PHOTO GALLERIES
THIS SECTION OF OUR WEBSITE will evetually contain lots of photo galleries of our all of our dogs, past and present--such as the now retired stunning looking black and white Cocker girl named SunCatcher's Riqui shown across the top of this page. And also such as the beautiful American Cocker girl named SunCatcher's Lil Darlin, shown to the right, who was one of our first Cockers that we brought here in 2002. And Darlin is the grandam of our first Kobetan litter, and her gorgeous platinum color (called "buff" in Cockers) really came through in that litter. And Darlin is retired from breeding, after having two Cocker litters here, and she now lives with her family and two other Cockers in Deltona, Florida.
And we will also feature the various research pedigrees that we have bought from the AKC concerning our dogs in this section too.
And all of the lighter coloring in both our purebreds and in our all of our designer mixes-- techincally e/e on the E Locus in canines--is genetically recessive. So both sides of the pedigree have to carry for these lighter colors in order for the lighter colors to show on a dog.
And this section also features pictures that our puppy buyers send to us, so eventually this section will contain quite a few pages of photos. But all of the various photo webpages will be linked back to this Photo Galleries page.
BOLOGCO PHOTO GALLERIES
We have so many pictures of Bologcos that we have to divide them up in this section by colors and markings. And so far we have had more of the lighter colors of Bologcos and have put our photos of the lighter colored Bologcos all on one webpage. And the picture to the left is of a 9 week old, champagne colored Bologco girl, snuggled among stuffed animals, named Morgan, and she was our first light colored Bologco girl. And Morgan lives with her owner in Salinas, California.
And Cookie, the black Bologco girl with white tuxedo markings shown to the right wrapped in her bright red Winter scarf, is an example of the cute photos of darker colored Bologcos that are all on their own webpage. And we have included pictures of our black and silvers and black and tans, merle and tans, and black masked sables in this section too. And after much thought we also included pictures of our one sable-merle girl, as technically she has some dark hairs on her, although her body color is almost as light as some of our lighter colored Bologcos. But sable-merle is genetically a dark color.
KOBETAN PHOTO GALLERY
WE HAVE HAD TWO LITTERS OF KOBETANS SO FAR and you can see pictures of the three Kobetan girls that we kept from the first litter, and pictures that any Kobetan buyers have sent to us at our Kobetan page. for this section yet that we haven't already used in other parts of this website. But as our three Kobetan girls grow up--and as some of the buyers of puppies from the first Kobetan litter send us pictures--then we'll be able to begin a photo gallery for our Kobetan designer mix.
And the golden colored Tibetan Terrier girl shown to the left is SunCatcher's Me-lah, who is the dam of our first Kobetan litter, and thus the dam of the three Kobetan girls that we kept from that litter. And the sire of the first Kobetan liter is our small 17 pound Cocker male named Zecchino who is featured below in our Cocker stud dog section.
And all of our future Kobetan litters will be lighter colored, much like Me-lah, and in various shades from silver to pale apricot, as Me-lah will be bred in the future to our red and white male named Beau--and the only colors that these two dogs can throw together are the paler colors--genetically recessive e/e dogs on the E Locus. But the lightest colors are dominant in bearded dogs--and all of our Kobetans are bearded--so we will never get as dark of a red Kobetan puppy as Beau.
STUD DOGS - PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE
Our Bichon Bolognese Stud
THE NAME OF OUR PROPERTY IS "SUNCATCHER ACRES", and we use the word "SunCatcher's" as a kennel prefix for our dogs. And the 13 pound, solid white colored Bichon Bolognese little male pictured to the right is named SunCatcher's Guido, and Guido is the sire of all of our designer mixed Bologco litters here. And you may see a whole webpage of pictures of Guido,including a link to his pedigree page--and also learn about the history of the Bichon Bolognese breed--at Guido's webpage. Guido comes from European imports and he is registered with APRI. And he came here at 17 months old from another breeder in the New Orleans area.
