It might sound bizarre, but my old bulldog Gloria was a great sporting creature. Nothing got her blood boiling more than a nearby cock pheasant call, she loved catching squirrels on open ground and on more than one occasion she flushed birds to my gun. She inspired a strange need in me for the indifferent when it came to breeds, so eight years ago when I was looking for my first working dog, the ‘standard breeds’ just weren’t cutting the mustard. Do not get me wrong, I have adored every lab, cocker and springer I have ever met, but they all felt a bit vanilla after a childhood of Gloria and her bulldog predecessors.
Marching around the Game Fair, I bumped into the Working Clumber Spaniel Society (WCSS) and a pen filled with brilliant white-and-lemon beasts with deep chests like bows of a ship and a look
