In 1801, Sydenham Edwards wrote in Cynographia Britannica that the "Land Spaniel" is divided into two types; the hawking, springing or springer and the cocking or cocker spaniel. The term "cocker" came from the dog's use in hunting Woodcock, a game bird from Wales and South West England. During the 19th century the term "cocker spaniel" was used to describe a type of small Field Spaniel, which at the time was also a general term to describe a number of different spaniel hunting breeds including the Norfolk Spaniel, Sussex Spaniel and Clumber Spaniel. While there were no Sussex Cockers or Clumber Cockers, there were dogs known as Welsh Cockers and Devonshire Cockers. The Welsh or Devonshire were considered Cockers until 1903 when they were recognized by The Kennel Club as the Welsh Springer Spaniel.
Prior to the 1870s, the only requirement for a dog to be classed as a Cocker Spaniel was that it needed to weigh less than 25 pounds (11 kg), although breeders separated the Cocker from the King Charles Spaniel which remains a smaller breed of spaniel. The maximum weight limit on the Cocker Spaniel would remain until 1901. The colors of the Devonshire and Welsh Cockers were described by John Henry Walsh under the pseudonym Stonehenge in his book The Dog in Health and Disease as being deeper a shade of liver than that of the Sussex Spaniel. Following the formation of The Kennel Club in the UK in 1873, efforts were made by breeders to record the pedigrees of Cockers and Springers. In 1892, English Cocker Spaniels and English Springer Spaniels were recognized as separate breeds by The Kennel Club.
There are two dogs which are thought to be the foundation sires of both modern breeds of Cocker Spaniels. Ch. Obo is considered to be the father of the modern English Cocker Spaniel, while his son, Ch. Obo II is considered to be the progenitor of the American Cocker Spaniel. Obo was born in 1879, at which point registration as a Cocker was still only by size and not by ancestry. He was the son of a Sussex Spaniel and a Field Spaniel. Although Obo was an English dog, Obo II was born on American shores – his mother, Ch. Pitchers Chloe II, was shipped to the United States while pregnant. Even during his lifetime, it was stated that Obo II was the sire or grandsire of nearly every prize winning Cocker in America.
Modern Breeds
There are two modern breeds of Cocker Spaniel, the English Cocker Spaniel and the American Cocker Spaniel. They were bred as gun dogs; to use their sense of smell to cover low areas near the handler in order to flush birds into the air to be shot, and to use their eyes and nose to locate the bird once downed, and then to retrieve the bird with a soft mouth. The major differences between the English and American varieties is that the American is smaller with a shorter back plus a domed head and a shorter muzzle, while the English variety is taller with a narrower head and chest.
Cocker Spaniels coats can come in a variety of colors including black, liver, red and lemon in solids. There are also black and tan, and sometimes liver and tan as well as a variety of color mixtures of those solid colors including roans, roan and tans, tricolors and those solid colors with additional white markings. Some colors are genetically possible such as a lemon tricolor, and an orange shade also exists, but is considered to be red when appearing in a solid colored dog.
Rare colors can appear unexpectedly in certain lines, for instance while an all-white Cocker is usually bred by selective breeding of very light golden strains, they can still appear very uncommonly to parents who are dark colored. A noted occurrence of this happened in 1943, when a grandson of My Own Brucie was born all-white. My Own Brucie had won the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in 1940 and 1941.
English Cocker Spaniel
Called simply Cocker Spaniel in the UK, this is the breed that was originally recognized by The Kennel Club in 1892. The American Kennel Club recognized the English Cocker Spaniel as a separate breed in 1946.
The size of the English Cocker Spaniel according to The Kennel Club is 15.5–16 inches (39–41 cm) at the withers for males, and 15–15.5 inches (38–39 cm) for females. The weight of a show dog should be 28–32 pounds (13–15 kg).
The English Cocker Spaniel is the most successful breed at the most popular dog show in the UK, Crufts, with seven best-in-show wins since the prize was first awarded in 1928. This was mostly due to the success of dog breeder H.S. Lloyd's Ware Kennel, who won best-in-show on six occasions between 1930–1950. They are the second most popular dog breed in the UK according to statistics released by The Kennel Club with 22,211 registrations in 2009, beaten only by the Labrador Retriever with 40,943. In third place was the English Springer Spaniel with 12,700. Their popularity has increased steadily since 1999 in the United States when they were ranked 76th in registrations by the American Kennel Club, to 2009 when they were ranked 66th.
There is a split between the show strains and working strains in the UK. While the show strain is bred to the conformation standard, the working strain is bred for working ability and as such several physical differences have appeared. Working type dogs tend to be larger with flatter heads and shorter ears. The coat also tends to be finer than the show variety and have less feathering.
American Cocker Spaniel
Cocker Spaniels were recognized by the American Kennel Club in 1878. Generally smaller than its English cousin, separate classes were created for the two types in America in 1935, with the Cocker Spaniel Club of America discouraging breeding between the two types in 1938. The American Cocker Spaniel was recognized as a separate breed by The Kennel Club in the UK in 1970. The American Cocker Spaniel is referred to as the Cocker Spaniel within the United States.
The American Cocker Spaniel was bred smaller as American Woodcocks are smaller than their European cousins, and the breeds appearance changed slightly during the first part of the 20th century as the preference by American breeders was for a more stylized appearance. The standard size according to the American Kennel Club is between 14.5–15.5 inches (37–39 cm) at the withers for males and 13.5–14.5 inches (34–37 cm) for females. The weight of the breed is on average between 24–30 pounds (11–14 kg).
At the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, the most prestigious dog show in the United States. the American Cocker Spaniel has won best-in-breed on four occasions since first awarded in 1907. The most successful breed is the Wire Fox Terrier with thirteen wins. The American Cocker Spaniel is judged in three separate breed classes under American Kennel Club rules; "black", "parti-color", and "any solid color other than black" (ASCOB).
In its native United States, the American Cocker Spaniel was ranked 23rd in 2009, a decrease in popularity since 1999 when it was ranked 13th. For twenty five years the American Cocker Spaniel was the most popular dog in America. It was ranked number one first in 1936 prior to the English Cocker Spaniel being recognized as a separate breed, and held onto the spot until 1952 when Beagles became the most popular dog. It regained the spot in 1983 and held on at number one until 1990. In the UK, the American Cocker Spaniel is far less popular than its English cousin with only 322 registrations compared to the English Cocker's 22,211 in 2009.