Our Cocker Studs
FOR QUITE A FEW YEARS WE ONLY BRED AMERICAN COCKERS HERE, and our aim was to always outbreed for the widest gene pool possible within Cockers and for companion homes only. And we felt that this was a healthier way to breed for pets, rather than breeding for "typiness" and "show quality," as we have not had any interest in breeding for showing for quite some while. So we chose to first breed the sable Cockers, as they are not being bred for showing in the US anymore, since the sables were kicked out of the AKC show ring in 1997 after a very devisive "color fight" within the American Spaniel Club, which is the parent club for American Cockers to the AKC.
And we were also quite happy to breed merle Cockers, as we love the merle marking from our days of having Shelties. And the merles are mostly found in pet American Cocker lines, but not in very many show lines, as merles are disqualified from the AKC ring too, as well as the sables. We just felt at the time that we began breeding American Cockers back in 2002 that the pet lines had less concentrated pedigrees, as we were looking for the most diverse gene pool possible behind our puppies.
But of course we were severely limited in the Cockers that we could buy in the first place, as so many dog fancy breeders do not sell breeding dogs to any other breeder who does not show. And it took us over two years to find a very special stud dog for the Cocker girls that we had already purchased, which finally enabled us to stop going to outside studs that belonged to other breeders.
However, most of the pet American Cocker lines do eventually go back to show lines--and eventually all American Cocker male lines stop at the four sons of only one Cocker dog named Robinhurst Foreglow who was whelped on July 21st, 1914. And this first family of American Cockers were all being bred around World War I in the US. And we eventually found out that we had to scrutinize ten generation pedigrees in order to find out if any two dogs that we were considering breeding togther were really closely related or not. And by 30 generations back all American Cockers are very closely related.
But the show lines often have very friendly and extremely biddable personalities, so we did eventually mix pet, hobby, show, and commercial lines in our Cocker breeding over the years. But this meant that our Cocker type was highly variable here, as American Cocker show type is mostly genetically recessive. So often the more dominant older Cocker type typical of the 1930's and 1940's Cockers would show in our puppies. And as we prefer a smaller Cocker than the standard calls for, we usually kept smaller Cockers here for future breeding, and all of our female Cockers here are now 20 pounds or under, and our males are either well within, or much smaller than the standard.
And we have bred for almost every color and marking in American Cockers--mixing the colors and markings up together--and thus seeking even more genetic diversity in our dogs. And we did this because American Cockers are shown in three different color and markings Groups in AKC dog shows, so many show breeders only specialize in lines of each color category and do not cross say solids with piebalds (called partis in Cockers)--because such crosses often produce white "mismarks" on solid marked dogs. And some Cocker breeders do not even breed solids with tan pointed dogs--although these two markings are shown together in the Groups--because this type of breeding can produce seal markings--called "off blacks" in Cockers.
So Cockers are often segregated by the various three different color and markings show categories, which then creates even smaller sub-populations within the American Cocker breed itself. And a 2008 research study in Germany of three different eye disorders in two types of English Cockers--which are very popular in Germany right now--found that there was a difference in the heritability between single-colored and multi-colored ECS's, which means that not only are some inherited eye disorders quite breed specific genetically, but that there are also differences in inheritance within breeds too, according to their color and markings. And it doesn't help matters at all that now purebred dogs are divided up in the US among over 30 different dog registries, further dividing all breed gene pools into smaller and smaller populations that cannot be bred together and still have "papers."
Maximus von Bremer - Retired
And the handsome sable-merle and white American Cocker male pictured three times above, is named Maximum von Bremer, and Max is the first American Cocker stud dog that we brought here. And we knew that Max was a sable and white when we bought him as a three year old proven stud dog from a Cocker breeder in West Palm Beach, Florida. But it wasn't until we saw Max's puppies that we realized that he was also a merle--as Max has no merle markings on his body and not much was known about merle Cockers back then. And even his first owner did not realize that Max was also a merle, and just thought that all of their spotted puppies were roans--as their Cocker dam was really a roan.
But now we know that Max's two beautiful blue eyes are a sign of his being a merle dog, and we also now know that merle can be hidden under just about any color or marking, as merle is a co-dominant gene, and not totally dominant. And Max is past breeding age now, but almost every American Cocker dog that we have here goes back to Max in its pedigree. Max is double registered with AKC and APRI, and you may see a lot of pictures of Max on Max's webpage, including a link to his AKC pedigree.
