The chief of the spaniels are the setters, but as they no longer claim connection at one end of the group, and as the King Charles and Blenheim spaniels are no longer granted the status of gun-dogs at the other extremity of it, the number of breeds is limited in fact, but unduly enlarged by Stud Book classification.

The only sporting breeds in reality, although there are more nominally, are the Irish water spaniel, used as a retriever, the English water spaniel, or half-breds of that almost extinct race, of which the curly retriever is a survival, but with a cross; the clumber, the English springer, the Welsh springer, and the cocker. Field and Sussex spaniels seem to have gone off in work, although they are said to have come on in appearance. There was an outcry that the show field spaniels were bred out of true proportion, and there were reports of the same dogs being observed in two different parishes at the same time. The drain-pipe order of body is not quite as exaggerated as it was before the reformation that occurred about 1898, but the black field spaniels and the Sussex dogs of the shows even now tend to a Dachshund formation. Still, the former are as handsome as dogs can be, and are in every sense spaniels to look at, although mostly too long and heavy for work, and suggesting hound cross by the high angle at which they carry their sterns. The truest bred spaniels when at work carry the stern at an angle of about 45 degrees with the earth, pointing downwards, and not much higher in kennel; but the majority of show spaniels carry the stern above the level of the back, and consequently suggest hound blood. Besides this fault, they have others from the shooter’s point of view. Their ears are too long, and they could not work in the feather they constantly carry. It is strange that the form of these spaniels should have been so grotesquely altered by selection for exhibition, and yet the old formations of clumbers, springers, and cockers have remained very much what they always have been. This is the more surprising, having regard to the fact that Sussex, black field, and cocker spaniels are now much of the same blood. The real cockers, which were at one time called King Charles spaniels, have become lap-dogs, and the smaller specimens of the other races have taken their places. And yet some cockers are distinctly the right shape and not too long, whereas the other exhibition races, named above as too long, are less workmen than the cockers although so much bigger.

The black field spaniels appeal to me as dogs. The refinement of their heads and the beauty of their coats go nearer to a success by man in producing a working race by mental design and physical measurement than specimens of any other show dogs, whereas the short heads of the modern Sussex spaniel look to contain no sense, and the work seen at field trials must have been very disappointing to the owners of both kinds. It has been a puzzle to the author how men who use the gun at all can be satisfied with such work. However, people will often sacrifice sport for a hobby.

At a period when science assents to the possibility, although not the probability, of raising up a pure breed in spite of the introduction of a cross of blood, and when the Irish wolfhound has been created out of crosses with the German boarhound and the Scotch deerhound, it is not wonderful that a faint trace of Sussex spaniel blood in a pedigree is considered enough to warrant inclusion under that heading in the Stud Book. But really it is not known what the original Sussex spaniels were like. It does not follow that because all that is known is gathered from Rosehill, that the dogs there were of the old Sussex strain, or that the information given about them was reliable.

It is not of much importance to sportsmen in any case, except that it has a bearing on the whole ancestry of the spaniel. So far as the author knows, whole-coloured liver, according to the records, is not a spaniel colour at all. On the other hand, whole colours were very much appreciated as long ago as 1776, but we do not hear of any except black-and-tan and red dogs—that is, of the colour of a “bright chestnut horse.” This colour is still to be seen in America, where it is the most common in work, but the author has only heard of it, and never seen it in England.

It is only natural to suppose that if spaniels and setters were originally the same dog they were also of the same colour, and we hear of no ancient whole liver-coloured race of either sort. There is little doubt that the latter is a modern creation, and the colour is easily produced. If a liver-and-white dog of any breed is crossed with a whole-coloured one of any sort or colour, some of the produce will generally come whole liver-coloured. Therefore, may we not assume that the first liver-coloured setters and spaniels were produced by crossing the black-and-tans or the reds of either breed with the liver-and-white water spaniels? The author has previously stated his belief that colour is greatly indicative of blood. A few years ago there was a race of liver-and-white setters in the North of England, all of which had a top-knot formed of hair longer than the rest, and in one specimen the author noticed a peculiarity distinct from anything noticed in other breeds. It was a ticked liver-and-white in colour, and wherever the hair was of that shade it was also distinctly longer than the white in which it was set, so that the appearance was that of a lot of little tassels.

