Retrieverman's Weblog

1. One of these dogs has something to do with Golden and Flat-coated retriever history. What am I talking about? I was wrong about one thing.  I think this is the same dog pictured twice. It’s just one of those weird tricks that were used to develop a photo to show the same dog in the different positions. (Here is one of the originals.) the dog in question is a well-known Corrin. Corrin was an early champion in this breed, which was made a separate breed in 1902. Corrin was worked in the field, but the beginning of field trials happened too late his life for him to really become a top trial dog.

Corrin’s owner was A.T. Williams. Long-time readers of this blog know that A.T.  Williams was the owner of Don of Gerwn, a liver-colored flat-coat whose sire was one of the Tweedmouth dogs. Don was an important early field champion in the flat-coated retriever, and, yes, he was technically “part golden retriever.” However, the golden retriever had not been recognized as separate from the flat-coat at that time.

2.  What is interesting about Welsh springers in terms of British gun dog history? Welsh springers are interesting in that they are red and white spaniels, and red and white spaniels are probably the oldest form of spaniel. Spaniels derive from red and white herding dogs that belonged to the Celts, who brought them into Britain and France from southern Germany. (Source). The original Irish setter was a red and white dog derived from this spaniel, and one doesn’t have to look too far to see a similar coloration in the French Brittany. The original spaniels were used to flush birds for the falconer’s raptors. In France, they were called Chien d’Oysel.

The photo comes from Drury’s British Dogs:  Their Points, Selection, and Show Preparation. Drury writes about the red and white coloration:

But the English red-and-white breeds have died out long ago; and South Wales seems to be the only region that has cherished and preserved them to the present day, which fact goes far to justify the claim of their fellow-countrymen that these Spaniels shall be for the luture called Welsh, and that all red-and-white Springers shall appear at trials and exhibitions under this title.

You can see plenty of red and white, mid-sized spaniels in the paintings of George Stubbs, including this one featured with an old-type Sussex spaniel:

The red and white became less popular in England. Liver and black spaniels became more and more common, including the Norfolk spaniel and the ancestor of the modern cocker, springer, and field spaniel breeds.

Drury contends that the red spaniel was becoming rarer and rarer in England, but the Welsh gentry had managed to preserve a bit of that blood in their dog. Of course, Welsh and English springers were the same breed at one time, as were cocker spaniels, and just as one must understand that retriever breeds are very closely related, one must also understand that the spaniels are also related. The red coloration became popular in the English cocker spaniel, probably because Elizabeth Barrett-Browning owned a cocker of this coloration named Flush. (Of course, everyone should read her poem about Flush).

3.  Have there ever been red or red and white English springers? I have already answered this question. However, even after the springers split into two breeds, red English springers were not unknown. Mrs. Winifred Charlesworth, who is credited with making the golden retriever a separate breed, owned a red English springer– a solid red one that we would think of as a very big English cocker!

4.  What is a Welsh cocker spaniel? According to Drury, the smaller sizes of  Welsh spaniels were called Welsh cockers, and there may have been a move to make a distinct Welsh cocker strain. However, the term is mostly used for the early red and white spaniels from Wales.  Stonehenge shows a depection of English and Welsh cockers in his 1859 The Dog in Health and Disease. The Welsh cocker is smaller than the English cocker:

So the Welsh springer and Welsh cocker are the same breed. They differ from the English spaniels in that they retained the red and white coloration of the original British spaniels (or at least the spaniels of the eighteenth century).