Congratulations to Sh Ch Lujesa Starry Eyed, BoB at Crufts 2014. This is the first time a B&T has been Best of Breed at this show!
For those of you who find this colour as attractive as I do, here’s some information on how the black and tans appeared. My thanks go to Kate Romanski in the States for supplying much of the information. Kate is a fellow black and tan fanatic.
A Special Colour
My interest in the black and tan colour began soon after I started in the breed, when I saw a picture of a black and tan dog imported from the UK to the States by Kate. He was AM CH ASTRAWIN APPLE JACK, seen below in a picture taken by his owner Kate after she showed him to Judy de Casembroot at the Santa Barbara KC show in July 1970.
AM CH ASTRAWIN APPLE JACK
The portrait below is by Patty Janzen, a member of the English Cocker Spaniel
Club of America.
Below, another photo of Applejack from 1970.
The black and tan colour is difficult to produce. It seems that most early black and tans had a parti-coloured parent but nowadays the colour is always produced by mating solid to solid, where both carry the right genes. According to Kate, who has been studying black and tans for years, there is no black and tan gene as such, but rather a gene for tan points. This confers tan points (eyebrows, feet etc) on animals of a different colour. Thus it produces tan points on a black to give black and tan, tan points on a blue to produce blue roan and tan, and so on. I have seen a chocolate and tan. The tan points gene idea means that it would be possible in theory to have a red and tan. Although the tan would not normally be distinguishable from the rest of the red coat, I have heard dogs described as a red and tan. My own CANIGOU SUN TANNED would certainly be one such, as she is by two B&T parents.
Almost every solid breeder has produced black and tans at some time and usually they have sold them as pets, as they are not always brightly marked and, apparently, they are difficult to win with!
I took me almost 40 years to breed my first black and tan. She was Katy, bless her, who survived barely long enough to acquire a name, after which husband Steve dug a hole in the lawn and kissed her before laying her to rest. Katy did however show me that her dam SH CH CANIGOU CLASSICAL carried the gene for tan points.
CLASSICAL was eventually mated to SH CH CLARAMAND ROCK N ROLL WITH MOLKARA, also known to carry the colour gene, to produce three black pups. One of these was the bitch SH CH CANIGOU CLASSIC ROCK who, mated to SH CH ASQUANNES GILLESPIE, produced SH CH CANIGOU ROCK STAR, who eventually made the showring and became the first UK black and tan male champion in the history of the breed. He was made up in 2010 and a repeat mating of GILLESPIE and CLASSIC ROCK produced the black and tan bitch SH CH CANIGOU SECON TAN ROSE.
Perhaps I should not be surprised that black and tans eventually surfaced in my line. My foundation bitch PEELERS PERSONATION was a great-great-great-grand-daughter of CH BROOMLEAF BONNY LAD OF SHILLWATER, sire of the first black and tan show champion SH CH BROOMLEAF BLACK AND TAN (6 CCs).
People who have lived with black and tans say they have a special temperament. Rock Star (Rocky) lives with us now as our house pet and sleeps by the side of the bed – a privilege no other Cocker has ever had. He has a jaunty, cheerful, exuberant personality and the gift of making everyone he meets feel cheerful too. Other black and tans we have bred share this trait to some extent and the bitches seem particularly affectionate.
I hope that you find this page interesting. If you have any information or pedigrees for past black and tan winners please let me know. Photos of B&Ts – show dogs or pets – will be gratefully received and added to the site and I’d particularly like to fill in some of the missing details for UK CC and RCC winners below.
To read Kate Romanski’s article ‘To Breed a Better Black and Tan?’ click here It will take a couple of minutes to download.
American Champions
The first black and tan American champion was AM CH LANEHEAD GILTEDGE OF GIRALDA, pictured below. By a black dog, out of a golden bitch, he was whelped in England on 11.2.1936 by his breeder W. Bennett and exported to the USA where he was owned by Giralda Farms. He completed his championship between February 1939 and February 1941.