Spaniels that are liver-and-white colour will generally be found to carry more feather on their ears than any others in the same litters, and many of them have curly feather there, when their differently marked brothers and sisters have straight hair to the ear tips. If it is true, therefore, that colour and hair is indicative of blood, we have to believe in either the pointer or the water spaniel cross wherever liver colour is found in setters or spaniels, although the cross may be several centuries old. Perhaps the best working breed of spaniels now is that liver-and-white race that has been for 100 years in the family of the late Sir Thomas Boughey, once Master of the Albrighton hounds. But more evidence is to be found that the Sussex spaniels were not originally liver-coloured. This is the fact that to the present time those with any Rosehill blood occasionally produce what is called a sandy puppy, which is practically the colour original to the Irish setter, the spaniel as described by the Suffolk Sportsman in 1776, and the spaniel as now found in America.

From the shooter’s standpoint the source of origin does not matter much. But what matters is how the various present-day races or crosses can work.

Since the establishment of field trials for spaniels, every sort has been seen in public work, and their positions have been as clearly defined as any sportsman wanting information could desire. At first a clumber called Beechgrove Bee distanced all competitors. She was light-made for her race, and had a narrow head and rather pointed nose.

Next to her to assume command was Mr. Gardner’s Tring, a liver-and-white springer; and about the same time a curly dog called Lucky Shot did very well, but was rather short of nose. He has since been called an English water spaniel, but it is doubtful whether he was less of a springer, or Norfolk spaniel, than Tring, except by reversion a little more to the curly ancestors of both. But all these dogs were thrown into the shade by Mr. Eversfield’s black dog with a white chest, named Nimrod, which carried all before him at the 1904 trials, and would probably have done the same again in 1905 had it not been for the presence of a liver-and-white dog of Sir Thomas Boughey’s breeding, also belonging to Mr. Eversfield. The spaniels above named have stood out from all competitors at the time of their prime, and none others have done so. Their type of formation has all been the same except in the case of the clumber. That is, they have been neither long nor low, but short-backed and active, with legs at least as long as the dogs were deep through the heart. Although one of them was a black in colour, he was most removed from the dog-show black field spaniels and all of them, and may safely be called by the re-created term “springer.”

But meantime there have been other good although not remarkable dogs at the field trials. Mr. Eversfield has had many, Mr. Alexander has always been hard to beat, Mr. Phillips has had some excellent clumbers, as also has Mr. Winton Smith, besides Beechgrove Bee already spoken of, and Mr. B. J. Warwick has had good dogs. Mr. A. T. Williams, of Neath, has had good teams of red-and-white springers, which have, as far as the shows are concerned, monopolised the classes for this one colour. It is said to have been bred true to this red-and-white mixture for many years in a few families in South Wales. At the same time, there were other families in South Wales which bred spaniels of many colours for the woodcocks and the very stiff coverts of the South-West corner, or Little England beyond Wales, as it was called. Thirty-five years ago the author shot over black-and-white, liver-and-white, and red-and-white dogs, all from the same litters, and these were the most determined hunters and the quickest stayers then known. But as the author knows of none now representative of them except the red-and-white Welsh springers, these may be taken for the type, and they are undoubted hard workers and quite careless of bramble and gorse.

Retrieving spaniels have been very highly spoken of by as practical big bag-makers as the late Sir Fred Milbank, who used them for grouse driving. All the breeds above named retrieve well except the Welsh springers, none of which have been broken with that intention, so far as is known to the author. Mr. Williams only works spaniels in coverts and in teams, and believes that a retriever proper is the best for his own work.

It is not possible to have several spaniels seeking dead at one time unless they are all within sight; but there is no fear of tearing the game when the dogs can be seen, as they can be upon a moor, or in open cover, or in fields.

The difference of opinion between sportsmen as to which are the better dogs for retrieving probably arises because of mental reservations of those who express opinions. The advocates of spaniels are probably speaking of a team, and those who sing the praises of retrievers are thinking of one retriever against one spaniel. Except upon the line of a runner, a single retriever is usually much better than a single spaniel on any ground, and although the spaniel is quicker on the actual line of the runner, he usually takes much longer than the retriever to find the fall of the bird or the place to start from. Altogether, the retriever is preferable, unless a team of retrieving spaniels can be worked at the same time, and even then several retrievers will probably be as satisfactory, except that they take up more room in traps and motor cars.

The best spaniel for all-round purposes is the English springer; he is active, stays well, and can retrieve well. The clumber cannot be coupled with him, because he is not supposed to stay, and moreover he is as big as a retriever to get about country, and without being nearly as active. In the New Forest, where shooters are limited to a fixed number of dogs, nobody will look at a clumber; so that for heavy work a change of team, or dog, at lunch-time would probably be needed were clumbers relied upon. No such charge can be brought against either English or Welsh springers, but the cockers are only one remove better than toys, the field black spaniels, and the Sussex breeds.

Irish water spaniels have been mostly kept and altered for show, and the few that the author has seen at work of late years have been extremely moderate performers.

