Breeding & Puppies

English Springer Spaniel standard breeding - dual purpose breeding "Fit for Purpose"!

We love our dogs... -

Puppies and dogs make you happy, that is scientifically proven.


The VDH/FCI litter is, of course, carefully planned and, taking into account the genetic diversity, inspected and documented by the breeding supervisor from the 8th week onwards, examined by a vet, dewormed, vaccinated and chipped. The puppies and the mother should be healthy and agile in every breeding. The puppies should ideally appear wiry, although a small baby bump may be present. The head of the "English Springer Spaniel Puppies" should be finely chiselled and the eyes should look out into the world intelligently, curiously and brightly with firm eyelids. The puppies and the mother and father of the litter (why do dogs with loose eyelids even get breeding approval?) should not have watery eyes or loose or drooping eyelids, among other things. Loose eyelids and an open eye (ectropion in various forms) of the puppy do not "grow out" and are fatal in later hunting, as well as in dummy work and as a family dog. The Movement of the puppiesshould be elegant, harmonious and agile from the sixth week onwards, as befits a sniffer dog breed. The teeth of the puppy's jaw fall out, but should be complete and without any jaw abnormalities. Testicles can be easily felt in males around 8 weeks. The above-mentioned characteristics are recorded in a litter inspection report by a breeding supervisor from the association or a vet. Defects such as canine crowding, ectropion, testicular abnormalities, kinked tails, dewclaws etc. of the individual puppies or the litter are noted in this and the puppy buyer can ask his breeder about the results of the litter inspection and later read everything in the stud book.

An FCI breeding for lovers of the breed.

and a hobby breeder in the truest sense of the word. We only have puppies if we want to keep a puppy ourselves. Our breeding bitch has one or two litters in her life and we do not breed for profit. Please note that any breeding that keeps more than two breeding dogs and has more than two litters per year is classified as a commercial or business breeder and should also be subject to inspection by the veterinary office. The puppy buyer can easily calculate for each breeding how many dogs, multiplied by the current puppies, the breeder has to care for in a species-appropriate manner and whether he even has enough time for each individual dog or puppies.
The demands of a so-called 'family dog' With the much-quoted 'will to please' and good nature, the English Springer Spaniel hunting dog breed has been sufficient for centuries, but that is really not a credit to today's beauty breeders. English Springer Spaniels with direct hunting ancestors are, like many 'bird dogs', very adaptable and obedient, docile, extremely loyal and faithful and generally do not tend towards aggressive behaviour. Medium-sized flushing and retrieving dogs have always been considered to be friendly to people and are therefore not suitable for kennel keeping, whereas the English Springer Spaniel from dual-purpose breeding is very suitable as an active family dog and/or as a family-friendly hunting dog. Because without useful and essentialhunting facilities such as "will to please", i.e. the general desire to please, joy of retrieving and willingness to perform, intelligence and comprehension, love of exercise and love of water, the English Springer Spaniel is not an English Springer Spaniel.
English Springer Spaniel Springfield's Britt Berenice mit Welpen
English Springer Spaniel Springfield's Welpen
English Springer Spaniel Springfield's Crissy Celine als Welpe
English Springer Spaniel Springfield's B-Wurf
English Springer Spaniel Springfield's C-Wurf, English Springer Spaniel Welpen
Springfield's Emma Peel
Springfield's Byron mit Welpen
Springfield's Earl Edward als Welpe, English Springer Spaniel Puppy
English Springer Spaniel Puppies, English Springer Spaniel Welpen
English Springer Spaniel Puppy retrieving, Springfield's Emma Peel
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The breed-specific characteristics, which have arisen explicitly from hunting use, make the English Springer Spaniel a breed and rightly still define it today as a multi-talent. Many ancestors of my Springfield's English Springer Spaniel were from hunting performance breeding and were not only powerful and healthy for life, but also had an above-average longevity, were pretty and had the corresponding VDH/FCI champion titles. For most breeders today, "beauty" seems to be the breeding goal. The breeding goal of "beauty and performance" is very rare and requires VDH champion titles - I only know of very few English Springer Spaniels from one breeding facility and one litter - such as Springfield's Britt, Byron, Chasen, Crissy, who are "German Champion VDH" and thus "Show Champion" and have passed hunting tests. Breeding tests of the JspK/JGHV with tracking certificates, for example, have Byron, Debbie, Decembra and Calvin. Breeding test in Switzerland with Springfield's Enjoy Evita "Jana" who tracks. Crissy and Chasen received the JGHV certificate for "loud hunting dogs". Springfield's Anais, Anthony, Berit, Britt, Bruce, Byron, Crissy, Chasen, Debbie, Decembra..... have breeding approval with unrestricted suitability for breeding and the corresponding health examinations by the associations.

