I would like to use this page of our website to talk about the attributes of the Spaniels we take pride in hunting over and breeding and I must stress that we train and hunt all our spaniels before we even consider breeding from them as we want to know that the partnership between a dog and a bitch is going to produce the consistent qualities we look for and hope for in every single pup in every single litter born , those qualities are natural ability and intelligence and train ability an immeasurable hunting drive and stamina , if I may I will talk about each attribute separately so we will start with natural ability.
Natural Ability
All dogs are born with natural ability but is amazing how a dogs natural abilities and qualities are passed on so closely from generation to generation I have witnessed year after year litter after litter all having the same behaviours, and pups having the same mannerisms the same habits and personalities as their mother and father to a point where it is almost uncanny, so this is were my belief of not relying on paperwork but witnessing a dog working and living tells you more about what you can expect from their pups then any piece of paper will ever do and I think today more than ever people believe Red Ink in a spaniels pedigree will guarantee success rather then taking a dog out shooting for 3 to 4 hours and testing its ability in the field and not just the mother but the father of the pups also .
Most people believe that its the mother that gives 70 % of the pups abilities I don't believe that's true at all , I know with Jack " Codi Sam " our stud dog he has the a major in put into the pups future abilities as much as the dam and sometimes more in fact when you come to know your dogs with the precision that you should as a passionate determined breeder you can dissect a litter of 8 to 10 pups as that's a mum and that's a dad so you can say virtually with an assured certainty that this pup will have mostly all of the attributes of mum or dad .
So the natural abilities that we hope for to be consistently passed on from generation to generation are the rest of the list I mentioned.
Intelligence , Train ability, a clever intelligent dog learns fast , trains well and remembers its training with ease , it stores its experiences and knowledge of its hunting life and draws on them whenever it needs to , dogs are like people and sometimes we as people forget that and forget that dogs like humans have varying levels of intelligence so its obvious that the more intelligent the dog the better the gundog and the better the partnership between owner and gundog , we pride ourselves in the fact, a fact that most people who own a givendale spaniel will state that the dog hunts for them and not for itself and if you understand that concept you will know just how important that fact is .
Hunting Drive , that intangible spark / fire in a dogs brain and heart that becomes a beautiful tangible powerful physical force a consistent force that makes a dog drive its self on and on looking for game no matter what terrain or cover is presented in front of it , I know that again like intelligence it varies in each and every dog so the bigger the fire the better if coupled with all the other attributes. we often tell people that our dogs hunt for scent and not on it to briefly explain that statement some dogs loose interest in hunting very quickly if they don't come across any scent we found that because of their high hunting drive ours will hunt for hours at the same enthusiastic speed even if they don't find any fresh scent it doesn't seem to matter to them they just keep hunting.
Stamina , when I think of Stamina in a spaniel I see two kinds of stamina both physical and mental , the physical side comes from a more powerful frame , medium sized and covered in muscle , a powerful rear end and broad powerful chest and strong back gives this type of spaniel its endurance stamina , when at peak fitness they will hunt between 3 and 1/2 to 5 hours at an exciting pace depending on the cover faced its important to realise that the mental stamina to want to keep going and hunt hard cover for as long as possible is equally as important and when the two forms of stamina are coupled you have a great spaniel.
