Duality English Springer Spaniels

07/27/2024

Welcome to the newest addition to the crew, sired by Mando, out of Joule. He's a big boy and we are excited to see who he grows up to be!

07/07/2024

The dogs got to snuffle in the yard this evening for some freeze dried Stella and Chewy's salmon and cod topper that we got on clearance. I am grateful to have dogs who make me forget that some dogs will inappropriately guard resources. 😅

06/24/2024

The Mando x Joule litter is confirmed and due around July 25th. If interested, feel free to contact me to discuss getting on the list. I will likely have availability as this litter got pushed out 6 months and timing isn't just right for some who were initially on the list.

*Both Mando and Joule have CHIC numbers since this ad was made.

06/22/2024

Good Dog Breeder Giveaway 📣
We're giving away a $50 gift certificate to the Good Dog Store to 3 lucky winners!

To Enter:
✅ Tell us in the comments below why you're proud to be a dog breeder
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Entries close on Monday, June 24th at 12pm ET, and we'll contact winners via email!

06/20/2024

Took the girl for a walk at a place near where I grew up today and it was limited by the height of the river causing it to swallow up the trails. She was ready to jump in and I had to say "No, ma'am. You're clean. Sorry!"

So anyway Joule would like to find a different home where clean doesn't happen and swimming is always an option, thank you. 🤣

06/15/2024

We will be here this weekend and at SO excited! If you aren't local there is a streaming version and you will have access to it for 4 weeks!

06/08/2024

17 days pregnant (until proven otherwise) Joule took a trip to Taylor's Falls with my sister and I today to fulfill the always important duty of "pet dog". We had lunch on a patio and took a scenic boat tour, and she was happy and social and had a good time.

So many people forget that what most people want, in my experience, is for a dog to be a good pet without a ton of work. To go places, hang out comfortably, not lose their mind if a random kid or person runs up, not annoy the entire patio full of people with food while you're eating lunch, be happy sitting in a chair next to you or on the floor or with their little nose through the bars on the front of the boat smelling all the things while you both just enjoy existing together.

The hunting, sports, conformation, and any other competitive aspirations come after that for me. Not every dog is going to turn out to be a good sport dog or hunting dog or conformation dog, and people always say that "there are always pet quality puppies" in those litters. My experience has been that unless the breeder is intentionally breeding for the temperament expected of a good pet dog at the top of the priority list, that may just not be true. The dog may not be show, sport, or field trial quality but that doesn't make it a pet quality dog when we truly consider all the things a pet dog needs to do.

When somebody says they breed for good temperament, ask them to be specific. What rules a dog out of their breeding program? What is the ideal temperament to them? Have they ever pulled a dog out of their breeding program because they didn't appreciate their temperament? Why?

Remember that between the times a person is doing sports and things with their dog that most people have to live with that dog and it shouldn't be a chore.

05/26/2024

The face of a very good boy who went to the pet store with me and got lunged and growled at by another dog who was at the end of the lead while Mando swished his tail and walked by without even looking at the other dog. He's the absolute best dog.

05/07/2024

Mando and Joule both received their CHIC numbers from OFA today! Joule is due in season around the end of this month and will be bred to Mando.

04/11/2024

**sound on for cuteness**

Just have to share this because it's adorable. My neighbor and two kids came out to watch the dogs train, and I had just set up the camera to see why I was not getting consistent weave entries with Joule. The other neighbors were out playing soccer in their yard, but the two kids cheering while the dogs did their training was just too much. Their mom was taking a video and cheering with them and if my dogs never do anything more than be Very Good Pets who provide excellent entertainment and enrichment to my life I don't think I'd be sad about it.

04/03/2024

She's lying on a bed while Mando does his Tuesday treadmill workout, waiting for her turn. 🥰

03/26/2024

They may not look like it, but these dogs are like two sides of the same coin.

03/22/2024

Grateful again for dogs who don't just handle off days, but embrace them happily. All 5 dogs have spent their day asleep on the couch or in bed with me since I have had a migraine. They ARE high energy, but off switches are so important and not needing excessive exercise to relax is a requirement.

03/15/2024

We borrowed a Labrador for a week while her people are out of town and I just have to say how grateful I am for dogs with good temperaments who can invite dogs they have never met into their house and letting them hang out without issue.

