Can I just thank Sandy for starting this thread - it is thought provoking - and the contributions valuable.

Today we picked up a 5 year old "Cocker" who was due to be PTS this weekend for biting. He turned out to be a totally ball obsessed Wocker in his 3rd home, with a nose for finding anything! His breeding is generations of FT Ch and working stock.

Now the bite makes sense; he is "driven" but his ability has never been channelled, nor trained and when someone gets between him and the ball .........

So now we will find him a more suitable home with someone who truly understands him.

Well done Fifer... I hope the little fella gets the home he deserves

Steve

Dottie was bred to work FTCH all through her pedigree. her grandparents were FTCH
We bought her to work but she is Gunshy and is now a family pet.
She has still been trained though and can do anything within reason , sometimes she has to have a bit of me time lol we speak to our girl very quietly very soft voiced she is a nervy one but wonderful at the same time, she is from the Rytex stock and is scared of her own shadow sometimes. grrr rytex interbreeding took dottie to teach us about this.
very nervous dogs .. sorry ranting. She looks wonderful in the field though free running lol and she is our girl.

Great discussion
some Breeders of working dogs tend to pick the best of the litter for work , sell some to people who work dogs and then offload the rest of the litter as family pets without any back up .
Peeps who breed from their working bitch who has never worked grrrr and sell as working/family pets make my blood boil.
I feel sorry for the unsuspecting family that has just picked up a working springer and fell in love with that gorg puppy with long ears and sad eyes and has no idea of the drive that will kick in in a few months time Most of them have no idea of the commitment owning a springer takes.
I agree with most parts of sandys discussion but as i have already said dottie will never be a working dog but she is a fab family pet and l know there are loads of peeps on here who don't work their dog but give those dogs a wonderful life. Just like my dottie
Maybe we should all post more on SO YOU THINK YOU WANT A SPRINGER Thread
and tell it like it is lol

in the vets the other day - we met a police man and his beautiful black working GS, Max (just visiting for a general MOT). He was very keen to talk about his dogs and their work - he has a springer also (althugh she is now retired due to having broken her leg - not done in work may i add) -
he says that the dogs he has when finished work for the day are also great family dogs ... he was obviously extremely committed to them in every sense -

- he was very enthusiastic about the work the dogs do and how much they love it -

im not sure what peoples thoughts on police dog work is - just wondered .....

Ollie has been docked as was all his litter but the breeder said that she always docks her litters because she has to do it just after birth and she never knows if they are going to a working or pet home.

My friends vet wouldn't dock all of Vinnie's litter because she couldn't be sure that they were all going to working homes (in fact the one bitch puppy definitely wasn't). One of his brothers was docked, and his new owner had to provide 'proof' that he was going to work (i.e. firearms license or letter from whoever is in charge of local shoot saying that you are purchasing the dog with the intention to work it). I could have had Vinnie docked, but as it would have meant picking him at two days old I decided against it. This meant that I would be able to choose from three puppies instead of just two. As it turned out, one of his little brothers dies so I only had the choice of two anyway!

Also, the same vet that docked them is meant to microchip them at the same time (although I don't think many will actually do this at 3 days old!)

If my friend had had them all docked she would not have been allowed to advertise them for sale through the KC (not that she needed to in the end)

I am very happy with his full tail. It is getting a bit of feathering now, and is always wagging. It seems to balance him somehow. I just hope that it won't be too much of a problem when he does come to work.

I don't have a useful contribution to make to this discussion.
I just wanted to say how much I have enjoyed reading it and how informative it has been.
Thank you everyone who has posted.