The mystery of spaniels

IF YOU WANT TO WIND up your cocker-owning friends, just tell them that their dogs are springers. They may argue otherwise but, technically, it’s true.

All spaniels are springers, as the term was originally used to separate those dogs that set game (setters) from those that sprung it (springers). The word springer came into general use in the early 19th century. There’s a fine painting by the artist George Stubbs — best known for his horse studies — of an English springer that doesn’t look much different to the dogs we know