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SPRINGADOR'S


Fudge40
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I'm looking at getting a dog ideally I wanted a labrador due to knowing they make good gun dogs once trained.

However the other half is not too keen on them, She likes springer spaniel's.

There is a Springador which is a mix of both which she likes the pictures of I have found but do they make good

gun dogs?

Many thanks for the advise or points you can give me as this would be my first gun dog.

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No doubt with the right parentage make excellent gundogs however since you can't have them with a pedigree I'd stick to either a Lab or springer. I have both and I honestly wouldn't want to choose between them.

 

My lab is a big athletic, strong, bold, type, will retrieve anything and has a faultless nose and very intelligent. He'll go as far as is necessary to get the retrieve. He's loyal, a real good mate.I wouldn't go out without him. (21months old)

 

My springer she is very athletic, fast, bold, and a very quick learner only needs showing once or twice and she gets it. Loves the retrieve, has a good hunting pattern. Also very loving and loyal. (6 months old) I'll enjoy her first season come September.

 

You won't go far wrong with any of these.

 

ATB,

Lee

Edited by lee-kinsman
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I've come across a few springadors and all of them looked the same.Slightly smaller than a Lab with a big white blaze on the chest.

A friend has one, mis mating of two FTCH and she's the best beating dog on the shoot but I don't know of anyone who would make that mating intentionally

 

Bill

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I have a 'Springador' but, unfortunately, it was kept in a horse box from birth to at least six months so had no inter action with anything in it's early stages.

It is very nervous of loud noise, in fact even adverts on the TV make her very wary - so is gun shy.

BUT she has the instinct of a hunting dog, she can smell or sense a pheasant in the middle of a belt of trees and search it out and when the bird is flushed stops and waits for my instructions.

She will be running free in fields and suddenly 'stops on her nose' and pounces to ther ground and within seconds has a rat or mouse dug up.

So her hearing, eyesight and smell is fantastic but to work her over a gun is impossible !!

Had I had her as a pup I reckon she would have been one of my best dogs and I have had some good Springers over the years before I retired.

pepe3.jpg

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I have a 'Springador' but, unfortunately, it was kept in a horse box from birth to at least six months so had no inter action with anything in it's early stages.

It is very nervous of loud noise, in fact even adverts on the TV make her very wary - so is gun shy.

BUT she has the instinct of a hunting dog, she can smell or sense a pheasant in the middle of a belt of trees and search it out and when the bird is flushed stops and waits for my instructions.

She will be running free in fields and suddenly 'stops on her nose' and pounces to ther ground and within seconds has a rat or mouse dug up.

So her hearing, eyesight and smell is fantastic but to work her over a gun is impossible !!

Had I had her as a pup I reckon she would have been one of my best dogs and I have had some good Springers over the years before I retired.

pepe3.jpg

 

But she looks like a Lab, nothing like a springer which his wife likes likes the look.

All the ones I've seen look like a Lab, so may as well buy a Lab

 

 

 

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Mines now coming up to five years old an nowhere near the size of a Lab so there is an advantage.

She is classed as 'Small' when we take her with us to Hotels, and we get away with it, as some charge or do not allow dogs to stay in their Hotels due to size.

Oh yes, she doesn't eat as much as a Lab either so that's another advantage too ;-)

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I agree with pontbeck, none I have ever seen look like a spaniel. If you are buying a dog because of how it looks (presumably you are and the difference isn't that you want a peg dog and your wife wants a beating dog?) then buy a breed, not a cross - at least you know what you will get.

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I have a cockerdor. She is a wonderful dog! I got her as a rescue dog at 4 years old, and she has bad points because of this. She has an amazing nose, and picks birds that spaniels refuse to. She won't hunt the bramble like a springer, but if you see her going in bramble you know to get your gun ready!

 

Her best retrieve for me last season was blind, across a brook and from about 150yards.

 

I wouldn't have another though, because as with any cross, you don't know what you'll end up with.

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A very balanced post, the last line is the most important. I have never known an owner of this cross to be disappointed with their dog but without wishing to sound rude their aspirations and standards in terms of their dogs ability in the field have not in my experience been very high.

 

As Actionpigeons said, years and generations of breeding go into fine tuning breeding to suit the job the breed is required to do. I don't subscribe to the hybrid vigour argument having had pedigree dogs since I was a boy and never had one with any health issues that could be attributed to the breeding, providing that the breeding has been done responsibly and with due consideration to the breeding behind the sire and dam.

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I have a cockerdor. She is a wonderful dog! I got her as a rescue dog at 4 years old, and she has bad points because of this. She has an amazing nose, and picks birds that spaniels refuse to. She won't hunt the bramble like a springer, but if you see her going in bramble you know to get your gun ready!

 

Her best retrieve for me last season was blind, across a brook and from about 150yards.

 

I wouldn't have another though, because as with any cross, you don't know what you'll end up with.

 

Don't matter what you have there's no grantees what you will end up with. There's plenty of failed *top dogs* out there and of course the trainer is always to blame..

 

You just edge your bets with a top pedigree. But there's plenty of unscrupulous breeders out there who couldn't give a monkeys. Some folks get through dogs like I get through loo roll.

 

Karpman

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Every shooter in the land has a story about "old jims" mongrel (insert silly money grabbing name), that retrieved a goose across the north sea after 15 ftch labradors had failed. Or "old jacks" mongrel (insert silly money grabbing name),that was still in the beating line after 9 championship winning springers had to be carried off home. Cut to the chase and get a ess or lab. Dead simple really.

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Don't matter what you have there's no grantees what you will end up with. There's plenty of failed *top dogs* out there and of course the trainer is always to blame..

 

You just edge your bets with a top pedigree. But there's plenty of unscrupulous breeders out there who couldn't give a monkeys. Some folks get through dogs like I get through loo roll.

 

Karpman

 

With respect mate you referred to your bed x whippet and lurchers, which I don't profess to have any great knowledge of, are always crosses. Peg, rough shooting, wildfowling, picking up and trialling dogs are a different story having their skills honed to the job they are doing through selective breeding. Hence my comment about selective breeding, plenty of **** bitches have a top stud put over them but don't bring anything to the gene pool.

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