AMERICAN CHAMPION LANEHEAD GILTEDGE OF GIRALDA by Ruben Ward Binks
This picture is a photograph of the gouache watercolour by Reuben Ward Binks, the well-known British animal artist, who was commissioned by Giltedge’s owner Mrs Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge (Giralda Farms), just prior to the second world war. The painting was acquired by Kate Romanski (who kindly supplied the photograph) in August 1990. Kate has searched for years to find a photograph of the dog in the flesh, but if there ever was one she says it has disappeared into the mists of time!
Giltedge completed his AKC championship by winning a five-point major at the Westminster Kennel Club show in February 1941. Follow this link to see Giltedge’s show record and pedigree.
Mrs Rockefeller Dodge (owner of Giltedge), as well as keeping a large kennel, amassed a large collection of dog art and Kate has just bought another Ruben Ward Binks from the Rockefeller Dodge collection, shown below. Giltedge is included at bottom left and Kate tells me that the background is pure artist’s licence as that part of New Jersey looks nothing like the picture!
GROUP OF GIRALDA ENGLISH COCKERS – 1939 by Ruben Ward Binks
The first black and tan bitch to gain her title in the States was AM CH COVANA COVER GIRL in 1973.
COVER GIRL was imported to the USA from the UK as a puppy. By a black dog, out of a red bitch, she was whelped on 30.5.1970. She was bred by Mr and Mrs A.P. Hempstead in the UK and owned in the States by Mrs Thomas Arland. She completed her championship on 9.6.1973.
Follow this link to see
Cover Girl’s show record and pedigree
AMERICAN CHAMPION COVANA COVER GIRL
The wins needed to make up a champion are different in the States and there are well over 100 USA black and tan conformational champions. Below is a picture of Kate taken in November 2013, when she visited Canigou. The dog on her lap is Sh Ch Canigou Classic Rock.
UK Champions
The first black and tan title-holder in the UK was the bitch SH CH BROOMLEAF BLACK AND TAN, bred by Kay Doxford and whelped on 6.3.1948.
This photo of SH CH BROOMLEAF BLACK AND TAN was taken from the 1954 article referred to below.
The colour cropped up in Kay’s kennel more or less by accident, through the mating of the red dog CH BROOMLEAF BONNY LAD OF SHILLWATER to the blue roan and tan bitch BUTTERFLY OF BROOMLEAF. Her colour created much controversy at the time. BLACK AND TAN won the CC with BoB at Richmond DFA in 1949, the CC with BoB at Scottish KC and the CC at Croydon on 30.5.1950 to gain her title. She went on to win 3 further CCs and 2 RCCs. Her record of 6 CCs was not equalled until 7th JUly 2012, when Sh Ch Canigou Secon Tan Rose took her 6th CC.
Follow this link to the pedigree for Sh Ch Broomleaf Black and Tan. which was kindly provided by Carol West. From the known colours in the pedigree it is clear that Butterfly of Broomleaf was mostly particolour breeding; mainly blue roan with bit of blue roan and tan thrown in. Broomleaf Bonny Lad of Shillwater on the other hand was of solid (mainly red) breeding. He must however have carried the gene for tan points and John Cahill has told me that he was in fact a red and tan.
Here are links to two articles by Kay Doxford from the early 1950s:
The first is ‘The Black and Tan Cocker’ from The Cocker Journal of April 1952:
The Black and Tan Cocker 1952 page 1
The Black and Tan Cocker 1952 page 2
The Black and Tan Cocker 1952 page 3
The second is an extract from Kay’s article ‘The Colours of the Cocker Spaniel’ from The Cocker Journal and Gundog Review of June 1954:
Colours of the Cocker 1954
The second UK show champion, the bitch SH CH SQUIRESBROOK DUET WITH FONESSE, was not made up until 42 years later, in 1992.
