Home Placement

Each dog is an individual, possessing its own unique blend of temperament, energy, personality, training, and maturity. Each family is different, too. The art of home placement is seeking a match between dog and family that is fair and beneficial to both, where the attributes of the dog and the characteristics of the family complement one another. When you inquire about a dog from Windhaven, we will endeavor to get to know you and your family well enough to make the best possible match with the dogs that are currently available for placement. If we feel that we are unable to make an optimal match, we will be happy to refer you to other reputable English Springer Spaniel breeders. Somewhere, there is a right dog for every family. We hope that for your family, it's a dog from Windhaven, but if not, we'll do our best to help you find it.

If you want to pursue acquiring a dog from Windhaven, it's important for us to meet your entire family, including your dogs. Plan on bringing everybody. We'll all suspend our dignity and have a good ol' doggy time. This helps us to evaluate people-to-dog interactions and dog-to-dog interactions. Obviously, our "meet-the-whole-family" policy doesn't accommodate the purchase of a Windhaven dog as a surprise gift.

Spay/Neuter Contract

We feel that in order to qualify for breeding, a dog must pass meticulous genetic, health, and temperament screening, and ideally has demonstrated success in AKC competition under the eye of experienced judges to assure close conformance to the standards of the breed. Indiscriminate breeding does a disservice to the overall genetic quality of any breed. It is vitally important to limit the breeding of purebred dogs to breeders who uphold these standards, so that the propagation of a breed will always be based on its finest genetic representatives.

We do not permit a "pet quality" Windhaven dog to be bred. Whenever an older "pet quality" Windhaven Springer is placed into a home, it will have been spayed/neutered prior to placement. Younger "pet" puppies will be sold under the terms of a Spay/Neuter Contract, whereby Windhaven will hold the AKC registration until provided with a certificate of spay/neuter from a veterinarian.

Training Deposit

The energy and intelligence of the English Springer Spaniel must be channelled into acceptable behavioral patterns early in a puppy's life by appropriate socialization and training. This is best accomplished by enrolling the puppy in puppy socialization and training classes offered in the local communities. We at Windhaven have experienced firsthand the beneficial effect of this early training on the long term relationship between dogs and their human families.

We believe so strongly in early training that we require our puppy buyers, as a condition of sale, to participate in a puppy socialization class plus one additional training class of the buyer's choice before the puppy is one year old. To secure this condition, we require a training deposit in addition to the purchase price. The training deposit will be refunded in full when the buyer presents us with copies of the certificates of completion of the required classes within the required time frame. Failure to meet these conditions results in forfeiture of the training deposit.

Show Dogs vs. Hunting Dogs

People often ask us if Windhaven Springers can be used for hunting. It's hard not to laugh at the question, since we often see a yard full of Windhaven Springers peacefully co-existing with the neighborhood birds. Faced with such compelling evidence, it would be easy to make the quick judgement that "show" Springers are worthless for hunting. It ain't necessarily so. But before we attempt to explain, we want to clearly state that if you are seriously into hunting, go to the English Springer Spaniel Field Trial Association website and find a breeder who specializes in Springers for field work. Now that we're clear about that, read on.

The European system of competition requires a dog to be judged in both conformation and field performance. In the U.S., conformation judging and field trials are separate events. Consequently, the breeding of English Springer Spaniels in the United States has diverged into two fairly distinct "lines", generally distinguishable by their external characteristics. The "field" line tends to be a leaner build with a shorter coat, which is typically more varigated in coloration and markings. "Show" line Springers usually bear a fuller, even-colored coat on a more compact body, yielding a "sophisiticated" look in the show ring.

A "show" Springer bounds through the brush. Is he flushing a bird, or is he looking for a silk cushion?

It is important to understand that the divergence of the two lines is not characterized by differences in intelligence, strength, agility or stamina. Aside from the fact that a shorter coat may be more practical in the field, there is little to go by, judging by externals, to determine whether or why a particular Springer is a "hunting dog" or not. So what makes a Springer Spaniel a hunting dog, and why does it seem that the typical "show" Springer would hunt about as well as your pet hamster?

The English Springer Spaniel breed was developed for hunting, and an intrinsic characteristic of any hunting breed is the game instinct. In Springers, the game instinct is manifested by "birdiness" (keen, nearly fanatic, interest in birds). It is possible that decades of selective breeding to achieve the currently popular "show look" have not favored the advancement of the genes responsible for the game instinct. This explanation is not probable, however, because it is unlikely that the game instinct can be be bred out of Springers by breeding Springers to Springers.

The more likely explanation is that the game instinct lies deep within the genetic constitution of each and every Springer, regardless of "line". All it takes to awaken that instinct is a suitable stimulus at the right time in a dog’s development. In this regard, dogs born into a "field dog" kennel environment have a distinct advantage, being immersed in hunting stimulae from birth. Birdiness and excitement for the hunt may be conditioned responses as younger dogs are influenced by older experienced dogs. In such an environment, the arousal of the hunting instinct is practically assured. "Show" puppies usually grow up without this kind of stimulus, and once past the imprinting age for this type of behavior, the opportunity for arousal of the hunting instinct is missed.

All this is not to say that you couldn't take a puppy from a "show" line and do all the right things at the right times and end up with a perfectly fine hunting dog. But if you show up in the field with a pretty, sophisitcated looking Springer, the other hunters will laugh at you, beat you up, and take your lunch money.