Suwannee Cockers
The Place for Natural Merles and Sables
SASSY
We were thrilled when this tiny parti Merle girl was born, and we were even more thrilled when she kept both of her beautiful blue eyes. This girl was one of three Merle puppies in her litter of six from our silvery Buff girl named Darlin and our parti Sable-Merle male named Max, and we kept all three Merle puppies in the litter here to evaluate for future breeding potential.
Sassy proved to be very sweet natured, and as time went by she matured into a very pretty little Blue Merle and white girl.
And from a very young age we were very impressed by the thickness and length of Sassy's coat, and by eight months old she had a rather mature coat.
Sassy was the smallest puppy in her litter, and this picture was taken when she was a few hours old and shows off her Merle and white markings. Identifying Merles when they are newborns is suppose to be very easy, and that proved to be the case with Sassy. There were six puppies in her litter--two solid blacks, one solid chocolate, one solid Merle, and two Blue Merle and whites--and Sassy was by far the smallest puppy.
By three weeks old Sassy was growing a bit, but she was still incredibly small--about half the size of the largest puppies in her litter.
But what this little puppy lacked in size she certainly made up for in hair, and by six weeks old Sassy was starting to show her tremendous coat.
And by nine weeks old Sassy's Merle markings were being blurred by her long coat.
When Sassy was about four months old we really started to worry about her size. We love the smaller Cockers, but for breeding purposes one does not want a really small Cocker female, for fear of having to have a C-section when the time comes for whelping puppies. But we had hopes that she would eventually grow to a more normal size, as we knew from long experience with dogs that birth size does not necessarily determine anything when it comes to the final size of the dog. However, as time went by the other two puppies from her litter were still much larger than Sassy.
This picture of Sassy with her littermate and brother, SunCatcher's ZuZu, taken at about four months of age out in one of our dog yards, shows the difference in their size by that time, and ZuZu is not a particularly large Cocker. So Sassy was still almost half of ZuZu's size, even by four months old.
But Sassy never acted like a tiny dog, and she loved to play out in the dog yard with all of the other puppies and dogs, and she turned out to be rather feisty at times, so we never really worried about her being out there with the larger dogs, despite her small size. And we still had hopes that she was just a slow grower, and that she would eventually catch up with her brother and sister. The welded wire in this dog yard fence is spaced two inches by four inches and thus gives some perspective on Sassy's small size.
Sassy loved to sleep in the house too, and this picture of her napping shows off her beautiful markings. We had her in a Cocker clip, and we loved her coat because it was so straight--not kinky or curly at all. And we love the graduation of colors from all of the little Merle spots on her back to the long mottled hair on her sides.
And we especially loved Sassy's Merle markings on her head. We do believe that Sassy is a simple Blue Merle and white girl--with no Sable--and she has almost complete "Irish" markings, with just a few white incursions into her mantle--sometimes called a saddle--and she has a large white "collar" and a classic white blaze up and over her head, with a little "love spot" on the top of her head. Actually she has more of an "X" than a spot there, but the "love spot" marks the place where one is suppose to kiss the dog, so "X" marks the spot!
Here's one of our "arty" pictures of Sassy, showing off her beautiful markings on her back. This picture was also taken at about four months old.
It's important that all dogs here get along with each other, and Sassy loved to play with every dog, even one of our larger and older girls named SunCatcher's Dixie Daisy. Daisy is a girl that we had here for about two years before we finally decided that she simply did not have the temperament or the conformation that we wanted in our lines, so we finally placed Daisy, unbred, into another home. Daisy was a very sweet girl, but she seemed to have more of a hunting dog temperament and an older type of conformation, even though she had quite a few modern show lines behind her. And although we loved her beautiful red and white coloring, and her deep chocolate freckles, Daisy turned out to be very long bodied, with a very skimpy sport coat and more of an English Cocker type head, and all of those things together finally tipped the scales against our breeding her, and she now lives with a family with two teen-aged girls who just adore her.
American Cockers originally came from English Cockers, and every once in awhile a puppy will be a "throw-back" to that type, probably through recessive genes. Daisy has no Merle or Sable behind her, and we would have loved to have bred her coloring and markings into our Merle and Sable lines, especially after having her here for about two years, but breeding is all about discrimination--picking the type and temperament that one feels is worthwhile to breed--and in our case we are looking for dogs that will make wonderful pets, as well as look like American Cockers.
