Spaniels And Their Training - Their Breeding And Rearing, Bench Show Points And Characteristics (A Vintage Dog Books Breed Classic)

By Freeman Lloyd

SPANIELS AND THEIR TRAINING THEIR BREEDING AND REARING BENCH SHOW POINTS AND CHARACTERISTICS By Freeman Lloyd A VINTAGE DOG BOOKS CLASSIC REPRINT Originally privately published in the early 1900s, this scarce work on the Spaniel is both expensive and very hard to find in its first edition. VINTAGE DOG BOOKS have republished it, using the original text and illustrations, as part of their CLASSIC BREED BOOKS series. The author was a highly respected expert on many breeds of dogs, but freely admitted that his favourite would always be the liver and white spaniel. He was Kennel Editor of "Field and Stream" for a number of years and also contributed numerous articles to the dog and sporting press of that era. The book's seventy two pages cover the origins and history of the Spaniel from the 17th Century up to around 1930. Detailed chapters deal with: - Spaniels of Yesterday and Today. - Naming the Young Puppy. - Rearing Puppies. - Yard Training. - Training to the Gun. - Field Trials. - Shooting over Spaniels. - The Spaniel and Water. - Irish Water Spaniels. - American Water Spaniels. - English Springer Spaniels. - Welsh Springer Spaniels. - Cocker Spaniels. - Clumber Spaniels. - Field Spaniels. - Sussex Spaniels. - English Water Spaniels. This is a fascinating read for any sportsman, Spaniel enthusiast or historian of the breed, but also contains much information that is still useful and practical today. "The fearful Partridge being Sprung by quest Of Spaniells, from their pleasant foods and rest. Again: The Feasant cock the woods do most frequent Where spaniels spring and search him by the sent". Anon. 1671. Many of the earliest dog breed books, particularly those dating back to the 1900's and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. VINTAGE DOG BOOKS are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Jan 10, 2013
• ISBN: 9781447487630

Book preview

SPANIELS OF YESTERDAY

AND TODAY

IN forty-five years of constant work as a writer on dogs; seeing, studying and reviewing the different breeds of many countries; gradually acquiring knowledge of the points of scores of varieties; and sitting at the feet of the masters who have been always glad to instruct a willing pupil, I have been asked many hundreds of times.

What is your favorite breed?

First English Print by Barlow A.D. 1686. Note: Springer Spaniels

For reasons that were diplomatic and politic to the principles of the reporter, it has always been my custom to reply;

Oh, they are all the same to me; I like one breed as well as another; but I have a considerable liking for————, mentioning the breed in which the interrogator was interested.

Woodcock Shooting (Circa 1800)

So I sailed along pleasantly, and after a good deal of applied and pleasurable thinking, I gradually became associated with new breeds, many quite foreign to the hounds, gun dogs, terriers, and toy dogs of my younger days.

With the foregoing and changeable white lie on my lips, I have always had a secret love for the spaniel—the liver and white, or other marked, or self-colored spaniel of my boyhood days. When first allowed to carry a gun, it was a case of shoot, shoot, shoot, from early morn until the son went down; and often after that, when the ducks were flighting into the marshlands.

At that time, there were five or six spaniels I could call my very own. And mighty proud of these dogs was the lucky stripling! They were well broken. Almost, perhaps, as well as the spaniels belonging to others, even those of wealthy squires and noblemen who bad under-gamekeepers to break the dogs for them.

All this personal matter is written as a foreword to a romance that hangs over the present-day popularity of the springer spaniel in the United States.

Ten years ago (1920), I was in Toronto, Canada, as a judge of dogs at the annual exhibition, After the show, Dr. J. A. Campbell, of that city, knowing I was fond of old sporting paintings and prints, secured me an invitation from the late Harry Johnston, a prominent merchant, with a delightful residence at Rosedale. Mr. Johnston had good gun dogs, riding horses, a gun room, some wonderfully built fishing rods, many valuable sporting prints, a library, and a fine collection of game heads, antlers, etc.

He had just purchased, at a cost of $2,000, a complete set of the Sportsman’s Magazine, published early in the 19th century. So off I drove with Campbell to Rosedale.

Wild Duck Shooting by Hawker 1845

Crossing the lawn, some good liver-and-white pointers came bounding out to meet us. Then arrived a brace of well-bred Irish setters. This greeting was backed up by a lovely brace of liver-and-white—or perhaps, it should be white-and-liver—marked English springer spaniel puppies, The sight of those whelps at once stirred some hidden sentiment in my heart. After the many harmless prevarications about fancying all dogs alike, I then knew there remained an overwhelming regard for the springer spaniel.

Why? Because I had known him to be a dog of all work; the hunter’s friend; and the shooting man’s complete aid.

Are there many of those springers in Canada? I asked.

My host replied there were a few in Ontario, and several in Manitoba, especially in Winnipeg. I made some notes and took the name and address of the breeder of the Rosedale springer puppies. The sire of the puppies was the English white-and-black marked Ch. Don Juan of Gerwyn, a noted field trialer on the other side. He had been imported by Mr. Chevrier of Winnipeg.

Cocker Spaniels by Howitt 1750-1822

Mr. Smith, of Port Hope, Ontario, was another breeder of springers. It was said that Smith’s dogs were mostly purchased from the late Winton Smith, whose Beechgrove, English Kennel Club prefix was well known on both sides of the Atlantic.

Cocker Spaniels by Howitt 1750-1822

It was there that I resolved to bring to the notice of American sportsmen the value of the springer spaniel as a gun dog. Today, this breed is flourishing. Several field trials have been held under the auspices of the Springer Spaniel Club of Canada, beginning in 1922, on prairie chicken, ruffed grouse and rabbit near Winnipeg, during the last week of September. Other splendidly successful trials have taken place on Fishers Island, New York. These tests have been made under the patronage of the