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Pictured Above:
Am-Erica's Miss Independance; ptd. aka "Libby" and BPIS, Multi Group 1rst winner, Canadian CH. Am-Erica's Precious Moments aka "Morgan".
Mrs Erica Jordan LPN
PO Box 204
Bliss, NY 14024
(585)322-7187
Prospective puppy owners are welcome to come meet our dogs in person, by appointment most afternoons.
We Feed Eukenuba
We Groom with E-Z Groom Crystal White
Why opening your home & heart to a puppy from Am-Erica's is a great choice:
*Health is #1. We routinely perform the following genetic health screening: Eyes/CERF/Annually, Thyroid/T-4 Panal Cornell University/Annually, Patellas/OFA/Once per lifetime @ age 12 mo or older. Cockers are currently the #2 breed for having bad patellas. This is a real problem and breeders should be testing for it. According to current OFA stats, in 1 year over 11,000 cockers were hip tested (they rank way down the list at #112 and very few are effected.) In comparison, ONLY a little over 500 cockers had their patellas tested, and over 1/5th of them have bad patellas, landing cocker spaniels for the 2nd top breed to have bad patellas. See our "Links" page for official OFA stats and a link to the OFA. We perform some other various health screenings occasionally also. We will not breed a cocker spaniel with health problems. Our puppies are extensively health gauranteed for 27 months against life threatening, blinding or crippling hereditary diseases/congenital defects.
* Temperament is paramount!!! Temperament is just as important as health. It starts with parents who have fantastic temperaments. From there, our puppies are born and raised in our dining room, living room, kitchen, on our couch and sometimes we find our daughters have smuggled pup[ies into their bedrooms under the covers! We handle the puppies from birth..every day, several times a day. The puppies pretty much recieve constant handling, love and attention. Unlike some breeders who fear bringing germs into their house or kennel and don't allow visitors, we feel visits are a vital aspect of socialization and we welcome visitors. We just ask that you have not visited any other breeders recently, take shoes off and wash your hands prior to handling our dogs and puppies. As part of socialization, we also take the puppies to our friends, relatives, neighbors houses and into nursing homes. We run the vacuum cleaner and purposely drop things on the floor and what happens is they learn to be fearless and confident. We also start early potty training, that is why we try to schedule most of our litters during the good weather months of the year and avoid winter litters.
* No inbreeding. We prefer selective and diverse genetics. We really feel that inbreeding and alot of line breeding causes allergies, skin problems and other health concerns.
*We do not breed "merle" cocker spaniels. I find it very hard to believe that this gene did not in recent years come from being introduced to cockers through another breed, considering how dominant it is. I remember seeing the first ones pop up on the internet by puppy mill breeders and thinking they looked part Aussie. Breed "type" was completely lacking. Merle is not registered by the AKC because it is not a recognized color of cocker spaniels by the AKC because AKC does not recognize a "merle" cocker spaniel as a purebred. To me, anybody who is registering these dogs as "Roan" is falsifying an AKC document, and altering the integrity of pedigrees. For this reason, we have selected and will continue to select pedigrees that do not any contain roans. We know what every dog in our dogs pedigrees looks like not just because of the color listed on the pedigree for us, but because they are well known and published dogs that we have either seen in person or have seen clear photos. While we oppose the merle color because the AKC does not recognize cockers of that color pattern to be purebred, and because the merle gene carries very serious health concerns, and because the problem is not going away (people will continue to breed them and register them as other colors if nothing is done.) therefore we do favor allowing them to be registered in a manner similiar to white German Sheperds so that other breeders and potential owners can more easilly identify them in pedigrees and avoid them if desired.
* I have a small population. The dogs you see on this website are indeed ALL of our dogs. We limit the number of litters we breed to ensure the dogs and puppies are all cared for to the highest of standards. That is why I have specialized exclusively in my first love...Parti Color Variety cocker spaniels. I refuse to spread myself thin or cut corners. Quality, NOT Quantity.
*This is a hobby, not a business. If you think breeding dogs is easy money...guess again. Sure, puppy mills make money by breeding dogs in mass numbers, selling in bulk kinda like Wal Mart does, and not providing them with anything...not even with proper nutrition or veterinary care. I have a major hatred toward those kind of breeding operations! I have spent about $4200.00 thus far this year on my dogs, and it's only April! I have sold no puppies or provided any stud service thus far this calendar year...so to say the least, Im in the hole. If I'm lucky, I will break even at the end of the year. My husband and I are both licensed professionals with careers, and we don't breed and sell dogs to make money. The funds that are generated from occasional puppy sales or stud service are re-invested back into the dogs by feeding premium food, top quality grooming supplies, health testing, exhibition in conformation "dog shows", kennel improovement, and providing for them their entire lives...several years after they are retired from breeding. This hobby involves alot of hard work, but is also rewarding. It provides great lessons to my children. My oldest daughter wants to become a vet tech. Both she and my middle child (my son) work in the kennel on weekends, and learn work ethics and responsibility. My youngest daughter who is just turning 4 yrs old, already has a great interest in junior showmanship. She has been walking our dogs around on a show lead "practicing" since she could walk! I have photos of her with a binky in her mouth, in a diaper, walking a dog on a show lead! She started going to some of the shows with me at age 3, and this summer at age 4 she can start to junior handle at Canadian shows in the "Pee Wee" class. She's all excited about it!
