cocker spaniel
 

any body hunt with cockers? i have no idea whether people do or not, the reason i was asking is because we have a cocker at home that has an amazing nose on him. We have a hill behind our house overlooking a little hollow the leads into the forest. if we show him a golf ball, rub our hands on it, take him where he can't see us, then blast the golf ball down into the forest with a baseball bat (anyone ever done this? you're lookin at a couple hundred yards here) and tell him to go find it, he'll be back in a matter of minutes...haha, maybe i'm just proud of our little man, i was just wondering if anyone hunts much with them

RE: cocker spaniel
 

I saw a hunt on TV once where a cocker was used as a pointing dog. I think for the most part the cockers have been bred for pet qualities and alot of the "hunt" has been bred out of them. I may be wrong about this. If someone knows otherwise please correct me.

RE: cocker spaniel
 

http://home.att.net/~deerhill.cockers/hunting.html

RE: cocker spaniel
 

Most dog breeds were developed for some sort of sporting use. Over the years however, most of the sporting breeds, have become more popular as house pets. You can make just about any dog a good house pet... but not any house pet a good hunting dog. Heck just look at what has happened to Goldens. I've shown people pictures of Dutch retrieving ducks and hunting with me and even from seasoned hunters gotten, "You mean you can duck hunt with a Golden?" No kidding Sherlock! Thats what they were bred for in the first place! :D Its just that over the years more and more people have accepted them as great family dogs, which they are, so some of the dogs with great hunting bloodlines are getting a bit harder to come by. Same thing with Labradors... maybe even more so, though there are a lot more folks breeding hunting labs.... but there are also a lot more mutt labs running around too.

Cockers are great because they are small. Most of them are bred these days for house pets, but I am sure that someone is still hunting them. If you dog has the nose and the drive... heck man let 'er hunt!

RE: cocker spaniel
 

Here's one of several who breed working cockers. For more just google "hunting cocker spaniels" that's how I found this one.

http://home.earthlink.net/~performanceacs/

RE: cocker spaniel
 

The English use cockers for hunting alot but they are normally flushing dogs. I believe the two main flushing dogs in the UK are cockers and springers.