Breed predispositions or keep your eyes open when buying a puppy....

We do not want to hide the fact that professional dog breeding is generally very complex and time-consuming.

To date, polygenic diseases in dogs cannot be identified through genetic testing, so carriers for diseases remain undetected.

The FCI English Springer Spaniel, like other dog breeds, goes back to a small number of "founder" individuals. And therefore, depending on the line, has very limited genetic diversity. Pure "champion matings" generally lead to a high level of genetic impoverishment in dog breeding and can provoke standard exaggerations and genetic defects as well as a decrease in general genetic fitness (vitality, disease resistance and fertility). Any selection pressure limits genetic diversity in dog breeding, including one-sided selection for the so-called tracking ability in English Springer Spaniel ability and performance breeding. There are various breeding tests for the English Springer Spaniel in Germany, which can be requested from the breeding associations. The breeding associations, for example, prescribe an ECVO eye test for PRA/cataract gonioscopy (JspK, Spaniel Club) before each breeding use - however, as with other hereditary diseases, clinical findings usually only appear at the age of 3 – 5 years and the dogs have already been used in breeding and have thus passed on the genes. In 2019, despite public databases from which the progressive retinal atrophy (PRA) carriers of the English Springer Spaniel can be identified, English Springer Spaniels are mated with over twenty PRA carriers up to the 7th generation in the pedigree. (In total, up to thirty-six carriers in the 8th generation). These carriers have, among other things, offspring that are proven to be clinically ill. (In comparison, our Springfield's A, B and C litters have four PRA carriers up to the 7th generation).

Diseases such as progressive retinal atrophy (PRA), glaucoma... are colloquially referred to as "hereditary diseases" because they are genetic and can occur frequently in lines of the English Springer Spaniel. Breeding dogs with moderate goniodysplasia, for example, are approved for breeding, although there are clear breed predispositions for the development of glaucoma. In 2021, Laboklin is offering a large package of genetic tests for many genetic predispositions in the English Springer Spaniel: e.g. for acral mutilation syndrome (AMS), familial nephropathy (FN), hypomyelination / shaking puppy syndrome (SPS), fucosidosis, phosphofructokinase deficiency (PFKD), progressive retinal atrophy (cord1-PRA). Dyserythropoietic anemia and myopathy (DAMS) In the English Springer Spaniel breed, another variant in the same gene also causes DAMS. In the English Springer Spaniel, the disease shows an early onset of anemia, megaesophagus, cardiomyopathy and general slowly progressive muscle atrophy - here too, an autosomal recessive inheritance. I am curious whether a genetic test for DAMS (like fucosidosis at the time) will become compulsory in the breeding associations.

The following hereditary diseases of the English Springer Spaniel have been scientifically described. Eye diseases, e.g. "PRE","Glaucoma". Autoimmune diseases e.g."Primary Immune-Mediate Haemolytic Anemia", "SMRA" Meningitis . Skin diseases such as "Sebaceous Adenitis " (sedation adenitis), DAM , Paradoxical Pseudomyotonia etc.

Hereditary diseases for which there is no genetic test, such as predisposition to cancer, epilepsy, etc. are not listed here.