Pictured: Scout with two of her pups, Clark and Liberty
About Us
Cuardach Irish Water Spaniels is a small kennel supporting an ethical breeding program in Germantown, Maryland. The primary focus of our program is to breed healthy and sound Irish Water Spaniels with strong performance abilities to do it all. Health, temperament and working abilities are high priority. We strive to produce healthy and loving family companions with a sweet nature, a desire to please and high trainability and intelligence. Producing an "all-around" IWS, one that is beautiful and also has the structure, health, temperament, and trainability to exceed in obedience, hunting, agility and confirmation, is our aim. We make every effort to breed and raise our dogs naturally and to breed only healthy, sound Irish Water Spaniels.
My husband Jeff and I are committed to supporting our puppy buyers throughout the life of the dog. This is one of the reasons why we are infrequent breeders. Our philosophy is that it is not about the number of puppies produced each year but about the quality (health, temperament, trainability, working abilities) of the puppies produced. Great thought and careful consideration is given to each litter and to the parents of those litters.
Cuardach (pronounced KOO-uhr-dahk) is Irish Gaelic for search or journey. Sharing our lives with Irish Water Spaniels is a journey as we search to understand, train and love this wonderful breed. Also, both Drake and Scout registered names have an explorer theme so it was appropriate for our kennel name to continue with it.
I got into Irish Water Spaniels after having Great Danes for several years. I was fortunate enough to meet some great people with Irish Water Spaniels and I just fell in love with the breed. I attended two national specialties before I got my first IWS and these events reinforced my decision to get an Irish Water Spaniel. I wanted a dog with drive, trainability, good health and temperament and a longer life span than the Great Dane. I had trained obedience for many years but I also wanted to try other events. My Irish Water Spaniels compete in agility, obedience, rally obedience, hunt tests and confirmation. Most importantly, they are my companions.
Here is Scout (closest to me), Seeker (next to Scout), and Clark (on the back of the sofa). Who says they aren't lap dogs?
Here is Glider and Scout snuggling with Steph on Christmas day 2008