Clumber Spaniels happen to be the right breed of dog for our family. They may not be the right breed for you. Excellent descriptions of what it is like to live with Clumbers may be found here and here.

While there is a lot of information about Clumber Spaniels available on the web, there is no substitute for spending time with Clumbers in a home setting if you are thinking about adding a dog to your family. The Clumber Spaniel Club of America has a breeder referral coordinator who can help connect prospective owners with Clumbers in their area and with breeders. There are approximately 2000 Clumber Spaniels in the US. This is a guess. No "census" exists. Bear in mind that with a breed this rare, one may have a long wait. Use this time to build a relationship with a breeder. They want to get to know you, and you want to deal with a breeder who will be at the other end of the phone for the life of your dog.

Some Clumbers are prone to health problems. Breeders are working very hard to overcome these issues but prospective owners should still be aware of them. We believe intervertebral disc disease has the greatest impact on quality of life. Unfortunately, that is one problem where we have no tests to help us identify a dog that will be affected. While we have not experienced a disc problem yet, we do have personal experience with hip dysplasia, entropion, dry eye, hypothyroidism, chronic ear infections and allergies. We have also been through multiple foreign body removal surgeries. Not fun!

The breed standard describes the ideal Clumber Spaniel. Conformation show judges evaluate Clumbers relative to this written description.

Some of our Clumbers eat a raw diet. We're fairly new to raw feeding, and still have a lot to learn, but Penguin and Chewy are doing very well on this diet. Chewy has been a "frequent flyer" at the vet. Once we put him on a raw diet and began adding organic apple cider vinegar to the dogs' water bowl, our vet visits became much less frequent. Chewy went a year without a vet visit!