39 Fun Facts About English Springer Spaniel

Springer spaniels got their name because they were used to do what to game birds?

Flush them into the air. Before sporting guns existed, a springer's job was to startle game out of cover so that waiting hawks, nets or coursing hounds could take it.

Until the early 20th century, springers shared litters with which breed?

Cocker Spaniel. Size alone sorted a litter: the smaller pups were sent after woodcock and called cockers, while their bigger brothers and sisters were worked on other game.

The English Springer descends from which mid-19th-century spaniels?

Norfolk or Shropshire. Dog writers of the day called the Norfolk label a misnomer, with no real tie to the county, and it was dropped once the Kennel Club recognised these spaniels as English Springers.

At Crufts, the English Springer Spaniel competes in which breed group?

Gundog. The Kennel Club's own standard calls the springer the oldest of the sporting gundogs, a type that was already hunting beside falconers long before anyone carried a gun.

The word 'spaniel' comes from an Old French phrase with what literal meaning?

Spanish dog. Old French 'espagneul' records where medieval hunters believed these bird dogs came from, though whether the first spaniels really were from Spain is uncertain.

George H. W. Bush joked that Millie's pups slept on newspapers, the first time the press had been used to prevent what?

Leaks. Bush told a Kentucky fundraiser in 1989 that the pups were bedded down on the Washington Post and the New York Times, and that all six were already spoken for.

Which English physician described the spaniel in a Latin treatise translated in 1576 as Of Englishe Dogges?

John Caius. He wrote it in Latin as a letter to the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner, and his English translator filed the spaniel among the 'gentle dogs serving the hawk'.

Spot Fetcher's father, Tug Farish, came from a Kentucky farm far better known for breeding what?

Racehorses. Tug belonged to Will Farish of Lane's End Farm, a thoroughbred stud, and George H. W. Bush joked that a sire named Tug Farish III was just what his elitist image needed.

What is the fringe of longer hair on a springer's ears, chest, legs and belly called?

Feathering. Both breed standards want it moderate, and American exhibitors may thin it for the ring because too much 'destroys the clean outline desirable in a sporting dog'.

The Dickin Medal, won by the springers Buster and Theo, is known as the animals' version of which decoration?

Victoria Cross. The PDSA created the medal in 1943, and in its first years most winners were not dogs at all: 32 of the 54 wartime medals went to messenger pigeons.

At which dog show had English Springers won Best in Show six times by 2025, most recently in 2007?

Westminster. Only two terrier breeds have more wins there, and the 2007 winner, a dog called James, was sent into retirement straight after his victory.

Since 2007, English law has banned which practice on dogs but exempted working springers and other spaniels?

Tail docking. A vet may still dock a puppy from working stock in its first five days, on the argument that a full-length tail gets injured when the dog works in thick cover.

Compared with show springers, field-bred springers have coats that are what?

Shorter and coarser. A field dog's coat seldom needs more than an occasional brush, while a show dog's longer fur takes regular grooming and clipping.

Which mountain did Kerry Irving climb with his springer Max a year after the dog got him walking again?

Ben Nevis. A road accident had left Irving unable to walk and severely depressed; two years later he met Max, and twelve months after that the pair climbed the mountain together.

After the springer Buster sniffed out a hidden arsenal, attacks stopped and British troops swapped their steel helmets for what?

Berets. An earlier search by soldiers had found nothing before Buster located rifles, grenades and bomb-making kit sealed in a wall cavity behind a wardrobe.

Which of these is a recognised English Springer colour combination?

Liver and white. Black and white is just as acceptable, but the American standard rules that off colours such as lemon, red or orange 'are not to place' in the show ring.

Where does the American standard put the tan markings on a tricolour springer?

Eyebrows, cheeks, ears and under the tail. The American standard maps the tan that precisely, while the British one stops at three words: 'with tan markings'.

Which Scottish terrier shared George W. Bush's White House with the springer Spot Fetcher?

Barney. The pair co-starred in the White House's 2003 holiday film 'Barney and Spot's Winter Wonderland', made shortly before Spot's death in February 2004.

Which recurring health problem is the English Springer especially prone to because of the way it is built?

Ear infections. Long, floppy ear flaps cut the airflow to the ear canal and trap moisture inside, which lets bacteria and yeast build up.

A Kennel Club survey of UK breed clubs found what to be the most common cause of death in springers?

Cancer. The same survey found it was the leading killer of pedigree dogs as a whole, ahead of old age and heart conditions, so the springer follows the general pattern rather than a breed quirk.

