We decided that we would like to get an AKC Cocker Spaniel female show dog. I was set on getting either a parti color black and white or a chocolate. You would think that would be easy.....Wrong!! Being brand new to this venture, I spent a lot of time researching what we should look for in a show dog and possible breeders that had or would have puppies. I can't begin to tell you how many different breeders I spoke to. What I found out was many breeders are just plain rude and that some had an adoption process that is pages long to fill out and then you have to be approved. I also learned that there are some that really don't care about the breed and are only out to make a quick buck. I was getting discouraged and frustrated. Then I found there are a few exceptions.... I found a breeder referral list on the AKC website. I looked through the list of breeders and sent emails to the ones that interested me. Shortly after I sent them, I received an email back from a breeder in New Jersey. She email photos of the litter of pups she had and we exchanged emails back and forth and found that we were both going to the same show in Hartford that weekend. We meet up with her and her husband at the show, we talked, asked each other many questions....my expectations, her expectations. She showed me photos of the parents of the puppies, along with their pedigrees and their certificates of having their eyes and hips checked. She also had a boy cocker spaniel entered in the show and we were able to watch him. Rick and I wanted to talk about everything we just learned and left the show not committing to getting the puppy. We both agreed that we thought that we had finally found the right puppy for us and we were comfortable with the breeder. At that point we set up a visit to meet the puppy in person. We are going to see her on March 9th!
