I got my first cocker in 1995, a black dog called "Muffe". Shortly afterwards, a passion for the breed developed, I got books and joined clubs, both in Sweden and the UK. The most exciting times were the arrivals of Cockertidningen by post and my favourite part was the Show result pages. During the later part of the 90's I knew exactly who had won what and where. The dream of my own kennels began to form, I learned about pedigrees and made my own breeding plans. Crazy, I know! Thanks to the Internet (which was quite new to everyone at the time) and my own website "THE Cocker Spaniel Site" (published back in 1997) I came into contact with breeders from around the world already at an early stage. My interest in genetics resulted in my application to the Agronomist Programme at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) and roughly five years later a Master's Degree in Biology.
The Choc Ice affix was registered with the SKK/FCI in the spring of 1999 and is of course an abbreviation of 'chocolate icecream'. I wanted a name that had a connection to the chocolate cockers I planned to breed. The name came to me after one of our many visits to Tesco. The breeding foundation was laid in around 2001 with two solid chocolate imports: the Norwegian bitch Mainel's Choc Ice Symphony and the Spanish dog Imokam Andalusí. Both of them were quite inbred but didn't share a common ancestor in 7 generations. They had a litter of eight in 2003 from which the chocolate roan bitch SE V-04 Choc Ice Birds of a Feather was retained. She's responsible for our greatest achievement in the ring so far; winning CC, CACIB and BOS (and consequently the Swedish Winner title) at the Svenska Kennelklubben's biggest show of the year - from Intermediate class. There were two people who sensed this would happen - I was not one of them! Although so many years have passed since then, I still can't believe it actually happened.
Birds of a Feather had two litters. The first was sired by Emba's Mr Oboy Chocolate and in this litter the solid chocolate Choc Ice Some Kind of Bliss was exported to Australia and quickly gained 4 CCs. Unfortunately her show career came to an end after losing a couple of teeth in a fight with one of the other bitches in the kennels - apparently bites and teeth are important Down Under. Some Kind of Bliss later produced a litter of nine of her own. The second litter was sired by the blue Speechouse True Colours who was on a loan from Wales to the Mistily's kennels. A puppy dog, Choc Ice On a Night Like This, remained unsold and consequently stayed. He had a rather successful career winning some CKs before being re-homed at four years of age. Although I'm quite pleased with the conformation and health of the dogs I've bred they are not what I hoped for mentally; stressed, loud, antisocial and guarding - not desired traits for this breed so I decided to give up this line.
Time will tell what will become of my new bitch Art-Wave's Betty Crocker. If I decide to breed another litter I want to be sure that all puppies will come to people who take good care of their dogs, in every aspect. The most probable scenario will be me co-operating with other breeders as far as litters are concerned and not have any of my own.
