Fenlander dogs

There is a lot to said for first crosses. But you do need to look at the parents though.

You get a lot of hybrid vigour and this is reflected in costs of medical insurance - about half that of a pedigree.

Initial cost is also substantially less.

As to the end product and how it behaves etc - a lot is down to the training and relationship between handler and the dog. A lot of cross breeds are highly intelligent and require training that is based on bringing out their better traits, rather bullying into submission.

There is a lot of merit in pure pedigrees, but if you look at really serious working dogs used by mountain rescue, search dogs for police or bomb disposal dogs with the army, most are of quite mixed breeding.
Firstly a good dog is a good dog , dispite or because of its breeding . That said there is no way to know which ways the genetics fall. The litter itself could be spit into types.
I suspect cross breed discounts on insurance are done not because of hybryd vigour but instead because mongrel owners are less gullible about buying insurance?
If you took a flatcoat and a lab cross it wouldn't be healthier than a straight lab and likely wouldn't be any better in the field than a well bred lab as flatcoats have all but gone from the field now because of the Labrador breeds absolute dominance in retrieving as a breed
On the other hand if you put a greyhound to a border collie you could get the greyhound brains and the Collies pace but chances are although the litter would be mixed its a fair bet they would make more height than the collie and somewhat faster . All a matter of degree and chance though
 
While a good dog is a good dog, the whole point of establishing a breed/type is to tip the odds when you pick a pup.
To do that you need to define and fix what you want from your new bloodline and be absolutely ruthless culling and discarding the poor workers as well as the dogs that don’t conform to your preferred body and coat type.
If you’re not going to do that you‘re going to end up with a kennel full of nondescript mongrels with widely varying working abilities and appearance. You wont have a “type”.
The late John Nash is credited with “ bringing back” the red and white Irish setter, he was also a very successful field trial competitor with springer spaniels. He routinely put down dogs that failed to meet his standards, over the years that amounted to a lot of dogs. If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have succeeded.
If you want to buy a cross bred dog, that’s your choice but do it in the knowledge that your’e taking a massive punt on the result in terms of both appearance and ability, and that if your dog does prove to be an absolute paragon of looks or ability you can’t compete with it in field trials or shows.
It also won’t breed true for type or ability and a lot of owners of pedigree dogs aren’t too keen to have a mongrel cover their bitch, so when its gone its gone.
A pedigree dog won’t give you a guarantee, but it does tip the odds a bit more in your favour.
 
A bloke who’s taken show bred Springers and bred them to a number of different breeds 
 claiming they are “old type” (old type show dogs) and superior workers to current breeds that are bred from worker to worker for generations.

Then claimed they are a breed and ‘Trademarked’ them (if that’s even possible)


The old saying is certainly true 
 a fool and his money 

 
A bloke who’s taken show bred Springers and bred them to a number of different breeds 
 claiming they are “old type” (old type show dogs) and superior workers to current breeds that are bred from worker to worker for generations.

Then claimed they are a breed and ‘Trademarked’ them (if that’s even possible)


The old saying is certainly true 
 a fool and his money 

It’s called “clever marketing”
That’s how you can charge more for your product and make more profit from your business.
Dogs are the number one fashion accessory.
 
It’s called “clever marketing”
That’s how you can charge more for your product and make more profit from your business.
Dogs are the number one fashion accessory.

I’ve seen similar claimed with other “old type” springer lines 
 but at least they weren’t bred from show stock.

When you see them in the flesh or the owner posts up of them working I have to say they don’t seem to ever live up to the hype 


All marketing as you say đŸ‘đŸ»
 
I thought it generally takes about 8 gens to get the breed/line breeding true.
In russia they done a study and were breeding domesticated foxes after 8 gens, sure it was something similar for the Korthrans Griffon too

But for that to happen u have to start out with a very clear plan of wot ur looking for, and back in the old days anything not meeting the standard would go for a swimming lesson inside a sack with a brick for company, (wrong colour, poor temperment, too small/large, poor scenting etc = swimming lessons.
As kieth said very few have the size of kennels to do it nowadays or the will to sterilise or PTS any animal not up to standard.

