My husband Shawn and I fell in love with cocker spaniels separately, before we met. When he was growing up, he always had a cocker spaniel at his house and his grandparents’. My grandparents too had a beloved cocker in my youth. For us, this breed feels like home, like a warm comforting hug.

After we adjusted to the addition of our second child in 2001, we decided to add a puppy to our family. Of course, no breed but cocker spaniel would do for our clan. We registered our new girl, Summer, with the AKC and our eyes were opened to the wonderful world of purebred dogs. We gave her a sweet friend with our second puppy, Thunder, and set about discussing did we want to breed? Show? Both? Neither?

After much discussion, we decided showing would take too much away from family time, and away from time with our other puppies, who weren’t going to the show ring. Our first litter arrived in 2004 and we were smitten. In 2009, I had completed nursing school, taken a night shift position and we made the painful decision that we weren’t able to give our fur-babies the attention they so much deserved. We found them wonderful homes, Summer staying within our family, and Thunder traveling to Canada & becoming a therapy dog. Thunder continued to visit us after his move, and keep our hearts whole. His new parents were wonderful people.

Covid ended my nursing career a couple years back, so we are more than happy to be able to resume where we left off, as we have missed having this joyful breed under our feet 24/7. This time around we have grand-kids to help with socialization too, so now our pups are getting a full 3 generation family experience. Our granddaughter, 8, had a front row seat for the birth of Eclipse’s first litter, so the educational benefits are great too!