About Welsh

Welsh Springer Spaniels (WSS's) are not for everyone. WSS's can be extremely people oriented and do best as members of a family. They do not fare well exclusively as yard or kennel dogs. Therefore, I will only place my puppies in homes where they will be part of the family.

Occasionally WSS's are not good candidates for first-dog situations or inexperienced dog owners. They are very intelligent and require an owner who is willing to learn appropriate training techniques prior to acquiring a puppy and following through with quality group obedience classes. An excellent book for new puppy owners is The Perfect Puppy by Gwen Bailey.  Another book I highly recommend is The Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson.  Other good books include Getting Started: Clicker Training for Dogs by Karen Pryor, and if you have children or plan to have children, then I recommend the book Child-Proofing Your Dog, by Brian Kilcommons. There are several good puppy training videos, including Sirius Puppy Training by Ian Dunbar and Clicker Magic by Karen Pryor. These books and videos provide a variety of sound, motivational training methods, which allow you to choose the method with which you are most comfortable and confident.

For some people a negative aspect of this breed as well as many other breeds is the activity level of the young adolescent. WSS's can take puppy hood to the hilt and keeping up with them during this time can be a chore. I am committed to crate training as a means of housetraining and protecting both the puppy and property from harm when the puppy cannot be watched closely. To add to the situation, WSS's respond best to firm, but gentle, handling. Being a rather soft or sensitive breed, they do not handle harsh treatment well at all. A WSS is never to be hit or smacked with your hand or other objects, WSS's should be obedience trained while still young using the three Ps, praise patience, and persistence. I use food training to teach basic commands before entering into more structured training.

Another aspect of the WSS which can be taken as either negative or positive, depending upon your point of view, is that WSS's tend to be "one family" dogs. They are very loyal to and protective of their family and property. It is perfectly acceptable for a Welsh Springer to be aloof or reserved with strangers, though many will greet visitors to the home with a tail wag and a lick to the face. A great many WSS's "bark up front while wagging in the back" when visitors enter your home. Because WSS's tend to be protective, they make excellent watchdogs. However, should the protective nature of the WSS be intentionally or unintentionally encouraged, either through incorrect praise or stress in the home, the dog could become aggressive towards visitors in the home. Therefore, it is very important that a WSS be well socialized and learn appropriate behavior at an early age. This includes teaching the sit and stay commands and having visitors give treats/praise/pats for good behavior. I cannot stress how important it is to socialize your puppy by taking him/her to meet as many people as possible and to go to as many places as possible. 

Welsh Springers have a flat, shiny, self-cleaning coat that does not tend to mat. Welsh Springers do shed hair, but do not have as much of a second coat as other breeds such as Labrador Retrievers or Golden Retrievers. Grooming consists of brushing at least once weekly and baths once monthly. If you want your WSS to look neat and tidy, trimming the hair on the ears, neck and feet can be performed on a monthly basis. 

Though most Welsh Springers live 12-14 years with minimal trips to the vet, there are some inherited problems in the breed. There is a high incidence of hip dysplasia in Welsh but it does not tend to be crippling. There is at least one form of inherited epilepsy, but the incidence is low. WSS's do not appear to have many inner eye anomalies, but there is some evidence of entropian and /or distichia. Also, it is not uncommon for WSS's to have juvenile or developmental entropian, which they may grow out of as their head matures. Some WSS's suffer from fleabite allergies or other inhalant, contact, or food allergies. If you live in a hot, humid, region where mold, mildew, pollen, and fleas are abundant, this could be a problem. Providing a flea free environment should be basic to every Welsh Springer's needs. Unlike several other spaniel breeds, they are not prone to ear infections.

There is no separation in the breed between WSS's used for hunting and those shown in the ring. Welsh Springers are wonderful upland game bird dogs, but if not trained from an early age tend to hunt for themselves. Welsh Springers also tend to be fairly sensitive dogs and unless trained properly can learn to be gun shy by people using improper training techniques. Welsh and most other breeds need to learn about the sounds of gunshot in the proper training situations. Never take your dog to a gun range to get him used to the sound of guns. Never take your dog or puppy hunting or near gunshot until he has been properly exposed. A good book to read about training flushing spaniels to hunt and retrieve is called Hup Training: by Jim Spencer. 

To get more information about Welsh Springer Spaniels: Click Here: To go to the Welsh Springer Spaniel Club Of America (WSSCA) home page.