Just look at his photo 2 out of the 4 look similar other 2 completley different looking 1 just looks like a springer.

To be honest i can't even see the logic of crossing the 2 breeds, ( i get the idea with lab/ess or lab/gwp, generally to make the lab hunt a bit harder and calm the harder hunting breed down a bit) but a springer to a pointer ur only going to end up with a dog that ranges too far to shoot over and to near to be a true HPR, if ur dog even holds a point, most likely just going to be a fast healthy fairly wild dog

If u want a slower shorter ranging pointer there already is breeds like the brittany spaniel or spinone or bracco
It's hard to say some years ago I knew a guy that bought a ESS pup when it got to ,8 months old he realised there was something wrong and went back to the breeder who admitted he also had a GSP who must have some how got to the spaniel bitch he give him his money back but would not take the pup back well he trialed spaniels so it was of no use to him.
Pup was to be put down if he could not find a home for it, I said I would give it a chance his loss was my gain turned to be a fantastic all round dog.
 
It's hard to say some years ago I knew a guy that bought a ESS pup when it got to ,8 months old he realised there was something wrong and went back to the breeder who admitted he also had a GSP who must have some how got to the spaniel bitch he give him his money back but would not take the pup back well he trialed spaniels so it was of no use to him.
Pup was to be put down if he could not find a home for it, I said I would give it a chance his loss was my gain turned to be a fantastic all round dog.


I've absolutely no doubt about the above BT,.
And atleast at 8 months u will begin to see the true tempernment and workability of the dog

But would u ever choose to conciously mate 2 together expecting to make a wonder breed?
I've heard of a couple of accidental litters too, alhou i've never knew anyone to take 1, was offered 1 years ao for not a lot of cash but didnae think would be a good idea, most likely a lot of work for a dog that % of failure would be quite high


In the past and even in more recent times likes of keepers or lurcher/terrier men would be quite ruthless with dogs not up to the grade and they tended to have a good idea of wot the 'grade' actually was and tended to have an eye for the strengths and weaknesses of their own dog as well as potential sires/dams.
So ur breeding a sire with strong points to compensate for the bitches weak points and vice versa for sire, but u could still end up with a pup that ends up with the weak points of both ( and more so with X breeds as u don't know how dominant/reccessice traits will play out), thats where in the past they would be PTS, after a few gens like that u will start to get more of a 'type' and when ur picking pups they should be far more similar across the litter
 
No reason why someone shouldn't try to create a new breed from a mix of genetics. It's how all our current breeds were developed in the first place. But it takes a long time to stabilise a breed so it'll breed true to type, and most fail. Just occasionally a new breed makes good, but it's usually the result of a lifetime's work, and some harsh culling along the way. Think of the Plummer terrier.

The chap with the Fenlanders is nowhere near it yet, but that's not to say that what he's selling won't be any good. They ought to work well enough, but at this stage they're not a breed by any stretch of the imagination, or even a consistent type.
 
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No reason why someone shouldn't try to create a new breed from a mix of genetics. It's how all our current breeds were developed in the first place. But it takes a long time to stabilise a breed so it'll breed true to type, and most fail. Just occasionally a new breed makes good, but it's usually the result of a lifetime's work, and some harsh culling along the way. Think of the Plummer terrier.

The chap with the Fenlanders is nowhere near it yet, but that's not to say that what he's selling won't be any good. They ought to work well enough, but at this stage they're not a breed by any stretch of the imagination, or even a consistent type.

I agree with the above.
But surely there must come a stage when there already is a suitable breed for most niche's?

There is a wide selection of hpr breeds already, cant see how adding a springer blood is helping. There already is slower less rangey breeds if that is the aim
Hell even the variation in different hpr or ESS lines can make a big difference from 1 dog to an other either 1 line very fast and driven ( most likely FT) to more a working plodding line.

