Spaniel
A Spaniel is a group of gun dog breeds. Spaniels are generally smaller dogs with longer coats and drop ears whose job is to assist with bird hunting. Spaniels have the primary purposes of flushing game from dense undergrowth and retrieving game after it has been shot. Different breeds reflect different emphasis on the dogs' uses. At one time, spaniels were subdivided into Land, Field, and Water spaniels, according to the terrain in which they worked best.There has been so much interbreeding of various gun dogs over the centuries to achieve additional breeds for new subniches that it is sometimes difficult to determine whether a breed is a spaniel, a retriever, or both or neither.
Spaniel breeds include:
- American Cocker Spaniel
- American Water Spaniel
- Blue Picardy Spaniel
- Boykin Spaniel
- Brittany
- Cavalier King Charles Spaniel
- Clumber Spaniel
- Drentse Patrijshond (Dutch Partridge Dog) (possibly)
- English Cocker Spaniel
- English Springer Spaniel
- Pont-Audemer Spaniel (Epagneul Pont-Audemer)
- Field Spaniel
- French Spaniel
- Deutscher Wachtelhund (German Spaniel)
- Irish Water Spaniel
- King Charles Spaniel
- Kooikerhondje
- Small Munsterlander
- Large Munsterlander
- Nova Scotia Duck-Tolling Retriever (possibly)
- Picardy Spaniel (Epagneul Picard)
- Portuguese Water Dog (possibly)
- Spanish Water Dog (possibly)
- Stabyhoun
- Tibetan Spaniel
- Sussex Spaniel
- Welsh Springer Spaniel