SH CH SQUIRESBROOK DUET WITH FONESSE
Whelped on 9.3.1991, DUET was by KENDRICK SURPRISE SURPRISE (black and tan) out of SQUIRESBROOK LITTLE MADAM AT KENDRICK (colour unknown). She was bred by Mr. S Stratton and owned by John and Fonia Mace. She took CCs at Scottish KC, Devon and Cornwall and Ladies Kennel Association, all in 1992, as well as an RCC. See UK RCC-winners below for her sire SURPRISE SURPRISE.
The third UK black and tan show champion and the first male is SH CH CANIGOU ROCK STAR, whelped on 15.7.2008. He is by SH CH ASQUANNE GILLESPIE (black) out of SH CH CANIGOU CLASSIC ROCK (black). He was made up in 2010 with CCs at the Cocker Club of Scotland, Southern Counties and Border Agricultural Society, before being retired from the show-ring to be a our house-pet.
SH CH CANIGOU ROCK STAR (Rocky) pictured as a puppy
Pedigree for Sh Ch Canigou Rock Star
Rocky at Crufts, 2010
Rocky at home at Canigou, expertly handled by Veronika Nechvatalova, February 2012.
However, Rocky absolutely loves showing and he was also shown occasionally as an older dog, winning a fourth CC at Driffield in 2014. In 2017, campaigning as a veteran, he won 21 Veteran Dog classes at Championship Shows, 18 with Best Veteran. In the same year he won 2 more CCs, including LKA in December at the age of nine and a half. To round off a wonderful year he was awarded the title Veteran of the Year 2017 at the Cocker Club match in January 2018 (below).
The fourth UK B&T Sh Ch was SH CH CANIGOU SECON TAN ROSE (Rosa), a bitch, whelped on 28.6.2009. By a repeat mating of SH CH ASQUANNE GILLESPIE (black) to SH CH CANIGOU CLASSIC ROCK (black). The first mating of this pair produced SH CH CANIGOU ROCK STAR (above). Rosa was bred by her owner Tricia Bentley.
The watermark behind this page is Rosa as a pup and the Cocker wagging her tail at the top of every page on the site is also her.
Rosa won her first CC, with BoB, at Southern Counties on 4th June 2010 under judge Bonnie Threlfall (USA), who also gave the dog CC to her full brother SH CH CANIGOU ROCK STAR (see picture below). As far as I know this is the only time that black and tans have ever taken both CCs at a show in the UK. Her second CC was won at Peterborough on 8th July 2011, under Tom Graham. She was made up with her third CC at Scottish Kennel Club under judge Dawn Young on 28th August 2011. She now holds 9 CCs, which was at the time the record for a black and tan, although she has been overtaken by the black and tan bitch Sh Ch Lujesa Starry Eyed, which took her tenth CC in early 2014.
Rosa is now living with Ken and Janette Llewellyn and Meg and Chris Hardy in Australia, where she has already won a CC and BoB. She’s pictured left in her new home.
Pedigree for Sh Ch Canigou Secon Tan Rose
CANIGOU SECON TAN ROSE (left) CC and BoB with
SH CH CANIGOU ROCK STAR (right) CC for Judge Bonnie Threlfall at Southern Counties
on 4.6.2010.
A more recent picture of Rosa, taken at home at Canigou, handled by Veronika Nechvatalova, February 2012
Rosa was mated to the B&T Molkara Magician (see below) and whelped a litter of 5 black and tans and one golden. There are some puppy photos below. We have shown two of the pups and one, Canigou Sun Tanned (golden) won 4 BPIS or BPIB awards in 2013.
This photo shows two of the tiny pups pictured above, with their dam. From left to right; SH CH CANIGOU SECON TAN ROSE and her bitch puppies, CANIGOU SUN TANNED and CANIGOU BRIGH TAN BEAUTIFUL.
SH CH LUJESA STARRY EYED Bitch Starry Eyed won CCs in 2012 at Windsor and Bournemouth and was made up at South Wales and Mon Ch Sh on 2nd March 2013 under Trevor Borman to become B&T Sh Ch number 5. In 2013 she won a further 5 CCs, taking her total to 8, three with BoB.