Its all very well reinventing the wheel if there is a genuine need, but nowadays it just seems to be done for ego/money/looks or just to be different.
Dunno if just a gundog thing that new owners are always trying to fit a square peg into a round hole
Do u get farming/shepherding sites where folk are always asking about random rare breeds instead of ur trusty collie? Or trying to X random dogs to improve collies

Generally the older generations/victorians had a pretty good idea wot they were doing, a far better idea than most do nowadays as most of the working breeds havent changed an awful lot since, which is true for farm livestock too, and often most of the recent 'improvements' are not really
 
Modern day Spaniels ( Cockers and Springers) have changed so much away from type from say 40 years ago. Then Springers seemed to be more box like, now they look like hairy whippets .Working Cockers if you wanted one forty years ago you went to Wales or Scotland for a working dog.Today they really have a look of frail maybe timid pet.( timid means not hardy) Time moves on my opinion now is a good cross breed I've a Springer and a Sprocker. The Sprocker looks a more workman like Spaniel type for everyday working. As an aside I'm a Spaniel man whatever they look like.
 
No reason why someone shouldn't try to create a new breed from a mix of genetics. It's how all our current breeds were developed in the first place. But it takes a long time to stabilise a breed so it'll breed true to type, and most fail. Just occasionally a new breed makes good, but it's usually the result of a lifetime's work, and some harsh culling along the way. Think of the Plummer terrier.

The chap with the Fenlanders is nowhere near it yet, but that's not to say that what he's selling won't be any good. They ought to work well enough, but at this stage they're not a breed by any stretch of the imagination, or even a consistent type.
Speaking as someone who actually stayed on plummers croft for a week and was shown half a dozen of his terriers trust me, I wouldn't have given them kennel space.
See several of the posts above that mention marketing hype.
Jimmy.
 
No reason why someone shouldn't try to create a new breed from a mix of genetics. It's how all our current breeds were developed in the first place. But it takes a long time to stabilise a breed so it'll breed true to type, and most fail. Just occasionally a new breed makes good, but it's usually the result of a lifetime's work, and some harsh culling along the way. Think of the Plummer terrier.

The chap with the Fenlanders is nowhere near it yet, but that's not to say that what he's selling won't be any good. They ought to work well enough, but at this stage they're not a breed by any stretch of the imagination, or even a consistent type.
It would be very much open to debate if DB Plummer actually completed the creation of the Plummer terrier within his own lifetime. Almost 20 years after his death there are many who believe that, in its current state, it needs additional outcrossing. Plummer did not have it registered and as such, you could say that the gene pool is still open.
 
Speaking as someone who actually stayed on plummers croft for a week and was shown half a dozen of his terriers trust me, I wouldn't have given them kennel space.
See several of the posts above that mention marketing hype.
Jimmy.
Out of curiosity what did you dislike about them? I know that some had issues with cleft palettes- i had never owned a plumber type, used to keep Jacks for the rock holes and a few patterdales as back up.
 
Out of curiosity what did you dislike about them? I know that some had issues with cleft palettes- i had never owned a plumber type, used to keep Jacks for the rock holes and a few patterdales as back up.
The ones I saw had the working ability of a hamster.
I know I shouldn't really speak ill of the dead an all that, however, I do think there was more than a little poetic license used in both his books and his dogs.
Jimmy.
 
If you’re creating a new breed of dog you need to have a pretty clear idea of what niche you’re filling, I can’t see any indication of the fenlander doing anything different to any other hpr.
 
Where I live in North Wales back in the very early 80s I'd never seen a Plummer terrier, and the local terrier guys that had seen them work had nothing but bad to say about them. They called them ratting dogs. As has been discussed earlier, we had a selection of extremely good terriers available, Borders, Fells, cross bred and Russells, why would you want to reinvent the wheel. I'd also agree with the comment that Mr Plummer was more about self promotion in order to sell his books.
 
Speaking as someone who actually stayed on plummers croft for a week and was shown half a dozen of his terriers trust me, I wouldn't have given them kennel space.
See several of the posts above that mention marketing hype.
Jimmy.
Jimmy was he actually as eccentric as some say?
I only ask because I once worked with a couple of guys who knew him when he worked in a local college. They both described his as being as mad as a box of frogs and having some quite strange views.
 
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