Origin country: Great Britain

The English cocker spaniel is the most famous and the most expanded but the oldest and the most aboriginal spaniel. The spaniels of the century with the exception of Welsh springer spaniel were divided only to the water and field ones (in the literature for the first time in 1386). The spaniels were divided into 2 basic groups during the first shows of the dogs in England in 1859: field spaniels, cocker spaniels and Sussex spaniels as small, clumber spaniel as big one. The spaniels were differed according to the weight (above and under 25 pounds) till the year 1870. The way of hunting participated mainly on the next partitions. The class for the cocker spaniels was opened for the first time on the show in Ashtone in 1883. But English Kennel Club accepted the assignment of the breed in 1892 and somewhere is even stated that the breed was made independent up to 1902.
It is supposed that the name Cocker spaniel is deduced from the way of the hunting application, mainly hunting of a woodcock. J. Watson published the opinion in 1907 that the name cocker spaniel was created by deduction from the name cock shooting. This is supported by the fact that the hunting spaniels were used for the work in the scrubs and shrubberies during hunting the feather in the past. Soon the cocker spaniels were accounted as famous dogs after the recognition of the breed mainly apart from England and they were raised for their familiarity and docility as luxurious dogs what was manifested mainly in America in the appearance of the American cocker spaniel.

 

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