WGD

Sounds about right. I think you're more likely to get an easy going beating dog if it's bred from easy going beating dogs. That's not to say it will be easy to train. I trial springers and have trial bred dogs. The most stubborn untrainable thing I've ever come across had no trial breeding until the great grandparents. I have recently seen another the same, out of "good working stock".... thick as mince and as hard headed as they come! Don't shy away from FT breeding, and don't generalise it either. Not all "trial bred" dogs are the same, quite the opposite - there is a huge range of traits and sizes. Breeding is not the be all and end all if you just want to enjoy your day out, but doing your research will give you the best chance of getting what you want. Each to their own.

Same... well, not quite 40... yet. Bones, young dogs sometimes can't figure them out immediately but stick them in a cage or dog box with a bone and it doesn't take long...

They most likely will be, they normally are. Very good kennels, practically indestructible. Sold mine only because I had the chance to build my own.

This. Although I don't split the tripe from the dry, I used to but it made no notable difference and as I have always fed twice a day, feeding all the dry in one meal was causing more problems than the tripe was solving.

Another vote for the Harkila Pro Hunter - I have two, a rather abused one for all jobs and weathers and one kept for when I need to look a little bit smarter. Neither have let me down.

If you have a reason other than precautionary then fair enough, but if the dog doesn't have a behavioural issue which castration MAY (not necessarily) help then why subject either your dog or your wallet to the trauma?

It's a carrier of a disease now known about in cockers, as a carrier it won't ever develop the disease.

Sorry to hear this, I know how it feels as I have a PRA carrier. You must have been desperately unlucky as AMS is not common, hence my post on your last thread - sorry. There's no need to neuter him just because you're not going to breed from him. And if you want to breed from him you can put him over a clear tested bitch then only carriers can be produced and a carrier will never develop the disease. But there are a lot of good stud dogs out there, I'd be looking more at what he's like when he grows up and whether he's worthy of being a stud dog before thinking about breeding from him irrespective of the AMS thing.

We're going to get to the stage where we have a Big Boys (or Girls ) book of health tests and conditions, giving us the ability to test for every condition that exists with no statistical analysis to describe the real risk of having a dog with a health condition. We may have all the health tests but risk losing sight of the qualities we want in a working dog because of it. I'm not anti health testing, I have tested a dog of mine as you know, but I think the advances in modern science and the ability to give a condition a diagnosis and a name means we have tests for conditions which the vast majority are very unlikely to ever encounter unless very unlucky.

It's got more chance of being hit by a bus than having this condition

+1, exercise the brain not the body at that age.

Can't comment, not running labs, but if you have good stock you've been successful with I can fully appreciate you'd want to keep those lines going and agree you'll come to understand the traits of those lines and how to get the best from them. It does however put you in a different category from the OP looking for a mating for a 7 YO sound shooting dog.

Yes, as long as it's an exceptional devil.

Fine looking pup, don't be in too much of a rush - they don't really master anything until they're 6 months plus, but condition and stimulate the pup to want to be with you and work and the rest will come. I've got one here nearly 6 months that knows it's name and sit, that's about it but it wants to be with me all the time.

Although I don't breed I have thought about it and I always ask myself, can I buy better than I can produce.... so far the answer has always been yes.