The field spaniel is a fairly rare breed. World wide there is less than 100 breeders, and Google finds exactly 52 in North America, Europe and Australia all put together. However I know there to be at least 2 more than what was listed in the Google directory, so let's say there's less than 100 and more than 60 breeders world wide as an educated guess.

The field spaniel is considered to be the basic form of all British sporting spaniels, the generic model, so to speak. There has been debate over which breed came first, but the fact is that in the early days of dog shows there was one single group for so called land spaniels (as opposed to water spaniels such as the Spanish Water Spaniel) and that group had a generic name "field spaniels". As different breeds were generated from this loosely defined group of hunting spaniels, one by one they got their own breed. However it's not clear whether or not the modern field spaniel existed at the time in the same form as it does now, as it has gone through some big changes over the years. The modern field spaniel is believed to be of the original form, but the lack of documentation prevents us from knowing the full truth. For anyone interested of the Field Spaniel history, I recommend the booklet by Roger Hall Jones if you can get your hands on it. It was written 30 years ago, with a title "Head to tail handbook of field spaniels". (There is a Finnish translation of it published on the club website. I will try to get a permission to publish it on this site as well in the original language.)

Field spaniels are rarely used for hunting these days, but they have an excellent nose on them and are sometimes used for such tasks as finding truffles. They love having a job to do, but I do disagree on them having to have a yard to play on, even though it would be ideal. Fieldies are extremely adaptable, and I have successfully lived with one of them in various different conditions and he doesn't even blink an eye - unless left alone. Fieldies tend to love anything as long as you're there with them. They put their full trust in you, and as long as you say it's okay, they believe it is. As it is put in the book mentioned above, fieldies sometimes don't like to be locked inside a house. It is similar to separation anxiety, but after having gained a lot of experience with this problem, I've come to the conclusion that it is not separation anxiety as much as it is a phobia of closed spaces. This problem vanished as soon as my dog got into a house that had big windows he could watch the world through.

Fieldies have another funny habit. They select one member of the family who they follow like a shadow. This person is usually a grown female, ie. the mother of the family. I mention this because this created a disappointment to me, and can do for someone else as well. That is, if you're buying the puppy for a child, the puppy might not pay much attention to whose dog he's supposed to be, but follows the mother around everywhere. This of course is saddening to the child, but can be annoying to the mother who really didn't want a dog of her own! Now that I'm the female of the household I have a shadow of my own so I've gotten over my trauma as a 14-year old dog owner whose dog couldn't care leas about her.

The field spaniel is a playful creature that remains enthusiastic and puppy-like for a long time. Curiously, when I buzzed off the coat of my field spaniel Primo when he was 5 years old, people started stopping me on the streets to "pat the puppy". (Finns don't normally use the word 'puppy' of a grown dog.) The shorter hair cut made him look younger because of the way he moved was still quite loose and immature. A year and a half later an experienced veterinarian greeted him saying "ah, a young happy doggy!" I told him he was actually 6, and mentioned that I always think of him as a 3-year old myself. The vet grinned that he's too frisky for a 3-year old. Now that he's soon turning 8, he's not any closer to looking his age.

Fieldies are excellent companion dogs, gentle and loving, but can lick you to death if allowed. Our ears have never been cleaner... They look gorgeous, especially the male field spaniel, which is usually a lot hairier than the females. To me the most important physical part that makes or breaks the field spaniel is his head, and namely side profile of the brow area. I has to be noble, and the brow area needs to create a steep slope down from the top of the head onto the base of the snout. To me - and there are people who disagree - the straighter (collie-like) the face is, the less it looks like a field spaniel.

Field spaniels are smart dogs that are very easy to train and retrain. Their natural behaviour is calm and unexcited, and they are rarely a nuisance even fairly untrained. They don't bark much, but when they do, they have a deep big dog bark, which, at least to me is very appealing.

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