SunCatcher's Zaffre Zecchino
The very unusually marked seal-merle and white American Cocker pictured to the left is named SunCatcher's Zaffre Zecchino, and this boy is a rare "calico marked" merle who also has two clear blue eyes. And Zecchino is quite small for a Cocker, at only 17 pounds, and he has had both Cocker and Kobetan designer mixed litters here.
Zecchino is double registered with AKC and APRI, and you may see a lot of pictures of Zecchino both as a puppy and all grown up on Zecchino's webpage, including a link to his AKC pedigree.
And Zecchino is the sire of our trio of Kobetan girls here named Mitzi, Dixie and Trixi. They are all different colors and we are planning on eventually breeding these three girls to Guido for a three way breed mix called "Bolokobetans." And our Bolokobetans should mostly come in the ligher colors, from silver to apricot, but there should also be some blacks and merles.
SunCatcher's Beaujolais Nouveau
And the handsome red and white American Cocker pictured to the right is named SunCatcher's Beaujolais Nouveau--call name "Beau." And Beau has sired several Cocker litters here in the past--as well as been used as an "outside stud" by several other Cocker breeders. But in the future Beau will only be the sire of our Kobetan designer litters, which will all be lighter colored in silvers, platinums, creams and apricots. And we don't have Beau's picture webpage produced yet, but Beau is registered with both the AKC and APRI.
And we have several of Beau's American Cocker daughters here that have produced some really attractive Bologco puppies in just about any color and marking possible, and the apricot color in our Bologco mix often comes from Beau.
And you may see Beau's AKC pedigree at his pedigree page. And we bought Beau as an 8 week old puppy from a multi-breed breeder in Jasper, Florida who no longer breeds American Cockers, and Beau was out of his parent's last litter. And we really like to buy puppies from older dogs that have proven not to either have or produce genetic health problems in their previous puppies. And Beau's dam is a beautiful solid platinum Cocker girl, and his sire is a rather small and very open marked, red and white with a lot of red ticking all down his solid white back, with very few solid red patches except for red eye and ear patches. And Beau has thrown the widest variety of colors and markings of any of our dogs, including blacks, chocolates, reds and buffs, tan points, sables, seals, and merles--all in both solids and partis (called piebalds in other breeds).
Shandilyn's Rocky Caramel - Retired
And Shandilyn's Rocky Caramel, shown to the left, is a handsome chocolate sable and white American Cocker that came here as a puppy from Shandilyn kennel in Iowa, and Rocky grew up here and sired several very attractive Cocker litters for us.
And Rocky comes from mainly Cocker show lines and he has just a tremendous coat, as well as being an extremely sweet natured and very biddable dog. And we brought Rocky here in order to bring in more recessive chocolate genes into our tan pointed and sable breeding, as all of our chocolates were related to each other at the time. But being a recessive color, chocolate has to come from both parents.
And we do have two sable-merle and white, quite small Cocker girls here from Rocky that only weigh about 15 pounds each fully grown. And although Rocky turned out to be a rather large Cocker once he was grown, Rocky's dam only weighs 18 pounds, so he was able to sire these smaller girls. And we will eventually be breeding both of these two smaller Cocker girls for Bologco litters.
And Rocky does carry the "e" allele for lighter colors, and we know that one of his daughters here also carries the "e" allele. But we will also get both black masked sables and tan or silver pointed Bologcos from Rocky's two daughters, but no solid blacks.
Of course it's expensive to bring in new dogs and only breed them a few times in order to get more variation in our pedigrees. But we have done this many times, especially with our female dogs, trying to keep more outbred puppies for future breeding.
And again we still have to produce a picture webpage for Rocky, and Rocky is also dual registered with both the AKC and with APRI. And Rocky now lives with another Cocker breeder in Kentucky.
And you may see Rocky's AKC pedigree at his pedigree page
SunCatcher's ZuZu - Retired
And SunCatcher's ZuZu, shown to the right, is a stunning looking merle and white boy with two partial blue eyes who was the first Cocker boy that we kept from Max, and ZuZu had a Cocker litter here. ZuZu is now retired from breeding and living with a family in Citra, Florida, as he turned into such a large Cocker, and he is not in the pedigree of any of the dogs here that we are currently breeding. But ZuZu is a gorgeous merle and white Cocker, and we still want to produce a picture webpage for him.
