Our Dogs
At SJWORKINGDOGS we have been training, breeding and working dogs of many different breeds and types and in various disciplines for over 40 years.
In that time , there have been many changes in both the way our dogs look, and the multitude of different methods used for training them.
New ideas that have been tested and proved successful have been maintained , alongside tried and trusted methods based on techniques that are in harmony with a dog’s natural pack instinct.
Years ago, the most common way of choosing a new puppy was to find a nice bitch with a good temperament , mated with a dog of good reputation. You then picked the puppy that you liked and little extra thought was given !
There are inherent problems with this haphazard method of breeding ; many breeders have seen increasing health issues over the years , including weakness in joints and movement , leading often to poor longevity and discomfort in a dogs senior years.
Significant effort and research has gone into into the planning for breeding our lines, resulting in the healthy, athletic and trainable dogs that we so wanted and that enjoy long happy lives living and working in our team.
We began with our Spaniels. We searched for over 18 months until we found a suitable pup for our foundation bitch, “Joey” a daughter from one of our favourite FTCh’s “Moonreed Flush” with many of the much admired more substantial , coloured Badgercourt/ Cortman dogs incorporated in her pedigree.
”Joey” is now enjoying a happy retirement living in the house aged 15 with a lifetime of hard work behind her and hardly a single unnecessary visit to the vet.
“Joey” proved to be an inspired choice, hard working with an unflappable temperament, intelligent and a stunning mother to boot.
To “Joey’s” fantastic attributes we added strength, stamina and proven working ability from a line of old- fashioned, well -coloured, hard -going, long -lived dogs ,that I was fortunate to get to know very well from seeing them work calmly up and down steep Devon hillsides on some of the very best top class shoots in the South West. 
We continue to this day to use males from these particular lines when choosing stud dogs as we find them unmatched elsewhere.
Thus , the Strummerjoe Spaniel line was born, we now have 5 generations of this line and we are very proud of them.
We have applied these same theories and principles ,with the aim to produce top class Labs and Gsd’s the results of which can be seen in the “ OUR DOGS” section on the website.
Our core belief is that all our dogs should be as happy and comfortable in ANY working environment as they are under a table in a country pub after a long walk.
Spaniels
We always have a number of generations here to view and we are proud of them. read more
Labs
In 2012 following a 2 year wait we finally collected the Labrador bitch puppy that after much research we had set our hearts on as a suitable foundation bitch for our new line of Labs.read more here….
Gsd’s
From a very young age I have owned and trained many large guardian breed dogs of different types.read more here….