When we acquired our chocolate tri girl named SunCatcher's Suzy Q, Sassy finally had a puppy smaller than herself to play with, and the two dogs constantly wrestled together.
But Sassy was always careful to never hurt Suzy Q, and the two played together inside during cooler evenings, when it was too cold for the dogs to be outside. We crate train our puppies from the very beginning, and find that lining crates with newspapers at the beginning makes cleanups easier, despite pups' tendency to shred the newspapers all over the place. But once the dogs are house and crate trained, then they get a nice cushy mat in their crates.
For some reason our dogs like to crowd up together in crates when we leave the crate doors open during the day and the evening, but every dog gets its own individual crate to sleep in during cold nights. Here Sassy is resting in a crate with Sparkle, probably worn out from playing with Suzy Q.
By the time that she was seven months old Sassy was looking very beautiful, with a huge coat, and she had fit in very well with all of our other dogs. But she was still quite small for her age, weighing only 12 pounds or so at this age.
This picture shows Sassy with her littermate, SunCatcher's Zippy Zelda, who is not a very large Cocker herself, and Sassy is obviously much smaller. This picture was taken when these young dogs were about seven months old, and it shows the contrast in their Merle coloring also. At this time we were not really sure what color Zelda is, although she certainly looks like a chocolate Merle in this picture, complete with a diluted nose. But after being bred we discovered that Zelda was a black based Sable-Merle.
When Sassy was eight months old we finally faced the fact that our beautiful little blue eyed parti Merle girl was most likely going to be too small to breed, and we thus reluctantly began the process of looking for a great pet home for her. This was a very difficult decision to make, as we had become so attached to this sweet little girl by then, but we felt that it was the right decision for her. And we cried the day that she drove away with her new family.
We had several choices for a new home for this girl, but we picked a home in Sarasota, Florida that already had a small dog--a Cavachon, which is half Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and half Bichon Frisee--named Roxie. Roxie and Sassy were about the same size, and we are told that once they had been around each other for awhile they formed a strong bond, and now they are inseperable.
We did have some reservations about the home's cats, but obviously the cats proved not to be a problem. But Sassy's huge coat did become a problem, and her new owners decided to get her clipped, and this was what their groomer first did with that huge coat. We think that this cut is cute, with the little short "skirt" on her sides, and it certainly shows off her Merle markings very well. Hot and steamy Florida is very warm for long coated dogs, and most of the people who get puppies from us keep their coats clipped rather short. We love the red colored collar on her too.
Like most dogs Sassy would love to get at the catfood.
Sassy loves her chewies, and we love her spots against the spots of this "leopard" throw.
Sassy and Roxie love to play together, and their owners tell us that they continually chase each other all around the house. Sassy is faster--she is, after all, our silvery Buff girl named Darlin's daughter, and Darlin was the fastest running Cocker that we have ever encountered. So we are not surprised that like her "zippy" sister, Zelda, Sassy just loves to run. In these pictures Roxie and Sassy are wrestling, and one can see that Roxie is what is called a "color-head," with color only on her ears and near her tail, and all of the rest of her is white. There are some Cockers with this coloration too, but most parti Cockers have more colored areas than Roxie.
Cockers come from hunting dogs that were kept in groups, so they are very good for multi-dog households. And having two dogs in the house--especially as puppies--is often easier than just having one dog, as they keep each other company, and their antics can be very amusing. These two girls have bonded from first meeting, and we're told that they even have to go to the vet together, or the one left behind will get very upset at their being separated.
Roxie is shorter and longer than Sassy, and not as fast, but it looks like an equal match to us!
These girls just never seem to get enough of playing with each other!
But when one gets tired of wrestling, there's always toys and chewies.
We strongly believe in crate training, as dogs are "denners" and like to have their own special space. But dogs will often share their crates with their playmates. Hmmm--wonder if Roxie just stole that treat from Sassy?
Got toys?
