English Cocker Spaniel Trivia
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45 free English Cocker Spaniel trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This English Cocker Spaniel trivia quiz covers the 'Merry Spaniel' from its woodcock-flushing origins to the royal kennels. History questions trace how spaniels were once split only by weight, the 1874 stud book that lumped every spaniel under 25 lb into the cocker pool, the Spaniel Club of 1885, the split from the Springer, the creation of the Field Spaniel and the American Cocker, and the AKC's separate recognition in 1946. The breed section covers the standard's ear-length test, height and weight, docking rules, the full palette from blue roan to lemon roan and the controversial sable, Stanley Coren's intelligence ranking, life-expectancy studies, the 'cocker rage' myth and the differences between working and show strains. Show fans get H. S. Lloyd's 'of Ware' kennel, which made the breed the most successful in Crufts history, and celebrity cockers include Lupo, the working cocker of Prince William and Catherine. Questions run from easy to expert with a difficulty score on each, so it suits a family quiz or a real gun-dog enthusiast. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and breed references and each question carries its citation. Also try our Dogs and English Springer Spaniel quizzes.
30 of 45 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The name 'cocker' is generally traced to which game bird?
Woodcock
Woodcock: an 1803 sporting guide said the smaller spaniel was called the cocker, or cocking spaniel, as being more adapted to covert and woodcock shooting.
Q 02The English Cocker's ever-wagging tail has earned it which nickname, as in 'the ____ cocker'?
Merry
Merry: the wagging had its uses too, for an 1803 sporting guide said a sportsman could tell from its quickening that his spaniel was nearing game.
Q 03In which monarch's reign did breeders begin splitting spaniels into the separate breeds we know today?
Victoria
Victoria was on the throne when breeders began recording pedigrees around 1850, though for decades after, pups from a single litter could still be registered as different kinds of spaniel.
Q 04The word 'spaniel' comes from an Old French term for a dog from which country?
Spain
Spain: Old French espaignol meant 'Spanish dog', though the dictionaries that give the derivation add that whether the dogs really came from there is unproven.
Q 05In which novel does a cocker spaniel called Jasper lead the new bride to a dead woman's beach cottage?
Rebecca
Rebecca: chasing Jasper into a cove, the narrator finds the cottage the first Mrs de Winter once used, and a man on the beach tells her 'she's gone in the sea'.
Q 06Before spaniel breeds were fixed, what alone decided whether a dog was registered as a Cocker?
Its weight
Its weight: any spaniel under 25 lb went into the Cocker register, whatever its parents, and a breed historian wrote that 'the scales alone determined the dividing line'.
Q 07What job were cockers originally bred to do on a shoot?
Drive game toward the guns
Drive game toward the guns: an 1803 sporting guide praised the little spaniel for getting through low, bushy cover more easily than bigger dogs and tiring less over a long day.
Q 08Which novelist wrote Flush, a 1933 'biography' of a famous poet's cocker spaniel?
Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf told the story from the red spaniel's point of view, and admitted in her notes that she had squeezed his three real kidnappings into one.
Q 09Before guns, medieval hunters used spaniels to help catch partridge and quail in what?
Nets
Nets: a 1387 hunting book by Gaston de Foix says spaniels taught to crouch were good for the work, and praises them for following their masters through a crowd without losing them.
Q 10Four dogs have won Crufts Best in Show twice as of 2026: three cockers and which other breed?
Labrador Retriever
Labrador Retriever: Bramshaw Bob won in 1932 and 1933. The three cockers all came from H. S. Lloyd's kennel, which took every title awarded from 1938 to 1950 because war shut the show for years.
Q 11How do owners of show cockers traditionally remove unwanted hair to keep the coat looking natural?
Plucking with finger and thumb
Plucking with finger and thumb, a little each day, gives the most natural finish; the breed club warns that clippers leave the coat harsh and that it grows back stubby.
Q 12What must a cocker titled Show Champion, or 'Sh Ch', add to become a full Champion?
