It is very unusual for a rare breed to develop distinct working and show forms.
However, the Clumber spaniel is splitting into show and working forms, just as the English springers and cockers have.
The working form of Clumber has longer legs and less bone than the show form. It is still a slower dog than the others. However, it’s not the St. Bernard of spaniels that the show form is. If you want soft-flushing dog that doesn’t move very fast, go with one of these.
Check out these galleries and this website.
Why are these dogs so different from the show dogs?
Well, they started breeding the dogs for working ability, and the dogs changed. Form follows function.
The tootsie roll spaniel, the breed most often compared to the Clumber, has not experienced any significant breeding for working ability in the past half century. Virtually every person who has one of these dogs is breeding it for the show ring with working ability being incidental (and virtually every person who has one is trolling this blog.) I’m sure someone can find a Sussex that works. That’s not the point. This breed is on the verge of extinction because it was part of the nineteenth century fad of breeding short-legged spaniels.
Form follows function is the Frank Lloyd Wright approach to intelligent design. Very good parallel to use when talking about what should go into a working breed. Lets face it dogs as we know them didn’t just happen. They were a design made by man, and clearly each breed is an expression of their function. Or at least it used to be. Thats where we need to be.
Very interesting post. My first springer spaniel was show-bred and the springer I have now is field-bred. While the latter definitely built differently and has a peppier temperament, I also have noticed the same gaming/hunting instinct in both types. The show-bred springer loved to point and stalk rabbits, as well as jump in to mucky ponds. The field-bred dog also exhibits this behavior. Perhaps show-bred dogs are becoming more docile and are starting to look different, but the original instinct is still there.
In English springers, the show-bred dogs often have working instincts. Clumbers, well, it’s hit or miss with the show dogs. And their drive, even if they have it, is very different from a springer’s. They are called “soft-flushers” and are useful in some situations that a springer wouldn’t be. Further, they are really good if you want a slower paced bird shoot.
I really appreciate your blog. Oddly enough, I found out about it from an English Shepherd owner.
I’ve thought about owning a Sussex at some point, but I sure don’t want a show-type dog. Guess that’s out of the question now, unfortunately. Maybe I’ll find a field-type Clumber instead, before they all disappear.
I would like to have the acreage and ability some day to experience every breed of what we used to call ‘bird dawg’ in the South. English Pointers & Setters, GSPs, Brittanies, red Goldens, FCRs, Springers, Boykins, you name it. I guess I need to learn to shoot birds or find someone in Vermont willing to hunt with something other than a Lab.
I’m looking forward to your continuing comments on the history and bench vs. field typology of dogs. I hope you cover the ES, the EP, the Brittany and the Boykin before you end up getting a Large Munsterlander. BTW, I’ve only seen one AKC dog show, and boy, am I sick of all those hairdo dogs. At least the show Goldens still said “Love me, love me, pet me, and bounced around!”
Clumbers in the US have not split into two strains, fortunately. Our showdogs hunt. Our hunting dogs show. We like it this way and the best breeders are working hard to preserve the breed as one capable of the work they were originally bred for.
You’re actually better off if they do split, because the show variety has terrible working conformation.
It’s the same reason why a show-variety golden, especially from European show lines, is much handicapped in the field. What would be better is an adjustment of breed standards to allow for an efficient, methodical, slow flusher. There has to be a demand for a dog like that. The Clumber also has a far better nose than the other spaniels. It’s just the work of a working spaniel changes the conformation of even these slower breeds. The Clumber has enough dogs to evolve this way; the Sussex, well, it is probably going to be a novelty or museum dog. There just aren’t enough of them to breed specifically work.
The Clumber’s main use is where you have very gun smart pheasants that won’t flush unless you have a dog that will work ever square inch of the undergrowth until the bird flies. That’s really where they should be promoted. They are not as fast as a cocker or springer, even if you lighten their bone up a bit and lengthen the legs. There could be a renaissance of the Clumber as a working dog, provided people understand that it’s not a springer.
Um … I’m assuming you’re referring to Sussex Spaniels in the USA here. I can’t think of any Sussex breeders in the UK that don’t work their dogs. Over here the breed is pretty much dual-purpose.
The breed barely exists to be working purpose. I get the Clumber– it’s a slow driver and methodical. It’s the anti-springer. I don’t get the dachshund legged dogs. They seem to me a museum piece from a time when all virtually spaniels had very short legs. A nice artifact.
I think the Sussex was ruined from its original form, which can be found in George Stubbs’s portraits.
And that’s all I want to say about the matter.
I think the Sussex is basically on life support and lore right now, like the Skye terrier, another breed of yore ruined by the fancy.
If you want a slow-driving spaniel, go with the working Clumber. Do not go with the Sussex. The Sussex is a dead end. It’s like using the Newfoundland as a gundog or a modern bulldog as a catch dog.
The Sussex is an artifact. It’s a curiosity. Shortlegs are not functional on any gundog that used after birds. Birds fly, so you need a dog that has an ability to cover ground well, even if it’s at the speed of a Clumber. A short-legged dog is always going to be handicapped.
Now, short legs work on scenthounds that are sent after rabbits, because you want rabbits run slowly. If rabbits flew, then they’d be handicapped.
I haven’t found time to do this myself, but in a perfect world everyone who owns a field bred version of dog whose breed has split would hose their dog off, and enter them in a local dog show.
It would be good for the breeders and owners of the show dogs to be presented with a dog that actually does the work that it was bred to do.
Whe the Judges are explaining to you why your dog placed dead last, remind her that your dog retrieved 45 ducks out of the Chesapeake bay last winter, or placed in a herding trial, or won $15k in an underground pit match in a warehouse in Tokyo, or whatever. She’ll probably write you off as a gadfly, but you might give some breeders and judges a lot to think about regarding “conformation” on the ride home.