And ZuZu's pedigree is exactly the same as Zecchino's, and you may see ZuZu's AKC pedigree by looking at his sire Max's pedigree page and his dam named Darlin's pedigree page.
SunCatcher's Zane - Future Stud Dog
And our newest American Cocker stud dog is SunCatcher's Zane, a merle and white very small American Cocker boy with two blue eyes that is out of Zecchino and a black and white Cocker girl named DeTresor's Tatiana Victoria, who is a very pretty and sweet natured girl who came to us all the way from the Seattle, Washington area. And both of Zane's parents are registered with the AKC and APRI.
And Zane is just a puppy, shown at about four months old to the left, so it will be awhile before he will be siring any litters. But he is a very sweet, very small Cocker boy. And Zane is registered with APRI, as APRI will allow merle Cockers to be registered as to their true markings, whereas the other main registries will not do so.
But both of Zane's parents are AKC registered, and you may see Zane's pedigree by looking at his paternal grand-sire Max's pedigree page and his paternal grand-dam named Darlin's pedigree page, and by looking at Zane's dam named Tatiana's pedigree page
RETIRED DAMS
THIS SECTION WILL CONTAIN PICTURES OF OUR RETIRED DAMS, with emphasis on the retired dams that are still active in our pedigrees--meaning that we are still breeding from their descendants--as we have not kept puppies here for future breeding from every litter that we have ever bred. But SunCatcher's Fiery Sparkle, shown to the right, was the first Ameican Cocker girl that we brought here, and we have kept more Cocker girls from this dam than from any other dam. So Sparkle can be found in the pedigrees behind a lot of the Cockers that we are still breeding in our Bologco litters. And Sparkle was born in 2002, and she is now spayed and retried from breeding. And you may see Sparkle's AKC pedigree at her pedigree page
But it will take quite a bit of time for us to complete this section, so it's just being "bookmarked" here for future work. And this section will probably be divided into darker and lighter colors, similar to our Bologco section, as we have bred more dams than studs over the years, so have many more dams to show than studs.
So obviously there is a lot of work to do on this section of the website. But we needed to get the website up on the web before we could get this part completed in order to be able to advertise litters, so please come back in the future to see the new pictures and webpages that we will be adding here.
COCKER PHOTO PAGES
And over the years we have accumulated more than 15,000 dog photos, going back to the late 1960's with our own dogs, and we even have pictures of our Mother's American Cockers, as she bred Cockers for almost 20 years.
But most of this vast amount of dog photos are of Cocker puppies that we have produced here--and it's simply amazing how many pictures you can take of a puppy before getting a good one--or from puppy buyers who have graciously sent us pictures of their puppies as they have grown up.
And the picture above is of Cody, a sable and white Cocker boy shown at about four months old with his family, and Cody's sire is our red and white male named Beau, and Cody's dam is one of Rocky's small sable-merle and white daughters named SunCatcher's Azzia--call name "Zia."
But it will take a long time to build this section of the Photo Galleries, and we are not even sure how we will organize it yet, as we have produced so many different colors and markings of Cockers over the years. But we have some wonderful Cocker pictures that we want to share, so this is very much a project that we want to get started on. But it takes us about 8 hours to produce one webpage, as it's not as easy as one might think to do this work.
And the picture above is again of Cody, but as an 8 week old puppy. And you can see how much redder in color Cody has become in just a few months, as his red undercoat has grown longer.
And Cody is a good example of the gorgeous Cockers that we produced here over the years. But we had to stop docking our Cocker tails due to drug resistant staph infections getting into our docking wounds--even though we had all of our tail docking done at a vet's office--as in our sub-tropical climate any wound is prone to infection. But we quickly found out that there is very little demand for American Cockers with their intact tails--although we think that Cockers look great with their full tails. So we have stopped producing purebred Cockers entirely and now only produce various Cocker mixes. And no one would ever consider docking one of our mix's very attractive, curled over, and very frilly intact tails.
CONTACT INFORMATION
WE ARE LOCATED IN THE NORTHCENTRAL GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA AREA just a few miles from the Gulf of Mexico. We can be contacted by E-mail at:
jolie.chiens@gmail.com
"Heaven goes by favour. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in."
Mark Twain
