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All Dog Breeds >>History of Field Spaniel

The Field Spaniel was originally developed for the show ring by competitors who were attempting to develop an all black Spaniel,although some of the breeding methods of the early developers were criticised. One of the first breeders of the Field Spaniel, Thomas Jacobs, said of the origin; "Much has been written and said on the purity of the breed; deprecating the means I have adopted to produce them as calculated to alter a presumed type, and frequent missiles have at me and my dogs from behind the hedge.

But where is the pure bred black spaniel we hear so much about? Proof of the existence of the pure bred one (if there ever was one!) has not been forthcoming. Like most sporting dogs, they are the result of different crosses." They were unpopular with sportsmen as the dark colours of the breed did not show up in hunting conditions, and the elongated and short shape of the early breed was not very practical for moving easily through cover.

The low slung variety of Field Spaniel were developed by Phineas Bullock from dogs previously owned by Sir Francis Burdett, the secretary of the Birmingham Dog Show. Burdett was said to have owned a variety of black Cocker Spaniels. Bullock crossed the Field Spaniel with the Sussex Spaniel and the English Water Spaniel. In the 1870s he was very successful in the show ring with his variety of Field Spaniel, however it resulted in a dog that was almost exactly like a Sussex Spaniel with the exception of the head itself.

The dog who is considered to be the father of the modern English Cocker Spaniel is Ch. Obo, who was born in 1879 to a Sussex Spaniel father and a Field Spaniel mother. Obo's son Ch. Obo II is considered to be the father of the modern American Cocker Spaniel who was described as being only ten inches high with quite a long body.