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.

Agree with those that have said too much too soon; you got a 7 month old rescue dog at the start of June and less than 3 months later you're asking it to sit in a hide and retrieve pigeons.... you're way way ahead of yourself. Back off the shooting thing. Get the dog comfortable with you in every environment (the car, with other dogs, on the lead) and work on retrieving with dummies and balls, building up to dummies with feathers on, then cold birds, then freshly shot birds and combine steadiness, recall, maybe a bit of handling and lots of socialisation. Do all of that before you ask her to sit in a hide, take your time just now and she could be about right for sitting in a hide next summer.

Another vote for bones from the butcher.

Looks like it, with some more fat and taurine... isn't that what they put in Red Bull??

From the AG website (sorry don't know where the nice green highlighting came from): Adult: Analytical Constituents: Crude Protein 25%, Fat Content 16%, Crude Ash 9.5%, Crude Fibres 2.5%, Calcium 2.2%, Phosphorous 1.5%, Omega-3 0.53%, Omega-6 3.17%. Performance: Analytical Constituents: Crude Protein 25%, Fat Content 18%, Crude Ash 6.5%, Crude Fibres 2.4%, Calcium 1.4%, Phosphorous 1%, Omega-3 0.53%, Omega-6 3.71%, Taurine 1000 mg/kg, L-carnitine (50mg/kg). Prestige: Analytical Constituents: Crude Protein 30%, Fat Content 21%, Crude Ash 7%, Crude Fibres 3%, Calcium 1.4%, Phosphorous 0.95%, Omega-3 1.10%, Omega-6 4.85%.

The performance is about 30% is it not?

I fed Arden Grange adult for a few years, I thought the protein level was about 24%? Always found it a very good food. Tried the Prestige or Performance or something once but whilst they might have had more energy they had the concentration span of a goldfish on speed. Personally I now like to feed a good quality, low protein complete food - no more than 20% - augment with green tripe and sometimes a wet complete food - something like Nature's Diet - and get the dogs properly fit rather than relying on food to make them go. They have plenty of go in their mind, they just need to have a body in condition to keep up with it. Moisture content and hydration levels also make a huge difference, sometimes I'll just feed wet food or tripe the day before a trial or a long day's shooting so they don't have to take on too much water having had the dry food.

It was reported 24th April so unless it was reported as a premonition....

You ponder too much! No, retrieving is retrieving, hunting is hunting and picking up is raking as far and wide as is necessary to put a keepers birds in the bag..... they're all different and training handling and distance on dummies should have no bearing on a dog's pattern or distance from you when hunting.

If you send a picking up dog out to do a proper job it doesn't come back until it has a bird in it's mouth and the distance it is from you is of no importance, the best ones aren't see unless they're carrying something. Which is polar opposite of the beating line where you want a dog hunting within range, under control, happy to flush and not looking to retrieve.

Picking up with a spaniel is no problem at all. Shooting over it or going back into the beating line once it's done a job as a proper, raking picking up dog is a whole different ball game - depends on the dog but I wouldn't do too much picking up with a spaniel I want to hunt in beating line.... I've done it once.