SH CH LUJESA STARRY EYED
SH CH MOLKARA MAGICIAN Dog Magician won his CCs at Devon and Cornwall in 2012 and Birmingham National and Leeds in 2013, to become UK B&T champion number 6 with 3 CCs (2 with BoB). It’s interesting to note that, at Birmingham National in 2013, Judge Angela Hackett gave both CCs to Black and Tans (Starry Eyed and Molkara Magician). 
SH CH MOLKARA MAGICIAN
SH CH GLENTREE RUBY SLIPPERS JW ShCm. Bitch, whelped 6.5.2008. By SH CH GLENNTREE ZANETTE JW (black) out of GLENNTREE MISS TANSY (black and tan). Bred by Mrs Jean Glennister, owned by Cheryl Blackley and Ian Salero. Winner of CC with BoB at Ulster Cocker in 2009, CC at Scottish Kennel Club 2013 and CC with BoB at National Gundog 2013, to become the seventh UK B&T champion.
GLENNTREE RUBY SLIPPERS
UK CC Winners
The following black and tans have won one or two CCs in the UK. Details are a little sketchy for some of the older winners, but Ian Scott and Carol West have recently filled in some details.
BRIGHT WITCH. Bitch, whelped 27.7.1907. Bred by Dr R Bird Wagner. By WILTON LAD (red and white) out of ARABIAN DORIS (the Arabian kennel was one of those involved in breeding and popularising the red colour, so it is likely that Doris was red). She took the CC at Manchester in 1909, under Mr R De Courcy Peel, owner of the famous Bowdler kennel.
MONKERTON CHARLIE. Dog, whelped 8.1.1912. Bred by W H Edwards. By GALTREES RAVEN (black) out of BROOKFIELD GYPSY (colour unknown). He took the CC at Chrystal Palace in 1913, under Mr E C Spence.
NENE VALLEY LONGWOOD SCARTEENA. Bitch, whelped 11.3.1952. By NENE VALLEY SPORTSMAN (black) out of NENE VALLEY SULPHUR (colour unknown, but from the name possibly a red?). Bred by Mr and Mrs E G Shiffner. Owned by Mrs R George. She won the CC at LKA in 1954. I think her name may be a pun on The Scarteen, a famous Irish foxhunt also known as the Black and Tans from the distinctive colour of their hounds.
MOONBELL MIX N MATCH AT HELENWOOD. Bitch, whelped 30.9.1990. By LOCHRANZA TRICK OR TREAT (golden) out of MOONBELL DIXIE (black) Bred by Mr Miller, owned by Mrs J Marris-Bray. The first black and tan CC-winner since Scarteena in the 50’s, she won 2 CCs, at Lancashire Cocker and Rotherham and District Cocker, both in 1991, before going out to Spain.
MOONBELL MIX N MATCH AT HELENWOOD
ZAKOVA SPECIAL RESERVE. Dog, whelped 4.10.2003. By SH CH ZAKOVA DARK SIDE OF THE MOON (black) out of ZELBECK TAN KELLY AT ZAKOVA (black and tan). Bred by the owner Mrs Sue Warrington. Winner of 1 CC, with BoB, at Bournemouth in 2003, and 2 RCCs.
ZAKOVA SPECIAL RESERVE
UK RCC Winners
The following black and tans have won one or more RCCs in the UK in recent years. Once again some details are a little sketchy and there may well be more RCC winners I have missed! Please let me know.
RIVERMIST TANGO ROYALE. Bitch, whelped18.4.1971. By MONKSPRINGS MANDRED (red) out of RIVERMIST RAINSTORM (black). Bred by the owners, Mr and Mrs L Robinson.
Winner of 2 RCCs – Darlington 1972 and Yorkshire Cocker 1973.
Pedigree for Rivermist Tango Royale
RIVERMIST TANGO ROYALE photographed in October 1973
KENDRICK SURPRISE SURPRISE. Dog, whelped 1.12.1984. By ROSADAY ROOSTER BOOSTER OF KENDRICK (black) out of BROWSTER OUR BABU OF KENDRICK (red). Bred by the owners Brian and Betty Taylor. Winner of 1 RCC, at Border Union in 1987. SURPRISE SURPRISE was the sire of SH CH SQUIRESBROOK DUET WITH FONESSE (see UK champions above).
