““He is my most sincere admirer, he loves me though he has never read my work””
Is there anyone who hasn't been touched by the famous and so particular gaze of a Cocker Spaniel? The English poet and novelist Rudyard Kipling once said of his own cocker. “He is my most sincere admirer, he loves me though he has never read my work”. The Cocker Spaniels faithfulness and gentleness are legendary.
The History of the Cocker Spaniels, are dogs that have been used on the hunt for centuries. It's not at all easy to trace the precise genealogy of the Spaniel as they have been used for hunting purposes since time immemorial. However one of the oldest texts on these dogs, Le Livre de chasse (The Book of Hunting), written in 1387 by Gaston Phoebus, the Count of Foix, states that the Spaniel was trained to find and retrieve game when hawking.
The word Spaniel is derived from the old French espaignir, meaning “to lie down”, which is exactly what these dogs were trained to do, so as not to disturb the hunters while they tried to throw their net over birds they coveted.
In 1570 John Caius wrote a book in Latin entitled De Canibus Britannicis (Of English Dogs), in which he attempted for the first time to classify all the dogs in England at that point. He made a distinction for instance between water spaniels and land spaniels.
The classification of the land spaniels was refined much later. An 1803 article in Sportsman's Cabinet made a distinction between springing spaniels and cocking spaniels, the latter of which were smaller and better suited to hunting the woodcock. At this time the Cocker was already being distinguished from other spaniels. Some writers were convinced the Cocker was descended from the Toy Spaniel or Blenheim, which came from the kennels of the dukes of Marlborough. Around 1800 the Blenheim was much larger than its modern descendants. It was a sort of link between working spaniels and companion spaniels. Another theory according spaniels with Spanish roots continues to attract supporters, but it would appear less likely. Until the end of the eighteenth century, land spaniel breeding was very heterogeneous in Britain; everyone selected their animals based on the particular demands of the hunt they practiced. There would however be attempts to rationalize the classification of dogs based on morphology and bearing.
Cocker Spaniels as we know them today started in 1879, when the dog Obo was born at James Farrow's kennels in Britain. Its quality was such that it won all the British shows it entered in 1880.
A Cocker category was added to shows in 1883, but the Cocker Spaniel was not officially recognized in the English Kennel Club's Stud Book until 1893. The Spaniel Club was founded in England in 1898.
The first cocking spaniels arrived in the US in the first half of the nineteenth century. Founded in 1881, the American Spaniel Club (ASC) set itself the task of establishing the distinction between springing spaniels and cocking spaniels. The two standards were published a few months after the club's founding. The only difference was the Cocker had to weigh 8 - 12.5 kg and the springer 12.5 - 20 kg.
The American Kennel Club started to register Cocker Spaniels and other Spaniels separately in 1907. The breed was very well received and the population spread across the country very fast in the 1930's. It was actually the most popular dog for many years. This was a time that saw an evolution in the dog's morphology. Breeders selected smaller subjects with long flowing coats and a shorter septum, converging with respect to the cranial line. This was the generation of an American Cocker Spaniel, distinct from the English Cocker.
This led to the founding of the English Cocker Spaniel Club of America in 1935 to promote the original breed and discourage crossings between the two varieties. In 1945 the AKC finally recognized the American Cocker and the English Cocker as two separate breeds, as apposed to two varieties. Two years later the American Cocker alone accounted for 30% of the canine population in the United States. The non-qualified term Cocker Spaniel is used for the American breed in the US, but in the wider world when people speak of a Cocker Spaniel they generally mean the English breed.
Cocker Spaniels from the the tips of their toes.....to the tips of their nose
Appearance: harmonious and compact; the distance from the withers to the root of the tail must be approximately the same as the distance between the withers to the ground; the dog has a great deal of impetus in motion, covering a lot of ground.
Characteristics: merry nature with ever-wagging tail, exuberant but at the same time affectionate and gentle.
Its sense of smell is highly sophisticated and it's recognized as a good game and bird hunter in rough terrain. It's not afraid of thorns and brambles. It signals when game moves after it stops. It is able to retrieve but finds it difficult to swim with game in its mouth.
Size and Weight: the male measures 15.5 - 16 inches, the female 15 - 15.5 inches. Weights approximately 12 - 14.5 kg.
Head: skull cleanly chiselled and well developed; distinct stop; square muzzle and strong jaws, wide nose with scissor bite (see dental evaluation).
Eyes: brown or dark brown, never light, however in the case of the chocolate or chocolate roan (liver) dark hazel to harmonize with the coat. Always with tight rims.
Ears: set low, level with the eyes, lobular; the leathers are fine and may extend to the tip of the nose, abundantly clothed with with long silky hair (see ear hygiene).
Neck: moderate length, muscular, clean throat.
Body: strong and compact; well developed chest; well sprung ribs; short, wide loin; wide, muscular croup; the upper line slopes gently to the tail. Finely sloping shoulders; straight, short limbs with good bone.
Feet: tight and firm, thick cat-like pads.
Tail: set slightly lower than the line of the back; carried horizontally and never cocked up. No longer docked. Lively in action which denotes the characteristics of the cocker in action.
Movement: good drive covering the ground well.
Coat: flat and silky, never wiry or wavy not too abundant and never curly; forelimbs, body and hindquarters above the hocks are well feathered.
Colours: various; no white permitted on solid colours apart from the chest.