Smaller than the English springer spaniel, the cocker spaniel is a dog bred especially for hunting along hedgerows and thick cover.  It faces this cover without hesitation and, in a country such as Ireland with its many areas of natural cover still existing, the breed is enjoying something of a revival in that country.

The name ‘cocker’ is derived from the quarry the dog was primarily bred for hunting, the woodcock.  This wily bird favours the rhododendron and the blackthorn thickets that still abound in Ireland.  The smaller proportions of the cocker or ‘cocking’ spaniel make it ideally suited for hunting woodcock in such cover.

It is widely held that the Blenheim spaniel was bred from the cocker spaniel and that the cocker spaniel, in turn, was bred from the King Charles spaniel.

It is not surprising that the cocker was one of Ireland’s most popular gundog breeds at the turn of the 20th century when large country estates dotted the Irish landscape.  Doubtless the breed has suffered from the attentions of the show fraternity but it is starting to make something of a comeback both in Ireland and Scotland.