English Springers are prone to a severe chronic inflammation of which organ, often striking unusually young?

The liver. The disease is chronic hepatitis, and researchers have tied the breed's risk to inherited immune-system genes, a sign that the dog's own defences may be turning on the organ.

Which inherited condition leaves some springer puppies unable to feel pain in their paws?

Acral mutilation syndrome. From about four months old affected pups lick and bite their own feet, because a mutation shared with pointers and French spaniels dulls the pain that would stop them.

Buster, a Dickin Medal springer, found a hidden arsenal of weapons and explosives in which country?

Iraq. Buster was the only arms and explosives search dog working there at the time, and his find in the village of Safwan was credited with saving the lives of soldiers and civilians.

Jake, a Metropolitan Police springer, won a PDSA Gold Medal for his searches after which London attack?

The 7 July 2005 bombings. At Tavistock Square Jake cleared a safe route through glass and twisted metal so that an explosives officer and paramedics could reach the wrecked bus.

Toby, a springer trained for a British conservation charity, was taught to sniff out what?

Bumblebee nests. They are small and usually hidden underground or in dense vegetation, so researchers who wanted to count colonies needed a nose to find them.

Theo, a bomb-detection springer, died hours after his handler was killed in which country in 2011?

Afghanistan. Liam Tasker was shot while on patrol with the Irish Guards; Theo was carried back to Camp Bastion, where he suffered a seizure and died, and the two were flown home on the same plane.

Millie, the springer of George H. W. and Barbara Bush, was named after whom?

A family friend. She was called after Mildred Kerr, a long-time friend of the couple, and years later the White House still listed her formally as Mildred Kerr Bush.

Royalties from Millie's Book, the Bush springer's 1990 bestseller, were given to a foundation for which cause?

Family literacy. In 1991 the book earned $889,176, more than four times the president's $200,000 salary, and Barbara Bush passed the after-tax proceeds to her literacy foundation.

Millie's White House litter was born in 1989 on which holiday?

St. Patrick's Day. The same day George H. W. Bush told reporters he would bet on six puppies, 'and we've done no sonograms', and Millie duly delivered six.

George W. Bush's springer Spot Fetcher was named after a player for which baseball team?

Texas Rangers. Bush was an owner of the club when the pup arrived, and he named her for its infielder Scott Fletcher, bending the surname into a job description.

What distinction does Spot Fetcher hold among pets of the White House?

Lived there under two different presidents. Born in the White House in 1989 under George H. W. Bush, she moved back in 2001 with his son, a double no other presidential pet is known to share.

Max, a Cumbrian springer, became in 2021 the first pet dog to receive which award?

PDSA Order of Merit. Until then it had gone only to working animals such as police and assistance dogs; Max earned it for the comfort his filmed Lake District walks gave thousands of followers.

The award given to Max the springer in 2021 is known as the animals' version of which honour?

The OBE. Its first medals, in 2014, went to Metropolitan Police horses and a police dog for facing the London riots of 2011, when that dog, Obi, was hit by a brick thrown by a rioter.

Max the Miracle Dog's Lake District walks drew a worldwide following on a page hosted by which platform?

Facebook. Kerry Irving first posted pictures of the walks on his business page, and the following they drew grew into a page of the springer's own, Max Out in the Lake District.

In 1992, George H. W. Bush said Millie knew more about foreign affairs than which 'bozos'?

Bill Clinton and Al Gore. Bush fired the line at a rally in Macomb County, Michigan, five days before the election, after accusing the pair of running America down against other countries.

Which organisation lists Millie's Book as the best-selling book by a canine author?

Guinness World Records. Its entry credits the springer with 400,000 copies sold, though the words were Barbara Bush's: the title page reads 'as dictated to' the First Lady.

A dog park named after Millie, the Bush family springer spaniel, is in which US city?

Houston was the Bushes' long-time home city, and Millie herself was named for family friend Mildred Kerr.

Which video game has legendary gloves called 'Tasker & Theo', the names of the springer and his handler?

Diablo III. The gloves quicken the attacks of the wearer's pets, and their flavour text tells of a master who died fighting beside his favourite dog, whose loyal companion soon followed.

English Springers are among the breeds prone to which joint condition, a frequent cause of later arthritis?

Hip dysplasia. The joint develops loose rather than snug, and vets warn that an untreated case goes on to cause arthritis, which is why breeders are urged to screen their dogs.