Sassy and Roxie's crates are always side by side, and when they travel their crates are always placed side by side at night if possible. We're told that Sassy is an excellent traveler, and that she rides on a pillow placed between the front seats of her owners' van, while Roxie likes to ride in the back seat.
All dogs love to hang out with their owners, especially on the couch.
By the time that she was 16 months old, Sassy was looking more mature, but she was still small, only weighing about 15 pounds.
Here Sassy and Roxie are outside in the Florida sunshine and one can see Sassy's nice little boxy body and her beautiful markings. Both dogs are kept in a "puppy" cut, and go the groomer's about every six weeks. Before getting a long haired dog like a Cocker, or like Roxie, one must be aware of all of the grooming involved, and either learn to do it one's self, or pay someone else to do it on a regular basis. We love Sassy's "Groucho Marx" eyebrows in this picture!
Our latest report on Sassy's weight is that she seems to have finally topped out at about 17 to 18 pounds, and we know of many 17 pound Cockers that have been successfully bred. But Sassy was very small boned, and when the vet spayed her he agreed that she was just too small to breed, so we feel that we made the right decision about her. And getting all of these pictures periodically from her owners makes us feel much better about making that decision. So she may live with someone else now, but Sassy will always be our beautiful little girl in our hearts. And now that she is all grown up, she does look remarkably like her sire--our Max--but unfortunately Sassy is the only blue eyed parti Merle girl that we have ever had.
In the Spring of 2006 Sassy's owners acquired a dark buff and white male Cocker puppy from us that they named Archie. Here Archie is shown relaxing in a recliner in the "Mutt Hut" that Sassy's owners have constructed in their back yard, just for their dogs.
Archie is related to Sassy, in that he a grandson to Sassy's sire, our Max, and Archie is out of our now retired solid Blue Merle girl named Zadda, and our red and white boy named Beau. Archie is shown here at about ten months old, and it is apparent even at this early age that he will not have half the coat that Sassy has, which is really a good thing, as the very heavy Cocker show coat can be a nightmare to keep up in a pet. This is the reason that Sassy is now kept in a very short clip, as she has very fine hair in an incredibly thick pattern that tangles very easily, and when we had her here in full coat she had to be groomed every single day.
Cocker coats are quite varied, as they have evolved in the show ring over the past 60 years, moving away from the quite practical "sport coat" that all of the Cocker breed originally had when they were strictly a hunting dog. But every so often a "throwback" to the easy care sport coat will crop up here and there in Cocker litters. Zadda, Archie's dam, has a rather heavy and silky Cocker coat, but Archie resembles his sire, our red and white Beau, in that he has much less coat, but each hair is very full bodied--almost stiff in places--and it is a very easy coat to keep up, requiring only the occasional brushing, and a clip every now and then. And we did think that Archie was going to be a red and white boy for awhile, as his color fluctuated from red to buff and then back to red, and then back to buff again. But perhaps his coloring is temperature sensitive, as this does happen in some dogs.
The above picture of Archie and Roxie was taken when Archie was about six months old, and it plainly shows that he was once a much darker red in color. So we are wondering if Archie might perhaps be a "clear Sable" rather than a buff dog.
The Mutt Hut was built for the dogs in the back yard, and it is one small room with a nice view of the yard for both people and dogs.
The Mutt Hut has a pretty stained glass window on the South wall, and some very nice interior detailing.
And the Mutt Hut has lots of room for dog beds and dog toys, with big windows for all important bird and squirrel watching.
Archie and Sassy love to run and chase each other, but they leave Roxie, the little Cavachon, far behind. Archie is quite a bit larger than Sassy, weighing about 26 pounds, which is right in the middle of the normal range for Cocker male weight.
The dogs also have a very nice kennel setup in the backyard, and here Sassy is posing for the camera in the kennel. It is placed in a nicely shaded location, with vines on the fence for more privacy, and the patio pavers drain very rapidly, with the shade cloth protecting the kennel even more. The pavers make the kennel very portable, so it is not a permanent fixture in a yard.
We'd like to thank Sassy's owners for letting us use their pictures of Sassy in their home, as we just love to show off dogs that we have bred. Sassy lives with her owners, Archie, Roxie, two cats and some exotic birds in their home in Sarasota, Florida, in the Southern Tampa Bay area.
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