.R.A (eye tests) every precaution was taken by his breeders, but he still had it when he went for his tests before breeding from him.. Hence no breeding for him!!! Therefore I had no comeback on his breeder as she had done all she could... BVA/KC tests are open to everybody, my friend breeds working labs and has been testing them for approx 20 years I believe... C.O.I is a scoring system where you can work out how closely in-bred puppies are further back in there parentage, when line-breeding was all the rage:- ie, Grandfather to Granddaughter, cousin to cousin and so on, because of recesssive genes that cause the hereditary problems.... The boldness or shyness of a pup at 4 weeks will carry on through to it's adult life if raised correctly!! Hence why early temprement testing is better for matching pups to owners.... Sorry but in my opinion and lots of other peoples,  Health Testing is important for lifelong health of the puppies and good of the breed!!!  Dawn

After this communication I opted not to buy a puppy from this particular breeder, , this article is my personal opinion, your free to make your own mind up.

Authors Note:-

I would like to add that this person was a facebook friend for several months, and I genuinely liked them. But after this transaction of messages, their personality changed and not in a nice way!

I was inundated with nasty messages, and several of my facebook friends were put in a very awkward situation, and made to choose between me and them.

So please ensure you ask questions when buying a pup, and if the breeder of the pup, doesn't want too, or won't give you the answer you require, then you should consider looking elsewhere for your pup.

Breeders that pay out for the health testing before breeding, have the interest of the pups lifelong health in mind and are not after making a quick buck.

It really is better to wait a few months or even years for your pup, than to rush out and buy one because it is available.

I'm not saying there is anything wrong with this breeders dogs, but genetic problems can happen to the most experienced of people if they don't health test their dogs before breeding.

I would only ever buy a pup from somebody, who has taken the time to find out if there are any hidden problems that can be passed on, and so should you. To save any heartache later on if the pup should develop something that could have been avoided by a simple test that somebody couldn't be bothered to do because they don't HAVE TOO!!!