KENDRICK SURPRISE SURPRISE
JANNORS FLASHDANCER. Bitch. Whelped 16.01.2000. By CLARAMAND HOT SHOT (colour unknown) out of GLENBROWS RAINDANCER (colour unknown). Bred and owned by Lisa Parkin. Won the RCC at Richmond in 2003.
This rather dark photo is the only one I have been able to find of Lisa Parkin and JANNORS FLASHDANCER.
The prize for winning RCCs must surely go to LOCHRANZA POSH SOCKS AT JAYZANDER JW, with five.
Bitch, whelped 17.5.2004. By SH CH ASQUANNE GOLDFINGA (red) out of LOCHRANZA NONE SWEETER (black). Bred by Mrs Jean Gillespie, owned by Louise Wilding . Her 5 RCCs were won at Bath in 2005, National Gundog and Leeds in 2006 and Three Counties and Belfast in 2007.
LOCHRANZA POSH SOCKS AT JAYZANDER
LOCHRANZA RED GAUNTLETS. Dog, whelped 1.12.2006. By SH CH LOCHRANZA FOR YOUR EYES ONLY (red) out of LOCHRANZA STRATHISLA (black). Bred by Mrs Jean Gillespie, owned by Cheryl Blackley and Ian Salero. RCC-winner at Gundog Society of Wales in 2008.
LOCHRANZA RED GAUNTLETS
I’d be pleased to receive any details you can supply to fill in the gaps on dates, breeders and owners, wins or the colour of parents – or to correct any mistakes! Please e-mail me at tricia@canigoucockers.com
Thanks – Tricia.
Photo Gallery
Kim Gain’s puppy Molkara Magician (Derek).
Hey!……………………………………What’s that?……………………………Oh, It’s a camera!
Thanks to Nathalie Scholl, owner of Jozelah Look at Me (Biggles), for these delightful pictures, above and below. Biggles was bred by Linda and John Robinson.
I know I left it here somewhere….. Got it!
Above and right – Sh Ch Canigou Secon Tan Rose (Rosa)
Sh Ch Canigou Rock Star (Rocky) and Sh Ch Canigou Secon Tan Rose (Rosa)
Kim Gain’s bitch Molkara Duette (a.k.a. Kacy)
Above – Rocky with friend Cath Edwards
Left – Rosa, pictured after winning the CC at
Peterborough in July 2011
Above – Rocky puts an arm around Poppet (Canigou Popsocks)
Rocky and Rosa playing in the snow on Christmas morning 2010.
Joan & Dave Crawford from the US sent us these charming pictures of their Am Ch Cardamine Piper’s Legacy:
Left – Piper winning his championship in Sioux Falls, South Dakota on 28th October 2006.
Right – A typical piece of B&T behaviour!
A bit of fun from Kate Romanski. This photo was taken by Kate in 1972 and you may have seen it before. The puppies were her own; the black Merrydown Mistique on the left and the B&T Merrydown Mix ‘N Match on the right. Predictably, it was the B&T which got squished and the book which fell on her, appropriately, was Judy de Casembroot’s ‘The Merry Cocker’.
Debbi Deane sent us these pictures of her American Champion Lynann’s It’s Hard 2 B Humble (Jake), including one of him finishing his American championship on 6th July 2011.
Here are some photos of Sh Ch Canigou Secon Tan
Rose’s litter to Molkara Magician, born 18.3.13:
Goldie
Kate
Cara
Jazz
Sox
Willie
Here’s a picture of Anita and Mario Sedzika’s Polish son by Sh Ch Canigou Rock Star. He’s also known as ‘Rocky’ (or should that be ‘Rockski’?) Whichever, he’s not letting the pressure get to him.
And finally – be honest – have you ever seen a black and tan poodle before? This one was snapped at the National Show in Dortmund in May 2012.