03/09/2024

If you own or breed English Springer Spaniels (or other breeds where the CDDY genes exist) this should be required listening (or reading, they're working on the transcript). My big takeaways from this are that:

- dogs with 1 copy or 2 copies of these genes have equal risk of having back problems up to and including herniation and acute (sometimes permanent) paralysis *it is dominant*
- dogs with CDDY genes DO have likely back pain and herniation whether it is obvious or not (our high drive dogs will work through pain) as evidenced by the presence of such on MRI or necropsy
- this is an insertion of a gene that does not exist in normal dogs, not a mutation of a gene all dogs have
-it does cause shorter legs in dogs, but is not the only short leg gene out there
- in a study done on Tollers all the dogs with one or two genes (affected dogs) had intervertebral disc disease and 4 of 14 affected had herniations evident on MRI

I know this gene is present in field trial springers, I sure it also exists in show springers, and I have been trying to avoid it by phenotype (the way the dogs looked and the length of their legs) to the best of my ability because I didn't know anything about it. The Embark test is a linkage test, essentially saying "you inherited this gene and our research says because of that it's likely that you inherited this CDDY gene (or not)", but UC Davis does have a genetic test for it.

I am not saying not to breed your dogs with CDDY, dogs are more than genes (or an x-ray), but that we should be testing for this and cognizant of it with our own hardworking dogs and take steps to reduce the prevalence. Neuropathic pain is unbelievable in comparison to most hip or elbow dysplasia in my opinion, and Dr. Bannasch can be quoted here as saying "In my book this is the most painful disease in veterinary medicine, and whether it affects your dog or not, if your dog has the mutation or you're passing on that mutation your potentially passing on that risk of having the most painful disease in dogs."

Danika Bannasch, DVM, PhD is the owner of Pint, the famous UC Davis football tee retrieving dog. She also happens to run a genetics lab, also at UC Davis, where she studies the genetics of inherited diseases in dogs and other animals. She is known for her work associating genetic variants with a var...

03/07/2024

Did some updates to the website today...instead of doing homework or CE for my EMT recertification.

Duality English Springer Spaniels Family, Form, and Function Combined. “We strive to produce a dog whose function is aided by his structure, with an eye toward the future and a true dual purpose English Springer Spaniel with the temperament we expect of a gentleman’s (or gentlewoman’s) gundog....

03/02/2024

That's 5 normal OFA eye exams for the crew here today! Thanks to Twin Cities Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club for putting on their annual clinic.

When Mando, Joule, and Domino get their swabs in to OFA for the DNA bank they'll have CHIC numbers (which could've been done at any point and they'd have had them for a while but it's so many swabs 😅).

02/26/2024

Took these two to play at a sniff spot today and do some training. They were great and I'm excited for puppies this summer more and more as I work with these two and get to know what their strengths and weaknesses are.

02/26/2024

She can come in season whenever she wants. Probably not until the end of May, but I would be okay with sooner. I can't wait for a puppy that is a combination of these two dogs.

02/19/2024

Just another day, trying to multitask to fit all the things in. Keeping dogs conditioned and doing their exercises, asking them to wait their turn and lie on a bed, and simultaneously watching training videos so I can come up with a plan for some field training when the weather gets a little better. It's not the life for everybody, but it's the life for me!

02/18/2024

Saturdays are for naps on the couch.

02/17/2024

Mando finished rally class tonight and looked great doing it!

02/12/2024

Kaylee (on the left) and her Staffordshire Bull Terrier family had a good time at the WCRL trial too. Kaylee earned her level 3 title and her first leg toward her championship. Kaylee and Huey are litter mates from my first litter.

02/11/2024

Congrats Anna and Huey on your level 3 and ARCHX titles!

02/09/2024

Have to brag on a couple girls and their dogs from my first litter (London x Emma). Preliminary WCRL rankings for 2023 put Megan with Earl and Anna with Huey in the top 20 in ARCH Extraordinaire and Rally 1 Championship respectively. They're having fun with their dogs, and not much makes me happier than that.

02/08/2024

My niece came to hang out today because she was home sick from daycare and this reminded me why I love this dog. Sometimes I need a reminder why I make the hard choices and do the thing that's right because it's the right thing, and this one was right on time.

Joule is a lot of things and most of them are good.