* Our dogs live long, full filling happy lives here until they cross the rainbow bridge. Dogs retired from breeding will stay here and grow old and lazy on my couch as they deserve. I actually look forward to my dogs aging so that we can enjoy that time together. For the young and active generation, I have an indoor/outdoor kennel built onto our home. The dogs have 24/7 Indoor/Outdoor access through a dog door to a fenced running area., which we will be expanding. They have plenty of room to exercise and the result is that I go through a ton of dog food. I keep the food dishes full and the dogs eat as much as they want and still stay lean and have fantastic muscle tone, because they get so much exercise...and cockers are energetic dogs that love to be buisy, atleast when they are young adults. My dogs take in the country air, sun light, have lots to see and do, and an endless supply of knuckle bones and toys! The show dogs love going to handling class, matches and shows. Once I get them all groomed out for a show, they are so excited knowing they are going, that they bark and sing until the moment we load up the car and go! My dogs are all very special to me and I let them know it! We moved into our house in December 07' , so we still have alot of work to do and will update as we go, but here is our little hobby kennel as of May 08'... (Remember, the puppies are born and raised in the house. The young puppies do not get put into the kennel with our other dogs. ) Each of our dogs gets plenty time in the house with us too!
There is Layla showing off her pregnant tummy! Our kennel building is attatched to the back of our house. It is 24' L x 18' W. I can open my back door and I'm in the kennel. If you look very closely to the right hand side, you can see an open dog door. The dogs freely go in/out. The fenced area outside is 16' x 16' which we'll be expanding to about a 1/4 acre.
The white enclosure is 4' wide x 16' long. This is an indoor "open area" (meaning no cages). There is a dog door in it so the dogs can freely go in/out 24/7, except if the weather is bad, then I close the dog door. The floor is cement, which I clean and sanitize daily and put a fresh clean layer of shavings down to absorb moisture and provide a softer surface. Food and water dish is elevated, cleaned and refilled several times throughout the day. There are 3 windows along the exterior wall also, so lots of sunlight shines into the enclosure and windows may be opened for ventilation. Here is the inside of the indoor "open area" enclosure:
I groom the dogs myself and this is my work area.
Here is an area of our kennel, the above three photos are all the same area but in one photo the doors are open and are closed in the other photo. Here I set up 3'x3' ex-pens along the side of the wall to seperate dogs as needed i.e. when a female is in heat or when they are being groomed. There is Libby and Captain in the ex-pen together.
* Yes, we air ship. We ship from Buffalo International airport located in Buffalo NY. We usually use Northwest or Delta, and have several airlines available to us. Puppies may be air shipped within the domestic USA as young as 8 weeks of age, although I prefer to wait until the puppies are atleast 9 weeks old. I will ship to Canada and overseas after the puppy series of shots are completed. Less worry if there is any delay in customs. I am an experienced shipper and have also received puppies myself this way many times, and happy to say without incident. Well socialized puppies come out with tails wagging, excited to meet their new family. If I thought it airshipping would cause any long term negative impact or real trauma to a puppy, I wouldn't air ship. I think the people who think that air shipping is a big bad terrible thing are people who are not experienced with it. Hundreds of thousands of dogs and cats are airshipped every year in the USA. The puppies have been away from their mothers at this point for atleast a full week,and have been spending short periods in a crate to adjust to the trip and to crate training. We will generally provide a health certificate and crate at no additional charge, and allow the purchaser to pay for the actual air fare directly to the airline at the airport when they pick up the puppy. It usually cost $225. We can ship two puppies in the crate together and the cost does not increase since the weight of crate and puppies is still less than 50 pounds. 
We can also sometimes help transport a puppy to Syracuse NY, Watertown NY, to dog shows in Western PA, NE Ohio, and in Ontario Canada.
*Puppies have tails docked to show standards, are dewormed, have first shot at 8 weeks per the new revised vaccination protocol, arrive freshly bathed and trimmed (pet or show cut is your choice). All puppies are vet examined prior to going to their new homes. A health record, pedigree, photos of parents, photos of your puppy as it has grown, some puppy care and training information, a EUKENUBA food sample, a 2 year health gaurantee, and AKC paper work all accompany the puppy.
* Most importantly, you are not contributing and financialy supporting the puppy mill industry. Wonder what the puppy mill industry is, visit www.prisonersofgreed.org WARNING! Graphic Content, do NOT view with children.
*Deposits: A Deposit in the amount of 25% of the price of the puppy is requested to reserve your chosen puppy. In the event something happens to the puppy and it is no longer suitable or available for sale, we will refund your entire deposit. In the event you simply change your mind, we will allow you to apply the deposit toward another puppy within 1 year, otherwise we must retain the deposit to compensate for our time and possible re-advertising expenses.
*Form of Payment: Cash is acceptable in person and a hand written receipt will be issued. Local personal checks are acceptable, otherwise we do not accept checks. We accept money orders issued from the US Post Office. International customers may send Western Union or Wal-Mart money gram. Make all payments payable to Erica Jordan.
* Sorry, we do not offer stud service for a wide variety of reasons.
Happy Tails
BIS Canadian CH. Am-Erica's Precious Moments aka Morgan; owned by Jordan Ashley. ON Canada
American CH. Am-Erica's National Anthem; owned by Kimbery Baright in Poughkeepsie NY.
Namees Maid In Am-Erica aka "Smudge" owned by Margaret Seeman in Renville MN
If you own a puppy we bred and would like to see it here on our site, just e-mail us your picture. I know many of you have, but our computer died and we lost everything. The only good thing that came from that is I have a new computer and it's way faster!
Music: Walkin' On the Sun by Smashmouth
This page updated May 12th, 2008