Written by Sanna Kavén
Question about using a dog for breeding easily comes to dog owner's mind. Breeding is very responsible action, which should not be done without learning out the facts. Breeding a dog is every time individual case and it is mostly up only to dog owner.
Choosing dogs to breed and to breed in general is always based to breed standard (see breed standards of ESS and WSS). Every breeding dog should be closely compared to breed standard before making any decisions about breeding.
First criteria of all should be health. In Finland all springer spaniels must be hip x-rayed (dysplasia) and eye checked (progressive retinal atrophy PRA and hereditary cataract HC). This is part of Finnish Kennel Club's program against hereditary faults and diseases (PEVISA), but it is only demanded to do these examinations, there isn't any restrictions to use if something found. But what could be motivation to breed with dog having hereditary fault or disease?
So dog should be physically healthy, but also mentally. Temperament is one of the most important parts of dog. Dog must get along in daily life with people. All mental problems are anyhow not hereditary, but you cannot find it clearly which problem is and which not, so you should breed only dogs with good temperament. Dog should have temperament typical and desired for the breed. There is not clear meter for typical temperament, you just must be able to find it yourself or learn to recognize it. But remember it is not typical for any dog to be hostile, especially with spaniels this is convictable.
Breeding dog must also be typical for breed from its look and it must be representative of excellent breed type. In breed standard it is closely described how breed representative should look like. One of the most important parts of the breed standard is movement, because that is meter of breed type and usually movement tells the true anatomy of dog and how the anatomical parts fit together.
Dog should be able to work typically. Working abilities have been right from the start in breed's history the ground for breeding the particular breed and you should cherish these capabilities. All breeds have different working purposes and many breeds also have their own working tests to test the abilities of the dog to typical work.
It is not enough the dog is healthy and excellent representative of the breed, also pedigree is important. It is always likely to get successful result and reach the goal you have set, if the breeding dog is built from successful and healthy lines, but this is anyhow not any quarantee from being successful (every dog is anyway unique from genotype).
It is very important to study the close relations of the dog. For example if dam or sire of the dog has some hereditary disease, it is very likely all progeny of this dog are carriers of the disease (most of the hereditary diseases are heritaged resessive way which means the progeny of sick individual are all carriers). If dog is carrier of the disease it means the dog is not sick itself, but it carries the gene of the sickness and might inheritage it to its progeny. Not only the dogs seen in pedigree, you should also study closer for example dog's full and half siblings (health, results and other qualities defining breeding value).Breeding dog should be in good physical condition (enough exercise and quality nutrition). You also should pay attention to deworming and vaccination of breed dog, so that puppies will not get any infectious sicknesses or parasites.
All breeders have different taste and emphasis when concerning breeder and they respect different things in breeding dogs more than the other. There is anyhow some ways to test the breeding quality of the dog.
From dog show you get written evaluation about the dog from judge with official rights to judge the breed, which is comparing the dog direct to breed standard. You should maybe give more value to special breed judges who have either bred the breed himself/herself or otherwise studied very closely the breed in his/her career. You could maybe keep as qualities of good judge that he/she is experienced (meaning has judged the breed in many different countries) and "keeping his/her line" (meaning always rewards same type of dogs having same excellent qualities and only a few little differences to breed standard). In Finland there is arranged also unofficial shows, but results from these do not tell much about breeding value of the dog, because mostly the judges in these shows do not even have official rights to judge the breed. Dog owner should also learn to read the written show evaluations right and recommended would be to read those together with breed standard (then you see what is said to be good and bad in dog). You also should pay attention to fact that judges have different way to each other to write evaluations. Let's take as example when one judge writes "good" about some quality, it might mean he/she praises that quality in dog, but some other judge might truly mean it as official quality prize "good" is and that is quite second-rate meaning (in Finland we have official quality prizes: excellent, very good, good, satisfactory and disqualified). So show results and written critiques are not any facts about breeding value, you always must know more about judge's background and style of judging before doing more conclusions.
To test working ability of springer spaniel you may use for example spaniel hunting test, hunting dog tracking test or spaniel working ability test. You need already for Finnish Champion title with a springer either passed spaniel working ability test or 3rd prize from spaniel hunting test. For International Champion title you need 109 points in open class from spaniel hunting test (this is more than with which you get 1st prize).
The obedience of the dog is evaluated in obedience tests. There is also behaviour/temperament tests, where is more concentrated on dog's behaviour and temperament. When watching the results from behaviour tests you should also keep in mind what parts in behaviour are desired in breed and what are not. Breed clubs also arrange breeding inspections, where dogs get independent evaluation from its qualities. Ohter tests which might tell more about springer spaniel's breeding value are for example agility tests and other behaviour tests (BH).
The first place to contact when concerning breeding is always the official breed club (springer spaniel breed club is Springer Spaniel Club of Finland and there you should contact the breeding committee). Also Finnish Kennel Club helps.
The best person to tell more about your dog and its pedigree is the breeder of the dog, and also breeders and owners of the parents to your dog could help you. It really is worth it to ask help from these people having more experience in dog breeding.There is also many books written about breeding in many different languages. And there is also internet (for example with Google search engine you can find many articles about this issue), but you always must remember anyone can publish almost anything in world wide web and you must read all with certain reservations and not to believe everything you read.
There is no perfect dogs, even breeding dogs have their faults. When thinking about breeding work it is very important the breeder recognizes the importance of every quality and fault in dog and recognizes also the real quality of the dog. The goal in breeding should be to produce better dogs than the average in breed is and this way to bring something to the breed. All dogs are not for breeding and also all dogs must not be bred with.
Breeding is not only about one good dog. You also need to do financial investments, find good and suitable dog to mate your dog with, time and patient, responsibility and many other things. So consider very closely if you have resources to breed dogs before doing decisions.