I wonder if Clumber spaniels might have a bit of old herding bulldog in their ancestry.
Tradition says these dogs came from France and were owned by a noble who sent them to the Duke of Newcastle in order to save them from the Revolution.
I’ve never heard of such dogs in France. In fact, I don’t know of a single flushing spaniel breed from France. All of the epagneuls point.
I wonder we could create a spaniel like this by crossing the red and white spaniel that is endemic to Britain with the biddable herding bulldog that was once relatively common in the English countryside.
I have no evidence, but my historical imagination is ruminating.
Aw, they have pretty tails!
That’s another thing:
Spaniels don’t have extremely long tails, but the old bulldog had a very long tail, which was usually docked.
Boxers inherited this long tail from both the Bullenbeisser dogs and the English bulldog. My golden boxer had an extensive tail.
oh bootiful. i met a sussex spaniel recently first one ive ever seen with a tail. they do look lovely left natural but then im tail biased and definatly spaniel biased.
tracey
I think these dogs would be much more popular if they had tails. They have temperaments that most people want in a family dog.
But when they are docked, they look a little strange.
BTW, Clumbers are one of the few “docked breeds” that can be shown with a natural tail in AKC conformation shows.
I think Welsh springers are sometimes shown undocked here, because the standard just says “generally docked.”
http://www.statesmanwss.com/PuppyInfo.asp
Clumbers were made to be old huntsmen’s hunting dogs. How to change an eager, active hound to a bit slower – that you can follow that dog easily by foot?
One method is to cross it with a short-legged, but still good-nosed dog.
The other is to cross it with a heavy-boned mastiff-type, of some cold-blooded temper.
It’s known that the British huntsmen in the 1700s thought the Spanish Pointer was too slow for their purposes. That’s why they crossed greyhound and foxhound.
I ment to say that “That’s why they crossed IT WITH THE greyhound and foxhound”.
My English Cocker is undocked. His tail isn’t very long, but the feathering makes it appear so. I hate how show type Cockers are docked. Much too short! I much prefer the docked tails of working Cockers or an intact tail.
By the way, my spaniel exhibited natural pointing behavior as a young pup and still does so on occasion. We first thought there was something wrong with him when he’d freeze and stare at his toys for minutes on end until we realized he was exhibiting the same behavior as our friend’s field bred Irish Setter.
my english cocker peggy does that, sometimes she even holds her paw up whilst staring intently at the ball she can quite get.
Today’s spaniels come from the ancient setting spaniels. Tho’ their standing ability has been well bred off since (except the French spaniel breeds), it is nice to hear that some still do.
dam it did it again. should be can’t get. sorry everyone.