A guest blog post by Fanfare Springers. 

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How did our breed, and our breed standard, come about, once dogs of spaniel type arrived in the British Isles?

Function

From the late 18^th century to the mid-19^th century there were, essentially, three sorts of spaniels.  There was the “land” spaniel, the “water” spaniel, and the “carpet spaniel.”  Land spaniels pursued game over land.  Water spaniels retrieved game from water.  Carpet spaniels were small foot-warmers that were tiny companions to peers and royalty, though they retained some hunting instincts and abilities.  Land spaniels were bi-or-tri-colored (though there are references to solid colors as well as solids with tan, cited as evidence of terrier crosses); water spaniels were either solid or bi-colored. 19^th century selection moved them toward the solid colors we know today.

Geography

Travel – whether over land or over water – was difficult and time consuming.  Therefore, varieties within breeds developed regionally.  The land spaniel on your English estate could look quite different from the land spaniel on my English estate.  For example, spaniels developed on the estate of the Duke of Norfolk were known as “Norfolk Spaniels.” Spaniels from Sussex were known as “Sussex Spaniels.”  Spaniels from the estate of the Earl of Clumber were known as Clumber Spaniels.  “Springer” and “Cocker” were terms that described the hunting functions of each.  “Field spaniel” was a generic term that described them all.

General Appearance: Size and Weight

A land spaniel descended from the dogs on the estate of the Duke of Norfolk could be either a springing spaniel or a cocking spaniel.  Size or weight determined who would be who, but because they came from the same litters, they were evaluated by the same “standards” and those standards were simply the traditions of hunting style and general appearance.

Coat Texture and Color

Anyone could manufacture a new variety of spaniel, simply by using existing knowledge about function and phenotype.  So it must have been a Welsh landowner who bred red and white “starters” (spaniel breeds who “started” hare for pursuit by hounds) to other red and white “starters” who was perhaps responsible for refining the Welsh Springer Spaniel into a distinctive breed type.  And somebody in Ireland appreciated the solid, water repellent coats of the spaniels of northern Europe, and the size of the pointing breeds, so the Irish Water Spaniel took shape.

This is why we have many spaniel varieties.  Throughout the 19^th century, there were far more spaniel varieties than we know today.  Some of them – like the French Spaniel – still survive in Europe today.  And new varieties are still appearing, like the Russian Spaniel, a cross between (English) Cocker and (English) Springer.

Breed standards find their roots in livestock evaluation, most particularly bloodstock horses.  At the time that spaniels were being selectively developed into the breeds that we know and recognize today, a few basic criteria determined who was who.  Interestingly, those criteria still comprise the cornerstones of English Springer Spaniel breed type.

The first known standard for English Springer Spaniels was crafted in the country of the breed’s origin, England, and some of its elements surely must be original.  Phrases such as “highest on leg and raciest of all British land spaniels,” and “movement strictly his own,” are very old, created to distinguish the English Springer from numerous land spaniels in the late 19^th century.  We’ll talk about some of these old phrases and what they mean in future articles.

As the land spaniels entered the 20^th century, the elements of type – another horse breeder term that refers to those characteristics that distinguish and define a single breed – included function, geographic reference, general appearance (size and weight), coat texture, and coat color.  Most breed scholars believe that the breed known as the English Springer Spaniel is derived from the Norfolk, an athletic and enthusiastic land spaniel of medium size with a straight or slightly wavy coat that was liver and white or black and white, or either of these colors with tan points perhaps derived from terrier crosses.  The written descriptions of the breed at that time, broadened later to include type elements yet to be set through selective breeding, comprised our first “breed standard.”