TEN THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT JUDGING ENGLISH SPRINGER SPANIELS
by KATHY LORENTZEN, LAURIN HOWARD, CAROL CALLAHAN AND HENRIETTE SCHMIDT for the ESSFTA Judge’s Education Committee
S ize does matter. Got your atten- tion? Good. The breed stan- dard uses words and phrases such as ‘sturdy’, ‘muscular’, ‘strong’, ‘powerful’ and ‘every inch a sporting dog’. Over and over, the word ‘moderate’ appears. The standard sets specific height to weight parameters (a 20 inch tall dog, in good condition, will weigh approximately 50 pounds) and these parameters should be care- fully considered when judging the breed. A 20 inch tall dog that weighs 50 pounds will ‘pick up heavy’. (Think of picking up a 50 pound bag of dog food). In many instances today, the breed is losing its sturdiness. Strong, moderate bone, properly shaped, oval ribs that carry well down to the elbow, broad, deep, muscular loins and wide, strong, well muscled upper and lower thighs have given way to over refinement, lack of forechest and rib and excessively narrow loins and thighs, creating dogs that completely lack the correct weight requirement for their height. While the breed should, of course, never be coarse or cumbersome, it certainly is critical that it retain the characteris- tics that make it able to retrieve a large pheasant, which may or may not be dead, through heavy cover or out of water. The Springer is a strong, athletic, active and vigorous hunting dog that is able to ‘go, and keep going, under dif- ficult hunting conditions’. 2. While our breed may not be a ‘head breed’ such as the Collie or the Bulldog, every requirement in the head section of the standard is there for a reason, and that reason is to help the dog ful- fill its original purpose, that of finding,
flushing and retrieving game. They use their eyes, ears, nose, jaws, etc. to do their job, and the more correct the head construction, the better the dog will scent, mark and retrieve. Please read the extensive head section of our breed standard and make every effort to reward correct heads. Look for things such as proper proportion—muzzles as long as backskulls; fairly square, lean, strong forefaces with strong under jaws; parallel planes of the skull and foreface; straight nasal bones and large, open nostrils; deep–set, oval, forward- placed eyes with well developed eye- brows; and moderate stops—a subtle rise, not a pronounced feature. 3. A correct front assembly is essen- tial. The ESS standard calls for a well angulated front assembly. Long, sloping shoulder blades that come fairly close together at the tips, coupled with a long upper arm that sets the elbows well back under the dog. Ideally, the elbow should be under the tip of the shoulder blades and the neck and head should be out in front of that point. Far too many dogs of this breed today stand with their elbows under their ears, totally lack- ing the length and angle of the bones of the front assembly that, when cor- rect, give this breed its easy, free ‘swing from the shoulder blade’ gait. Think the word ‘long’ when judging this breed. No, not long cast, but long head, long neck, long sloping shoulder blades and upper arms. 4. And while we are on long, always remember that the English Springer Spaniel should be upstanding with a good amount of leg length—long legs. The breed should never be short legged
or squatty. The length of the leg from elbow to ground should equal the dis- tance between elbow and the top of the shoulder blade. Long ribcage and short loin are the correct combination of body properties for this breed, giv- ing it the correct upstanding, essen- tially level–backed profile called for in the standard. 5. Color matters, markings don’t. The standard is very brief on this sub- ject. Black and white, white and black, liver and white, white and liver, with or without ticking and/or roaning, with or without tan markings. There are no pre- ferred or required marking patterns in this breed. Simply paint them all black (or white!) in your head and judge the dogs, not the external trappings. You can love the way a particular dog is marked, but you cannot award the dog on the basis of its markings—all mark- ings are correct markings. A few red or lemon dogs in this breed do exist, but I doubt you will ever see one in the ring. However if you do, you may not award it a ribbon. Be aware that optical illusion can cause a dog to look as if it’s moving improperly when it is not, so evaluate carefully when there are unusual mark- ings on legs or in the middle of the back. 6. Coat quality matters. Coat quan- tity really doesn’t. Over the years, as in many other Sporting breeds, the ESS has been bred to grow more and more coat. Some undercoat should be appar- ent, regardless of season or climate. Outer coat on the body should be firm and resilient, with a live, healthy, glossy appearance. The outer coat should lie flat to the ribcage, and it may be either straight or wavy. While the ESS should
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