The Breaking of the Spaniel

The spaniel should be broken early. Eight months old is quite late enough to enter on game if good breaking is required, and all hand breaking should precede this entry, and should follow the lines proper both for retrievers and pointers as far as they apply to individual requirements.

If one has to allow dogs to “run in” and chase game, to get up their keenness for hunting, it is a misfortune, and the task of breaking will become all the harder. In a good breed this encouragement will not be required. It is always hard to create opposites simultaneously, and to make a dog both bold and obedient.

The principal requirement in the hunting spaniel is nose, quickness, never going out of gun-shot, instant obedience, and bustling up game in a hurry without chasing it when it is up, dropping to shot, and retrieving dead and wounded game when told. It is a large order, and yet dogs that can do it all often make no more than £15 at auction, and sometimes less.

It is obvious that a well-bred spaniel will start hunting as soon as he is introduced to the smell of game, then his range must be taught either by using a line or by voice and whistle. In thick covert the former is not possible. The principal difficulty is to stop the puppy as soon as he has moved his game. Again, either voice or cord can be made to do the business, but probably a little of both will bring about the required education sooner than either by itself. The system should be to prevent the chase, not to punish for that which is instinctive in the pupil. Consequently, the quick obedience to voice spoken of as necessary for setters and pointers, becomes doubly so for spaniels, and they really ought to tumble over to voice or gun as if the latter had done it. But this instinctive obedience cannot be taught during entry upon game, and consequently until it is perfected the puppy is not fit to enter.

It is much more of a strain on the instinct of the spaniel to stop him when he is bustling up game than it is to stop the setter when game rises or runs away from his point. In one case restraint follows upon restraint, in the other it follows excitement let loose.

Retrieving should be taught the same way as for a retriever proper, and if it precedes the work of entering upon the finding of live game, the latter will be all the easier for the breaker.

Wild spaniels in very thick cover are of more use than a highly broken team. Where the covert is so thick that a worker of spaniels cannot get into the thick parts, his highly broken dogs will not go there either, because they have learnt to keep near to him. In this case, four or six couples of wild spaniels to hunt up wild pheasants, woodcock, and rabbits, make beautiful sport, but they usually need several whippers-in to keep them somewhere in the neighbourhood of the shooters.

A friend of the author’s was once expatiating on the improved methods of pheasant shooting, and explaining that the last generation knew nothing of the charms and the art of killing driven birds, when, at that moment, wild spaniels on the hill above us flushed four cock pheasants, they came at us swerving through the trees down hill at a cannon-ball pace, and four shots did not touch a feather. Yet this was the old style of pheasant shooting—at least in that district, and it was on record there that the last generation were first-rate performers in covert and out. Amongst other birds they killed flighting duck and sometimes flighting teal also at night, all of which, including the down-hill rocketers from the spaniels on the hillside, are out of all proportion harder to kill than the best birds that ever flew across the open and flat ground from one covert to another, however the latter have “sailed” and “curved” in their flights.

By mutual consent, after missing the cocks, we changed the subject of conversation.

It has been said that field trials have brought some good dogs to the front, and enabled those who go to trials to judge for themselves of the merits of individuals and of races; but they have also done injury in one direction. There may be differences of opinion amongst sportsmen on how spaniels should be judged at field trials, but there can be no question that the use of field trials as a mere show dog advertisement is misleading and objectionable. As these remarks are written, there is an advertisement of spaniels appearing in which it is stated that the owner’s breed has won “800 field trial and show prizes.” What the author knows of the breed is that upon one occasion they won a prize at a field trial,—a prize that was ear-marked for the breed,—and won it because competition was weak and limited. That they have won 799 show prizes is not denied. But if this is the way to advertise show dogs, then the sooner field trials are dropped the better in the true interests of sport. In this direction lies the danger to sporting interests; and little differences about means and methods of judging are of comparatively no importance. A variety of judges have acted under a large variety of rules, and to the credit of the former, and in spite of the latter, the best dogs have nearly, or quite always, got the stakes. But there is also a tendency amongst judges to give the smaller prizes and certificates of merit because a dog has done no harm, although he may not have done any good.

If it is correct to absolutely disqualify a dog for ranging beyond gun-shot and for chasing game (and it must be so in the interests of sport), then, on the ground that every dog can be broken but not a tenth of them are worth breaking, it is also essential to disqualify a dog that cannot find game.

It is because the latter has not always been done that these remarks are necessary. The quantity of game left behind unfound by the dogs that have won minor prizes has surprised not only the author, but others also who have come to visit these trials once, and no more. On the other hand, the best winners have always been the best finders that passed the not very severe breaking standard, as indicated above, and that is obviously right.