Here’s what you need to know if you’re searching for Cocker Spaniel breeders in Iowa. A Cocker Spaniel is an intelligent and playful breed, perfect as a pet for many families or as a working dog. But, if you choose the wrong breeder, you can end up with a dog that’s far too high energy for a pet or too calm to work as a gundog.
To help you avoid that, here’s a list of the best Cocker Spaniel breeders in Iowa, both for working dogs and pets. Cocker Spaniels tend to be a healthy, hardy breed with a long lifespan. If you choose the right breeder, you’ll end up with a perfect pet for over a decade of fun. However, some health conditions can severely affect your dog’s quality of life and even lifespan.
Any responsible breeder will check for these conditions in their adult dogs to ensure that every puppy they produce will be as healthy as possible. Remember, Cocker Spaniels are a breed that loves to run and play, and a condition that prevents them from doing so can be extremely distressing to the animal.
Before you scroll down this list of Cocker Spaniel breeders in Iowa, you can check out these other recommendations from our team at We Love Doodles: Best Chihuahua Breeders in Iowa and Best Australian Shepherd Breeders in Iowa.
Cocker Spaniel Puppies For Sale in Iowa
If you have doubts about a Cocker Spaniel breeder, you should reevaluate your decisions and do additional research. But don’t be discouraged by this long list of health issues. If you choose the right breeder, none of these problems will be present in your new puppy. To help you find a healthy and happy puppy, here’s a list of the best Cocker Spaniel breeders in Iowa.
Cocker Spaniel Product Recommendations: Best Dog Scooting Treatments and Best Beef Trachea For Dogs.
1. PuppySpot’s Cocker Spaniels For Iowa
The biggest challenge that every Cocker Spaniel dog lover and puppy enthusiast faces is when they come across a situation where they have to bring home a pet that fits their environment. Though it seems tough and tedious, the reality is entirely an analogy. There are options available that can help you choose the Cocker Spaniel perfect puppy without causing trouble for your family.
Moreover, you can experience health concerns in your surroundings if you bring a pet that doesn’t match your atmosphere. How to avoid such happenings? It is where the PuppySpot pops up with all the perks. It is the largest and most widespread pet community, with a hundred thousand verified pet lovers coming and offering their puppies.
You can choose a variety of your favorite breed without worrying about the level of services of the PuppySpot since it is above the heights of greatness. Many dog lovers participate in it, and they will help you make the right decision. Further, they can help you connect with several top dog breeders so you can have a healthy, well-trained dog right away.
You will be able to know ahead of time what breed of dog you plan to raise because they only accept newborn puppies. The puppies are not only placed with people who are comfortable but also with people who are responsible and loving towards their pets. Do you know someone who treats animals as if they were their children?
Since PuppySpot began this process, it has fostered more than 200,000 puppies in homes where they bring meaningful changes to their lives and contribute a lot to improved mental well-being. They are an authentic and credible community from a large crowd counting above 10,000 verified reviews with 5-stars on their services.
On top of that, PuppySpot has a zero-tolerance policy for pet scammers and Cocker Spaniel puppy mills. PuppySpot, the American Humane Society, and AKC collaborate to eliminate such pursuits from society. The primary goal of these organizations is to maintain an ideal coexisting space for animals and humans to thrive together without harming each other.
The USDA-certified PuppySpot community is devoted to pets. PuppySpot allows breeders who have USDA-approved licenses to join the community. The recruitment process for becoming a PuppySpot member is also nerve-racking. Since quality is the primary focus, only a small percentage of dog breeders can enlist their puppies on PuppySpot.
Breeders must pass an annual compliance program and proprietary screening process at onboarding, for which the company spends millions every year. Parents and puppies are screened for more than 100 different characteristics. Breeder Development, an independent Scientific Advisory Board, develops and manages the vetting process.
The PuppySpot airline network enables it to offer its owners better comfort and well-being. However, before being given to their new owners, Cocker Spaniel puppies must undergo a thorough medical examination from nose to tail to detect any diseases they might have. PuppySpot provides 10-year health guarantees, the most attractive part of their services.
PuppySpot Details
- Website: PuppySpot’s Cocker Spaniels
- Phone Number: (866) 269-1056
2. Blue Chip Kennels
Blue Chip Kennels is a breeder of excellent quality working dogs. If you’re looking for a pet to laze around at home, this isn’t the right breeder for you, but you’re looking for a Cocker Spaniel, so it’s probably safe to assume that you want a more high energy dog.
Breeding dogs from Blue Chip Kennels are selected for their temperament and health, meaning that every dog from this breeder is healthy, intelligent, and ready to learn. If you’re thinking of doing activities with your pet, such as trick training or agility, this is a viable breeder.
However, if you’re looking for a family dog, this breeder wouldn’t be a great fit. Dogs with a high drive to work need to have plenty of mental exercises and physical. If all they’re getting is a walk around the block, this pent-up energy can often manifest into destructive behaviors.
As they breed working dogs, Blue Chip Kennels test their dogs for all health conditions that can affect the dog’s quality of life. Acral Mutilation Syndrome (or AMS) is a condition that Cocker Spaniels are prone to. A dog suffering from this syndrome will have a much-reduced sensitivity to pain and often mutilate its limbs through prolonged licking or biting.
This recessive condition results from a genetic mutation, meaning that it is easily preventable by simple genetic testing. If a breeder has not tested for this condition, you should never buy from them. They don’t have the best interests of the breed, their dogs, or the puppies they sell at heart and are most likely a puppy mill.
Familial Nephropathy (FN) is another genetic condition that leads to kidney failure and even death. Do not buy from them if you’re not 100% certain that the breeder has tested for this condition. Cocker Spaniels are known for their adorably large eyes, but they can be prone to several eye conditions resulting in a loss of sight.
