field/springer/cocker

[fergie]

What are the main differences between the three breeds I know that the cocker is smaller but how does the field spaniel compeered to the springer size wise?

What are the three like to train is one easier than another? How do they all compeer stamina wise?

I know a lot of people that have spingers and cockers but no one that has field is it due to availability or are they just not used any more

[WGD]

As far as I am aware the Field Spaniel numbers in the UK are very low so they are difficult to get hold of.

[Lloyd90]

Many years ago Cockers and Springers would be found in the same litter, the smaller dogs picking to be cockers to flush woodcock and the larger ones springers to spring other game.

 

They have gone there seperate ways since abviously but both can be good working spaniels

 

From what I have read Field spaniels were developed to be a show dog and are also very rare, better off with one of the other 2 in my opinion.

For a novice I think a Springer would do the job well

[cracker]

From what I have read Field spaniels were developed to be a show dog...

 

Really? Don't know of any gundog, especially a spaniel, whose origins were for the showring. Can you give a source or sources for that "development?"

 

Obtaining a working fieldie is a Catch-22 to twist a tad what the original poster put forth - "due to availability ... they (are) just not used any more." Probably a couple dozen pups - tops - registered by the KC annually, similar numbers in the US.

 

May be a wee bit easier thereabouts finding a worker in this spaniel breed

 

 

but as with even the surefire spaniels as above, they don't train themselves - that's where you come in.

 

MG

Edited October 12, 2010 by cracker

[WGD]

Is that your Boykin cracker?

 

I knew you had one/some(?) of the less common spaniel breeds but couldn't recall whether you had a Field or not?

[cracker]

No, WGD - "had thereabouts" was meant to be the giveaway, as it's a Sussex. (Which is believed by many to have gone into the origins of the Boykin, along with the cocker and first and foremost, the Chessie.) Likewise there are good working Clumber breeders, even more than Sussex, but both have retained/regained their working instincts albeit in small numbers.

 

MG

[Lloyd90]

The Field Spaniel is a medium-sized breed dog of the spaniel type. They were originally developed to be all black show dogs in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and were unpopular for work as a hunting dog. However during the mid 20th century they were redeveloped as a longer legged dog that was more suitable to be used for field work. They are now considered to be a rare breed, and are registered as a Vulnerable Native Breed by The Kennel Club.

 

Their fur is lighter than other spaniels and have no undercoat. Their coats come mostly in solid colours with some occasional markings on the chest. They can make good family dogs and are patient with children, but can require some sort of purpose, be it hunting or agility work in order to prevent them from becoming bored and destructive.

 

 

Thats what I got on them Cracker As I said for a novice probally better off looking for a tidy springer

[Raja Clavata]

A guy that beats on my shoot syndicate in Essex breeds Field Spaniels. PM me for his details if you want them. Although he advocates cocker or springer as a gun dog...

[cracker]

Thanks, BigThug - never heard/read that, but do know the mists of time have not always proven accurate insofar as working spaniels are concerned. And as the account you quoted from also reads, "Like most sporting dogs, they are the result of different crosses ... The dog who is considered to be the father of the modern English Cocker Spaniel is Ch. Obo, who was born in 1879 to a Sussex Spaniel father and a Field Spaniel mother. Obo's son Ch. Obo II is considered to be the father of the modern American Cocker Spaniel who was described as being only ten inches high with quite a long body." In other words, cocking and springing and Sussex spaniels somehow begat the field spaniel. The Clumber later got into the mix of reviving the Sussex, which after the Second World War, was reportedly down to eight animals.

 

Also of the fieldie, it says elsewhere they were the first dog "bred specifically for exhibition," meaning show - but back then form followed function, unlike what you see today at the NEC, so if they were "showable" they also had to be workable. What I first heard of field spaniels in the States was that they were the ideal dog, if not the only dog able to find and retrieve weapons underwater (!) that had been discarded by criminals.

 

Agree also that one cannae go wrong with a springer if one's willing to train it. Cocker the same.

 

MG

[WGD]

Agree also that one cannae go wrong with a springer if one's willing to train it. Cocker the same.

 

Or any dog for that matter, some are easier than others and with any spaniel there is a possibility you'll end up

 

How's your wee spaniel Bigthug?

[Matty7247]

I always thought there were two types off springer, certainly if you type into google, they bring up the different sort. The 'Field' is a smaller, more energetic breed, built for the field, and the 'Show' types are much more heavily built. I only found this out once i bought a springer, and looked at the breeding?? Hope it helps.

 

Matt

[WGD]

I always thought there were two types off springer, certainly if you type into google, they bring up the different sort. The 'Field' is a smaller, more energetic breed, built for the field, and the 'Show' types are much more heavily built. I only found this out once i bought a springer, and looked at the breeding?? Hope it helps.

 

Matt

 

There are not two breeds of springer, well not English Springer Spaniel which is mostly referred to as the Springer. There are breeding lines bred for showing and breeding lines bred for working, or working in the field, which is where the confusion may have come from. Same thing with cockers, often referred to a show cockers and working cockers, they are the same breed but bred from different lines to emphasise different attributes. Over the years this results in two strains of the same breed looking very different.

 

The Field Spaniel is a breed in it's own right.

[Matty7247]

Yeah, WGD, that is correct, its a bit early for me...Its quite a show to see the pair nxt to each other, but i do agree, the Field Springer is a breed in its own right. :blink:

[Lloyd90]

Ai im sure you could get a good field spaniel Cracker mate All I was getting at was it would be alot easier for a novice to get and train a Springer for example

 

WGD the pup is an absoluet nutcase mate but a great laugh, Did nothing with her until the other day, shes just coming up 7 months. She hunts like a maniac through some pretty heavy cover I was surprised how much she got stuck in. Still very puppyish at the moment though and a little bit timid. Hopefully she will be a goodun

[WGD]

Good mate, pleased for you - have you got her retrieving? Get that into a spaniel before the hunting takes over. Best of luck

[Lloyd90]

Good mate, pleased for you - have you got her retrieving? Get that into a spaniel before the hunting takes over. Best of luck

 

She will retrieve very eagerly in the house. Often bringing shoes and other things upto me and letting go of them once I get them. Shes not that eager outside. Brings them back but likes to run behind or around me a little bit and is not so eager to release them Here she is out an about

 

 

[cracker]

Knew WGD would be seeing eye-to-eye on something spaniel - and he's hit it: Sight over scent when they're youngsters. Meaning the retrieving (marking) can and should be taught early as you've no need to teach them to use their noses (hunting) just then since they've begun putting them down the minute they're whelped. Once they get keen on retrieving, though, you're golden - any spaniel. This is what lights an ol' Sussex' fire every time

 

 

and the farmer's grateful for her dispatch work as well.

 

MG