Nancy & Lisa Ray of Cal-Ore Cockers in Brooks Oregon with the help of Annette Hagglund of Roadmaster Kennels in Sweden, is proud to give the following website as a Tribute to Mr. & Mrs. Hardy of Hob-Nob-Hill Cockers. We salute all the hard work and dedication you and your late husband have given to the Cocker Fancy. Both to the dogs overall conformation and their health you have given a great Legacy to the Cocker Spaniel breed as a whole. We are proud to have the honor of carrying on your great tradition with a new litter of 7 pups sired by Gunner, one of the last sons of your last black/tan boy, Ch. Hob-Nob-Hill Son Of A Gun.

My Mom has long admired the Hob-Nob-Hill Cockers, from their long time ago Top Producing black champion father/son duo, Ch. Hob-Nob-Hill Hob Nobber and his son Ch. Hob-Nob-Hill Tribute. Both of these dogs can be found in our foundation dogs pedigrees. This breeding of Gunner & Daphne now culminates all of the Hob-Nob-Hill breeding program, from it's inception to their very last dog, into our breeding program.

Mom & I have wanted to breed one of our girls to a number of the Hob-Nob-Hill stud dogs over the years but for one reason or another things just never seemed to work out at the time we had talked about doing a breeding. In late 2000 we contacted Mrs. Hardy about doing a breeding to her old black/tan male Ch. Hob-Nob-Hill Son Of A Gun, aka Sonny, to one of our 2 black bitch littermate sisters. At the time we hadn't decided which one to breed to Sonny so had decided whichever one came into season first we would send her off to be bred to Sonny. For over a year we waited for one of these girls to finally come into season.

When the time finally came in April 2001, we contacted Mrs. Hardy to let her know when Lila would be arriving to be bred to Sonny, when our hopes and dreams for the future litter we had been planning for a year where crushed. Mrs. Hardy could no longer go to the airport to pick Lila up, due to her age, after all she is now in her 80s, and to her ill health at that time. We all have to remember that she and her late husband have been breeding/showing Am. Cockers since the 1940s. She did tell us though that one of Sonny's last litter's was born in May of 2000, bred to a pretty black bitch she called Natalie, who she let sleep on the end of her bed while there to be bred to Sonny.:) We later found out that Melinda Hart of Hartline Cockers was the owner of Natalie and she happened to have a black son of Sonny/Natalie she called Gunner, Am & Can Ch. Hartline's Final Edition. 

Now of course we had to wait for Gunner to grow up. Melinda showed him to both his American & Canadian Championships in the time in between. Fast forward to September of 2004, Gunner was finally old enough to breed. Our other black girl Daphne was in season and finally the time was right for us to acquire the long ago hoped for breeding of the Hob-Nob-Hill bloodlines, although now we had to go in thru the backdoor so to speak with one of the last sons Sonny had produced.:) 

We are very happy to announce that on November 4, 2004, Gunner & Daphne surprised us with a litter of 7 PUPS!! The biggest litter we have had in some time. We are blessed with 2 black males, 2 black bitches, 2 buff boys who are possibly silver buff, and one buff bitch. What a nice litter to choose from for our future breeding program. The pups will be 8 weeks the first week of Jan. 2005. The nearly 5 year wait has been worth it if the pups continue to mature and look as nice as they are now at this young age. The future looks bright for them.