Progressive Retinal Atrophy (PRA) is a collection of various genetic conditions that can affect Cocker Spaniels. This terrifying condition can begin at any age and leads to total blindness, though only after a long, debilitating degeneration of eyesight. Once again, this is easily detected through a simple genetic test.
Every breeder who cares about their dogs will have tested for this condition. And finally, Cocker Spaniels are notorious for being one of the most overbred gundogs in the show world. This means that some breeders will have exaggerated the slope of their dogs’ backs, which leads to many hip conditions.
This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t buy from a show breeder— indeed, show breeders are usually the most responsible breeders for both health and temperament, and their puppies make better pets than those bred from working lines— but it simply means that you should do a little more research into a show breeder for this breed than you would with most others.
As Blue Chip Kennels are a working breeder, you don’t have to worry about this from their dogs, but the dogs they use can come from show lines in both Europe and the United States, so they always check for this issue. Fortunately, there is an easy way to check for this overbreeding.
Every breeder should have had their dogs’ hips scored before breeding. This is when a specialized veterinary professional will inspect an x-ray of the dog’s hips before breeding and give it a score from 0 to 106. The lower the score, the healthier the dog’s hips. Anything above twenty-five is iffy for a Cocker Spaniel, as fifteen is the norm for the breed.
Blue Chip Kennels puppies are certain to be free of these conditions, but they are also age-appropriately vaccinated and dewormed. They are also socialized and handled from a young age to ensure that the puppies are healthy and confident, calm, and eager to learn.
At Blue Chip Kennels, puppies are socialized with different people and other breeds of dogs to ensure they will never have aggression issues and are introduced to nature and the outside world from a young age. A puppy from Blue Chip Kennels is certainly a great working or companion dog, so long as you can give it the energy and training it needs.
Blue Chip Kennels Details
- Website: Blue Chip Kennels
- Location: Hampton, Iowa
- Email: bluechipkennel@aol.com
- Phone Number: (641) 456-2910
3. Cheryl’s Cockers
Cheryl’s Cockers is a home-based breeder in southern Iowa, and their breeding dogs stem from champion show dogs. That being said, their puppies are perfectly appropriate for family pets and working dogs. At Cheryl’s Cockers, the breeders are committed to producing healthy and loving breed examples. With this in mind, they offer a health guarantee with every puppy they sell.
Additionally, if an owner cannot keep their puppy for any reason, Cheryl’s Cockers will take the dog back at any age and find it a good home. A puppy from Cheryl’s Cockers will be age-appropriately vaccinated by the breeder herself, though if you’d prefer a vet did it, then you can pay a small additional charge for that to be done.
They are also wormed and treated for skin pests. Puppies from Cheryl’s Cockers will have had their dew claws removed and tails docked. A puppy from Cheryl’s Cockers would make a great family pet, though they might be less appropriate for a working dog as they are lower energy.
Cheryl’s Cockers Details
- Website: Cheryl’s Cockers
- Location: Bedford, Iowa
- Email: cheryl@cheryls-cockers.com
- Phone Number: (712) 621-4464
4. Foglesong Spring Creek Kennels
Last on the list of the best Cocker Spaniel breeders in Iowa is “Foglesong Spring Creek Kennels.” Foglesong Spring Creek Kennels is a family-run breeder that raises various breeds and crossbreeds at their farm. Their puppies undergo Early Neurological Stimulation, which means they are exposed to small stressors early in life.
This is not as scary as it sounds— it’s things as simple as tickling their paw pads with a cotton bud or laying the puppy on a damp cloth. This is proven to reduce stress and nervous reactions in adult dogs, so any puppy from Foglesong Spring Creek Kennels will be bombproof. These puppies also undergo an aptitude test— a simple test that will help you understand each puppy’s personality and choose the right one for you.
You can decide on the ideal traits you want to see in a dog, such as energy levels, confidence, intelligence, and assertiveness, and pick a puppy that will fit in with your lifestyle. At Foglesong Spring Creek Kennels, puppies come with a health guarantee covering all the different defects that small breeds are prone to, such as heart murmurs, and will have been dewormed.
Foglesong Spring Creek Kennels Details
- Website: Foglesong Spring Creek Kennels
- Location: Exline, Iowa
- Phone Number: (641) 895-3894
Conclusion For The “Best Cocker Spaniel Breeders in Iowa”
In conclusion, as long as a breeder is doing the right health tests and raising their puppies to be as healthy and confident as possible, they are a responsible Cocker Spaniel breeder. However, this doesn’t mean that they’re the right breeder for you.
Check what they’re breeding for, as there is a huge variation in prey drive and energy levels between working, show, and companion dogs. But so long as you do your research on your breeder, you will have a perfect life companion.
For more guides similar to this list of Cocker Spaniel breeders in Iowa, you can check out:
- Best Cocker Spaniel Breeders in Virginia
- Best Cocker Spaniel Breeders in Georgia
- Best Cocker Spaniel Breeders in Massachusetts
Before you bring home a Cocker Spaniel puppy from a breeder in Iowa, you can learn more about this dog breed by watching “Everything You Need to Know About Owning a Cocker Spaniel” down below:
Andy is a full-time animal rescuer and owner of a toy doodle. When he’s not saving dogs, Andy is one of our core writers and editors. He has been writing about dogs for over a decade. Andy joined our team because he believes that words are powerful tools that can change a dog’s life for the better.
Why Trust We Love Doodles?
At We Love Doodles, we’re a team of writers, veterinarians, and puppy trainers that love dogs. Our team of qualified experts researches and provides reliable information on a wide range of dog topics. Our reviews are based on customer feedback, hands-on testing, and in-depth analysis. We are fully transparent and honest to our community of dog owners and future owners.