The dog above is an American cocker spaniel. Very few of these dogs are ever used to do their original work– for obvious reasons. The very few that are used for this work are clipped very close. Many, however, don’t have working spaniel instincts. Indeed, you are more likely to find a Cavalier King Charles spaniel with working instincts than you are to find an American cocker with them.
Some of these dogs have very bad temperaments– the result of decades of unscrupulous breeding. This breed was once the most popular breed in the United States, and numb skulls started breeding.
I don’t know who thought it was a good idea to go crazy with the feathering on this dog. But whoever it was, they really had no interest in having a small flushing spaniel.
If you want a small flushing spaniel, there is an alternative.
Remember, there are two breeds of cocker spaniel in this country. The English cocker still has a working form.
Now, its mass-bred pet form in Europe is as screwy as the show American cocker– and then some. This is the breed of cocker that is well-known for a condition called avalanche of rage syndrome, which seems to be associated with the dark red color that is so popular in pet English cockers. This condition, as far as I know, doesn’t exist any cocker population in this country (it’s just regular aggression). But a dog with this condition will be nice one second, and then fly off the handle the next. Dogs with this condition are often euthanized. I’ve heard of this condition in English springer spaniels in this country, but not in the cocker breeds.
The working form of English cocker is very much like a small working English springer that comes in more colors than the springer. And they do look like gun dogs.
Yes, that's a cocker. That's not a giant pheasant!
And another one:
I could see myself with one of these working English cockers.
Small dogs are much more useful in heavy cover than large ones. And actually, the are more useful than short-legged dogs. Anyone who runs beagles knows this. Those 13 inch dogs are very good in dense cover.
A little spaniel can get into dense cover that a bigger one might not be willing to traverse or even reach.
But if you load one up with coat like the modern American cocker, you are just shooting yourself in the foot.
Could they aim a little higher?
Spaniels are great to hunt with but that cocker in photo is a mess.
The Cocker in that photo would need to be shaved down prior to a hunt. In fact the litter of cockers we had three years ago has three that are used for hunting. Go figure. And from what our clients tell us, they’re pretty damn good. I would say the equivalent of a shaved down American Cocker would be a Boykin Spaniel, I have a Boykin, so all I see are similarities.not the differences. Which IMO just look like an American Cocker with unkempt hair.
I think its unfair to say the drive is not in them. Its more like some will have it and some won’t, just like with retrievers.
The title of number one biter is no longer the Cocker. That went away almost a decade ago. At this point its more likely to be a Golden Retriever that will go into a sudden rage and bite. Agin due to the cycle of overbreeding for monetary gain before health and temperament concerns. Every breed that gains in popularity eventually goes that route. But, just for the record, the cocker isn’t even in the top 10 biters anymore, last I heard. Rottweiller and GSD share the top honers for biters along with Goldens at the moment, which is a hard pill to swallow for some, But considering what breeders have done over the decades its not hard to figure out why.
I’m not about to say there aren’t any bad cockers out there. I’m sure there are. I just don’t have one and if you look on my website you certainly won’t see one among my 5 children.
There are lots of bad golden retrievers these days. They’ve taken the cocker’s place. Have you seen my post on aggressive golden retrievers?: https://retrieverman.wordpress.com/2009/01/15/are-golden-retrievers-becoming-more-aggressive/
A Boykin is a bit different though, because it is partially of water spaniel ancestry. And the ones I know are run as retrievers, not spaniels. A little American cocker lacks volume to be a good water dog. No matter how much coat it has, it will chill far faster than any larger dog, and obviously isn’t of much use, unless hunting waterfowl in the most roseate conditions.
I’ve never seen a pure American cocker with any interest in birds. I’m sure they exist. But this breed is basically a large toy spaniel.
Now, working English cockers are entirely different.
Golden retrievers don’t have the rage syndrome. They just have regular aggression. In European lines, there is some suggestion they might have rage syndrome. But I’ve not seen it in them. I just see a very nasty, manipulative aggressive dog. And because it’s a big dog, it can do some damage.
Rage syndrome never existed in the American cocker, but it’s much more known in the English cocker (the show and pet form). And the show English springers also get it. It’s thought that the gait that both are required to have in the show ring also messes up their brain chemistry, making them prone to seizure and rage syndrome.
The American cocker is off that list because its popularity has dropped off. And that’s exactly what has to happen to the golden retriever. Goldens are the number 3 biter in the US, although I would say that the majority of them are not biters or aggressive at all. It’s just there are a lot of them. And numbskulls are breeding.
I know two American cockers. One is very nice and friendly, but the other will bite you as soon as you enter the house and as soon as you leave.
Now, the purpose of a cocker is to have a small spaniel that can get into the densest thickets of undergrowth. It’s the same reason why people often run the 13 inch beagles. Does it not logically follow that a dog used for that purpose should naturally have a coat that doesn’t drag off have the undergrowth with it?
If the average hunter wanted a spaniel, I can tell you that they are more than a little put off by a coat like that. I rail against excessive feathering in golden retrievers, which is currently the fad. Every retriever book and treatise similarly attacks the golden’s really long coat, usually imploring breeders to work to reduce the feathering.
Rage syndrome can affect any dog of any breed, and although it does tend to affect Cockers and Springers more than others, it is still extremely rare. I do not believe that gaiting has anything to do with rage syndrome. A dog with good structure will naturally gait on its own as it would in a conformation ring.
I’m not a fan of most working type Cocker lines as very few even look like your traditional Cocker. The first working type pictured is honestly quite an ugly dog. Lack of type and breeding for traits and a working style that are not true to the traditional working function and form of the Cocker is what plagues these working type dogs. When you’re breeding for the speed and precision required of dogs in field trials and not for those traits that were desired in a traditional shooting companion of the gentry you’re going to get a very different looking dog. Considering the pictures of older Cocker Spaniels, it’s the show types that bear the most resemblance (minus some bone and coat), not the whippet/springer like working Cockers you see so often today.
As an owner of English Cocker Spaniels I’m proud to say that there are many breeders that breed for dual purpose dogs. My new show type pup was naturally retrieving to hand at 8 weeks and has always been a keen hunter. My older Cocker is a harder hunter and more reliable retriever than any Golden or Lab I’ve ever met. Even show type English Cockers that come from breeders that don’t intentionally breed for working drive produce dogs that still have interest in birds, naturally retrieve, and excel at tracking. As for American Cockers, there are those who breed these dogs with working drive, they are just harder to find amid the millions of dogs produced by BYBs and conformation only breeders.