JUDGING SPRINGER SPANIELS

The biggest head faults that we see today are too much or too little fluting and stop, rounded and overly wide skulls, unaccentuated eyebrows, pendulous lips and round, light and incorrectly set eyes. The eyes need to tell the story of their ‘heart and soul’ when you look a Springer in the eye. The Springer should look at you softly with their “talking eyes”, reaching deep inside your soul. The stop should rise between the eyes creating fluting or a groove which stops in the middle of the head. You can feel this groove with your fingers as you evaluate the head. The Standard describes the head as having a muzzle and skull of the same length. Short muzzles are a common problem world-wide. The muzzle should be wide and deep enough to allow a larger bird, pheasant or rabbit to be retrieved and carried. We often see specimens with drooping lips (especially in Europe) although the Standard clearly describes the muzzle as deep and square.

The AKC Standard gives more detail to this description, with ‘the upper lips come down full and rather square to cover the line of the lower jaw, however, the lips are never pendulous or exaggerated.’ The American Standard gives a beautiful description of the head, ‘the head is impressive without being heavy. Its beauty lies in a combination of strength and refinement.’ It is very clear that the head should not be heavy, as commonly seen on dogs worldwide, but by no means does it convey the impression of a pointed or narrow muzzle. Flews come down to fully cover the lower jaw, but are not pendulous. The Springer should never be described as ‘lippy. The ‘stop’ is moderate with a subtle rise where the muzzle blends into the skull, further emphasized by the groove and shape of the well-developed eyebrows. The stop should never be prominent like the American Cocker or Pointer. A very important characteristic of the Springer head is the beautiful chiseling under the eyes. As you go over the head, you should be able to see and feel the chiseling that adds further refinement and beauty to the head. This is a breed requirement the English Springer shares with the Irish Setter. Heads lacking in fluting and chiseling are unfortunately very common. Cheeks should be flat. The UK Standard requires that the teeth should form a perfect and complete scissor bite but the American Standard permits an even bite and also that one or two incisors out of line are to be considered as a minor fault. Still, if we are to follow the premise of ‘fit for function’, a dog could still hunt with a less than perfect head so for me personally, I could forgive that as long as everything else about the dog is correct.

However, the eyes are of great importance to me when I judge and I would never put up a dog with an ugly eye or expression that doesn’t heal my soul if I have other options in the ring. The FCI and UK Standards call for an ‘almond shaped eye’ yet another thing I feel

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very strongly about. The American Standard calls for an ‘oval’ eye. To me, this is closer to ‘round’, and is probably why we see so many round-eyed Springers in North America. The Standard defines eyes as ‘medium size, almond-shaped, not prominent nor sunken, well set in (not showing haw), alert, kind expression. Dark hazel. Light eyes undesirable.’ This amount of detail suggests that the eye is also of great importance when evaluating this breed. I remember, many years ago, I was judging a Spaniel Specialty somewhere in the world about 15 hours by plane away from Canada and an exhibit entered the ring that instantly made my heart sing. I had always admired this dog in photographs so much so that I used to stare at his photos and fantasize about owning him and using him in my breeding program. I approached his breeder a couple of times trying to buy him but without success. Anyway, this particular exhibitor was luckier than I had been and had managed to acquire the dog and years later, he appeared in my ring. I cannot even begin to say how hard it was for me to keep a smile off my face when I saw the yellow eyes that were staring back at me in the most unpleasant way. That was the end of my infatuation with that dog and he didn’t get much further that day. No matter what, if you judge the breed, penalize yellow eyes, simple as that. They are completely foreign to the breed, very easy to get and extremely hard to breed out. American dogs generally have darker eyes but at the same time, have poorer eye and nose pigment especially in liver dogs. Finding the correct shape and colour of eye on the same dog anywhere in the world is not easy.

Now that you have examined the head, you are going to put your hands down the neck which should be about the same length as the head, ‘good length, strong and muscular, free from throatiness, slightly arched, tapering towards head’. I put my hands on the withers and check how smooth and laid back they are. Bulky withers should immediately tell you that there are fundamental construction issues in the front assembly, in just the same way that a flat or dropped croup will tell you instantly that there is much wrong with the structure of the rear. Effortless movement in front calls for a correct forequarter assembly. The AKC Breed Standard describes it perfectly: ‘The shoulder blades are flat and fairly close together at the tips, molding smoothly into the contour of the body. Ideally, when measured from the top of the withers to the point of the shoulder to the elbow, the shoulder blade and upper arm are of apparent equal length, forming an angle of nearly 90 degrees; this sets the front legs well under the body and places the elbows directly beneath the tips of the shoulder blades.’ Unfortunately, the FCI standard is much shorter on words leaving it somewhat vague but nevertheless, we still find much better fronts in England and Europe than in North America where fronts have been a problem for decades and sadly, are not getting any better.

The Springer is slightly longer than tall with a strong body, well sprung ribs and is neither too long nor too short. The loin is muscular, strong with a slight arch felt in the muscle mass of the loin (not roaching) and well coupled. This part of the Springer body is very well described in the AKC breed Standard as: ‘the portion of the topline from withers to tail is firm and slopes very gently. The body is short-coupled, strong and compact. The chest is deep, reaching the level of the elbows, with well-developed fore chest; however, it is not so wide or round as to interfere with the action of the front legs. Ribs are fairly long, springing gradually to the middle of the body, then tapering as they approach the end of the ribbed section. The underline stays level with the elbows to a slight upcurve at the flank. The back is straight, strong and essentially level. Loins are strong, short and slightly arched. Hips are nicely-rounded, blending smoothly into the hind legs. The croup slopes gently to the set of the tail, and tail-set follows the natural line of the croup’.

A Springer’s tail should be carried horizontally and never high like a terrier or so low that it gives the appearance of fearfulness or temperament issues. The FCI Standard states that the tail is set low and never carried above the level of the back. The American Standard also states that the tail is docked so some judges consider an undocked tail to be a fault. It also states that the tail can be slightly elevated which would never go down well in the UK. The English Springer croup is also different in America and England. American dogs generally have a flat croup, while many English dogs have a steep drop in croup. Neither is correct.