The Field Spaniel Breed Standard begins with these sentences: “The Field Spaniel is a combination of beauty and utility. It is a well balanced, substantial hunter-companion of medium size, built for activity and endurance in heavy cover and water.” Through these beginning sentences, the Standard emphasizes that beauty and utility are not separate concepts. The Standard does NOT describe a separation of a working versus show ring type.
It is likely that many Field Spaniel fanciers in the US do not have a background in upland hunting, which is a primary function of the Field Spaniel. Without exposure to working with a dog in the field, how is the fancier going to work to keep the hunting abilities of the Field Spaniel? Given the increasing success of the breed in the show ring, fanciers understand the beauty part. Understanding the utility of the Field Spaniel in working birds is more difficult for the fancier without a hunting background.
Certainly, the development of AKC’s upland hunting program was instrumental in allowing fanciers to test their Field Spaniels in the field. Prior to this program, while there were field trials for spaniels, the Field Spaniel was not eligible for participation. While there were the owners here and there who hunted with their dogs, few of those actively bred and/or showed the breed. A core of committed breeders and exhibitors, who also hunted with their Field Spaniels, was appointed by the parent club of the breed to develop a description of the Field Spaniel when hunting. Exhibitors, breeders, and judges would do well to become familiar with this description that details the hunting function of the breed. This description is found at: https://images.akc.org/pdf/events/hunting_tests/spaniels/hunting_style/fi eld_spaniel.pdf.
So, just how are the functions of the Field Spaniel that produce birds in the field (utility) to be assessed? Without a hunting background, the resources to train for field work, or the ability to secure the services of a professional trainer to take a Field Spaniel into the field, it is a daunting task. We suggest there are sports within the AKC performance programs that offer plenty of opportunity to display the utility of the Field Spaniel breed. These performance activities all highlight behaviors that directly correlate to the Field Spaniel’s function as a bird dog.
SCENT WORK
The sport of Scent Work is based on the work of professional detection dogs (such as drug dogs), trained to detect a wide variety of scents and substances. In AKC Scent Work, dogs search for cotton swabs prepared with a drop of a specific essential oil. The cotton swabs are hidden out of sight in a pre-determined search area, and the dog must find them. Teamwork is necessary, as when the dog finds the scent he must communicate the find to the handler who then calls it out to the judge.
While the Field Spaniel is trained to find different odors than birds when doing Scent Work, the functionality is the same: to find odor, differentiate old from new, and persist to seek the source of the odor. The ability to use the “large nose with open nostrils” called for in the Breed Standard to follow odor to source and find an exact location is essential for Scent Work. Scent Work presents odor puzzles that the dog must solve, often working through odor that drifts, pools, rises, falls, and more. This is not entirely different than the type of odor puzzles presented by wind and scenting conditions in the field and provides an accessible, affordable, and altogether reasonable way to prove scenting ability, intelligence, and persistence.
Dock Diving
Dock diving is an exciting water sport for dogs. In this sport, the dog jumps from the dock into a body of water to compete in elements involving distance, height, or speed. North American Diving Dogs (NADD) offers diving dog competitions that can result in titles recognized by the American Kennel Club.
The medium-sized, well-balanced Field Spaniel, with webbed feet and a dense, water-repellent coat, can fulfill some of their desire to hunt during this fun aquatic sport. Dock Diving combines the Field Spaniel’s love of human companionship with the instinct to gently retrieve birds from the water. The Field Spaniel with good prey drive finds the distance game a great deal of fun as they leap from the dock to catch a thrown bumper! Good forward reach that begins with the shoulder, coupled with the strong rear drive of the Field Spaniel, is necessary for a good launch off the dock and is a beautiful sight as they glide through the water with ease.
BARN HUNT
The Barn Hunt Association (BHA) program offers competitions during which dogs search for live rats housed in protective tubes hidden in bales of hay and alert their handlers as to the location of the tube. The rats are not seen or touched by the dogs or handlers, and their safety is a top priority. The American Kennel Club recognizes titles earned in BHA approved competitions.
Finding hidden rats in bales of hay is a reasonable way to show a Field Spaniel’s hunt drive in pinpointing a scent to find prey. This results in behaviors like those seen as a Field Spaniel navigates a hunting field to efficiently find and work birds. In Barn Hunt competition, the Field Spaniel shows determination to hunt for prey. The hunt includes climbing stacked bales of hay and navigating dark tunnels to actively find a protective tube that holds a rat. The Field Spaniel must differentiate the protective tubes that hold a rat from identical tubes that hold litter or are simply empty. Barn Hunt competitions offer a way to evaluate the Field Spaniel’s independence in hunting on command, thereby showing the working relationship of the dog and handler.
FETCH
Fetching a stick in the backyard is a game many dogs have played with their humans. The newly implemented AKC Fetch program merely formalizes this game. In the beginning levels, Fetch is very much game-like with single, defined distance retrieves. In progressing up the four levels of titling, the requirements increase to skills trained and implemented for Hunt Tests. These skills, which require only bumpers, include line-steadiness, delivery to hand, blinds, and double and triple retrieves.
The ability to retrieve is basic to hunting. The ideal retrieve shows the dog’s ability to mark the fall of an object, enthusiastically chase to the object and pick it up, and smartly deliver the object back to the handler. In retrieving, the Field Spaniel may demonstrate biddability and the readiness to both accept and follow direction from the handler. The Fetch program allows the Field Spaniel to show the continued functionality of the breed to make the hunter’s job easier by bringing back downed birds. As each level involves multiple retrieves, the “activity and endurance” essential for hunting are readily seen.
In summary, the Field Spaniel breeder and exhibitor need not be an active hunter to work to keep the functionality of the breed. There are performance activities that fanciers may readily access to involve their Field Spaniel in activities that relate directly to hunting. While it would be ideal for all fanciers to attend a Hunt Test event to develop an understanding of the function of the Field Spaniel in working birds, at a minimum, reading and understanding the Field Spaniel hunting description with an eye to the Breed Standard is necessary.
