Anyone know any breeders or people in Texas that sell boykins?

PM Huck18, he's got one of the little hellions and he's pretty well versed on Boykins.

Think a guy on texasbowhunter does

Ol_Yeller, are you just kidding around or serious? What’s your problem with Boykins? Starting to look into buying one or not...

All in jest...Huck and his Boykin have done well w/the hunt test games. We were training one weekend and he and my young lab had a little fracas, nothing hurt! I do like to kid him about the "little man syndrome".

Nothing at all against Boykins.

HAHAHA!!!! It ain't the size of the dog, it's the size of the bite in the dog.

Shoot me a PM and I can fill you in on Boykins. There are some politics involved in the breed that a lot of newbies won't understand. It matters to some people, others could care less. It's petty for the most part.

No worries! I would like to know more. Also, can you get good dogs in the $800 to $1200 range?

At $800 I would be hesitant. When I was shopping for a pup the few litters I found under $1,000 did not have hip and elbow certs on the parents. You should budget around $1,200-1,500 for a quality pup. Let me do some digging back into old emails and find some of the breeders I know and talked with.

http://www.frontier-retrievers.com/index.php?categoryid=1 - I've spoke with Terri a couple of times. She's an ethical breeder, but not much in the way of pups at the moment.

https://boykinspaniel.org/pages/our-preferred-breeders/bss-preferred-breeder-list-
http://www.texasbrowndog.com/puppies.html - Boykin club of Texas Breeder Page

http://texas-trace.com/ - This is where my Boykin came from. They breed quality dogs with health certs. But they are not registered with the BSS only the AKC. (This is due to the politics I mentioned).

http://brandywinecreekboykins.com/ - They breed quality dogs.

http://www.dovewoodkennel.net/index.htm - Same

http://boykinspaniel.com/ - Just Ducky Kennels. They have bred Boykins for a long time.

https://www.retrievertraining.net/f...assifieds-General-Sporting-Breed-Puppies - Check here from time to time. They currently have a Boykin pup post.



You may have to go out of state to find one.

i am sure huck got you what you needed but i also have a boykin and she is my second i have had. she is amazing and great in the field and also amazing at home (though obviously all dogs are different lol but everyone knows that). i got mine down in hempstead from greg copeland at texas trace... pm me if you want more info but the above from huck lists some good info!

I also have one from Texas Trace; she's a great little dog. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions. The best advice that was given to me is to train them like a lab!

Yep. Texas Trace has good dogs. People should just know about the politics before they buy.

Can you fill us in on the politics surrounding boykins or put up a link or something?

Kind of hard to explain, but I will try. Basically all of the original Boykin breeding stock was only registered with the BSS (Boykin Spaniel Society). The BSS did NOT wan't Boykins to be registered with the AKC. They're thinking was that by registering with the AKC the breed would become watered down and lose their field skills (similar to how you see two types of Labs and Goldens (show and field). I understand their thinking and respect that point of view, but the problem with that is that some people wanted to show their Boykins and you can only do that if they are AKC registered.

So after some time there was basically a split with breeders. Some wanted to get them registered with the AKC, others did not and it's a very heated debate within the Boykin world. I believe Texas Trace was the first breeder to get their dogs AKC registered and start showing them in AKC shows. This so far has NOT had a negative effect on their dogs as they are still very birdy and very much field dogs, no different than the Boykins only registered with the BSS.

Now there are some breeders who will register there pups with both the AKC and the BSS (this is the best scenario). A lot of the old school South Carolina breeders only register with the BSS. Now the issue with this is that if your dog is not registered with the AKC you can't get your dog titled in AKC hunt test/field trials or AKC shows. If your dog is not registered with the BSS you can't get your dog titled in the BSS hunt test/field trials.

To most people this won't matter, but to those wanting to try to play both games (AKC and BSS) this matters as your pup will be limited to running to either the BSS or the AKC if it was only registered to one. I ran my Texas Trace pup all the way up to the Master Level in AKC Retriever hunt test. To me the BSS thing wasn't a big deal, because most of the BSS test/trials are all of the East coast and I'm not traveling half way across the country just for bragging rights.

So it really comes down to what the owners want to do. I see both sides of the argument as I don't want the breed watered down to nothing more than lap dogs, but if you pay for something and own it outright you should be able to do what you want to do with it including showing it.

Funny story about this. I went to the first ever Boykin Spaniel Club of Texas field day years ago. My pup was the only non BSS registered dog (only AKC). I got some questions about Texas Trace and my pup and a lot of people kind of turned their nose up at him because he was "one of them", in their eyes one of the traitors. So at the end of the day they had a mini field trail with any dogs there who wanted to compete for the grand prize of the first ever Boykin Spaniel Club of Texas champion certificate, LOL!

Guess what happened? My dog and I smoked the competition and it wasn't even close. Not a single BSS registered dog could compete at his level. They were not too pleased, we took home our award and laughed the whole way home.

So if someone is interested in a Texas Trace or other AKC registered dog, I say go for it just know that your dog will not be able to run in BSS events. Same with the BSS, if you buy a BSS registered pup your pup will not be able to run in AKC events. And know that this is a highly contentious debate within the Boykin world so take that into consideration when talking to people about it, and tread lightly.

Huck, thank you for taking the time to write all that. I bought my Boykin pup off a guy on the forum and only plan oh hunting her so I wasn’t aware of the politics. She is about a year old and loves hunting.

Good looking dog!

To clear this up, AKC has Open Registration on Boykin Spaniels. Since the Boykin breeding pool is very small and limited in AKC relative to the overall Boykin population, the AKC-only Boykins would not fair well without the Boykin Spaniel Society (BSS) breeding stock. Therefore, the AKC will accept non-AKC registered Boykins, as long as they have a pedigree from another registry, like the Boykin Spaniel Society, to get AKC registered. This is what I did with my Boykin Ariel, as her parents were BSS registered and not AKC registered, and now we are the only Boykin in Texas with an AKC Master Hunter Retriever title. BSS only dogs can register in AKC, AKC only dogs CANT register BSS.

Things a BSS dog can do that an AKC-only dog CANT do:
1) Participate in the Boykin Spaniel Society Upland and Retriever National Field Trials to determine the best Boykin in the country. These are a blast to see 200+ boykins at one event
2) Participate in the BSS Upland and Retriever Hunt Tests
3) Receive discounts on health tests performed, from the Boykin Spaniel Society returning money to you for test results sent in
4) Get a quarterly magazine from the Boykin Spaniel Society updating you on all things Boykin
5) Be a voice in a registry dedicated to ONE breed, and not the one that makes the most money
6) Most important - Be apart of the oldest and original Boykin registry in the country

In summary, get a BSS dog. If you want to know a great place to look, go to the Boykin Breeders Facebook page. All breeding posts are screened to make sure they have the necessary health tests. Link Here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/176785585768336/?ref=bookmarks

Or go to BSS Preferred Breeders list here: https://boykinspaniel.org/pages/our-preferred-breeders/bss-preferred-breeder-list-

Wow thanks for the great story about Boykins. I have one trained by someone else and he is a pure Blast and Show Off

I have a 4month old female that I got from a guy up by the red river. Bill Kennedy is his name. Love the dog. Getting ready to send her off to get some training done on her. Any suggestions of who to use??

JD

She will change your life.

I doubt she’ll change your life but you’ll enjoy her a lot more if you train her yourself. You will get a better finished product in half the time.

Most likely if you know what you're doing. Some people just can't do it though.

Exactly what I was talking about.