Love my lab I have now and every one I’ve had before. Always been a lab guy and may end up having them again. But there’s just something about those Boykins. Every one I’ve ever been around has had the temperament of a lab, they’re no BS diehard retrievers (saw a Boykin make a 400 yard water retrieve on a honker), have a great off button in the house, great around kids, and half the size of a lab. Dated a girl in high school who had one and I spent about a year around that dog and he always amazed me. Hell of a bird dog and an incredible blood trailer.
I’ve always wanted to have one and after our Schnauzer died back in 2019, we kinda half-assedly started looking. Coincidentally we found a breeder who’s on the Boykin Spaniel Society’s preferred breeder list and lives only 7-8 miles from the house. I was kinda shocked to even find one in Alaska, let alone just down the road.
I started talking to him this time last year and he said he wasn’t planning to breed until this time this year. Loaded up the wife and kids back in July and went over to his place to see the parents working. He has two females and a male and they were all hell on wheels when he was throwing marks. Dummy launcher out into some waist tall thick stuff and those little brown dogs would bring it back every time. I think he hung an MH on the male and one of the females and maybe an SH on the other female, but I could be wrong on that. Tough to do up here with abbreviated trial/test seasons. I’m not too worried about it, anyways, just looking for genetic evidence of trainability and they have that in the pedigree. Plus, I watched them work and they were rock solid. Back to the front yard to BS a bit more and all three of them were curled up letting the kids pet them until we left.
The wife and I discussed it and didn’t want to deal with any more puppy madness than we had to. She decided she wanted to try to train her own dog (finally), and that since we didn’t want to have one dog again, it’d be nice for the pup to always have a companion. Since our current lab is 11, we opted for two pups. She was also a little concerned that every dog we get ends up being “my dog” since I’m the one doing the training, hunting, feeding, etc. She figures if we get two and I train one of them and teach her how to train the other, that it might end up being “her dog” that’ll want to be with her all the time.
Breeding took place in mid-December, pups expected to hit the ground in mid-February, chaos ensues early April. Even in July, there was already one deposit ahead of us. We’re picks 2 & 3 on males, but if there aren’t enough males, we’ll adjust fire and either get one male or two females.
Anyone who wants a good family pet that’s a capable hunter, mild-mannered, and half the size of a lab should really take a look at these dogs.
Last edited by Ducksanddogs; 01/14/21.