A working qualification
A working qualification: until the 1950s no dog of a breed like the cocker could be called a champion, however often it won in the ring, without proving itself in the field; the 'Show' title was created for those that hadn't.
Q 13Luckystar of Ware's 1930 Crufts Best in Show was a first for which group of dogs?
Q 21What white marking does the UK Kennel Club standard tolerate on a solid-coloured cocker?
A small amount on the chest
A small amount on the chest is tolerated; the standard calls white anywhere else on a solid 'highly undesirable', and the American standard likewise marks down white feet.
Q 22Which of these is a recognised parti-colour in English Cockers?
Blue roan
Blue roan has no blue in it: dark and white hairs grow so finely mixed that the coat takes on a bluish look.
Q 23What everyday colour do the Kennel Club and breeders mean when they call a cocker 'liver'?
Chocolate brown
Chocolate brown: the gene behind it browns every bit of dark pigment a dog makes, skin included, so a liver cocker's nose, eye rims and paw pads always match its coat.
Gundogs
Gundogs: Luckystar beat the previous year's winner, a Scottish Terrier called Heather Necessity, to take only the third Best in Show ever awarded, then won it again a year later.
Q 14The Field Spaniel was created by enthusiasts who wanted a large spaniel of what colour?
Black
Black was the show-ring fashion of the day, but the Field Spaniel bred to wear it fell into decline, and the Kennel Club now lists it as a vulnerable native breed.
Q 15An heiress from which American dynasty wrote the 1942 book that helped win the English Cocker its own US breed status?
Rockefeller
Rockefeller: Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge, president of the breed club, traced pedigrees to prove the English type was already a separate breed, and the American Kennel Club agreed in 1946.
Q 16Under the British and American standards, an English Cocker's ears drawn forward should reach where?
The tip of the nose
The tip of the nose: taste once ran longer, for an 1803 sporting guide said 'the longer the more admired', but today's standards ask for fine ear 'leathers' that reach just that far.
Q 17Under the Kennel Club standard a male Cocker stands about 40 cm at the withers, the top of the what?
Shoulders
Shoulders: the withers are the ridge between the shoulder blades, the usual place to measure a dog because, unlike the head, it doesn't rise and fall as the animal moves its neck.
Q 18Both the British and American standards say an English Cocker's feet should resemble those of which animal?
A cat
A cat: neat as those feet are, the breed club tells owners to check them after summer runs, because spiky grass seeds lodge there and can work their way painfully inside.
Q 19In England and Wales, cocker tails may only be docked if the owner proves what?
The dog will work or shoot
The dog will work or shoot: the 2007 ban on cosmetic docking exempts spaniels destined for jobs such as lawful shooting, pest control or police work, and a vet must see the evidence first.
Q 20How does the English Cocker differ in looks from its American cousin?
Taller, with a longer muzzle
Taller, with a longer muzzle: American breeders went for a smaller dog with a domed head and short muzzle, and by 1946 the two types had drifted far enough apart to be registered as separate breeds.
Q 24What do breeders call the long fringes of hair on a cocker's legs, tail and body?
Feathering
Feathering it is: both standards want a 'well-feathered' cocker, but the American one adds that the hair must never be so profuse that it gets in the way of the dog's work.
Q 25Stanley Coren's The Intelligence of Dogs ranks the English Cocker 18th; which breed comes first?
Border Collie
Border Collie: the list ranks obedience rather than all-round brains, by how quickly a breed learns a new command, under five repetitions for the top ten and five to fifteen for the cocker's tier.
Q 26In a 2004 British Medical Journal study, a cocker spaniel called Tangle proved a star at sniffing out what?
Cancer
Cancer: after seven months' training, Tangle and a fellow cocker picked the bladder-cancer patient's urine from seven samples 56% of the time, four times what chance would give.
Q 27A 1996 University of Cambridge survey of English Cocker owners examined which link?
Aggression by coat colour
Aggression by coat colour: owners of solid-coloured cockers reported more of it than owners of particolours, and UK vet records showed the same pattern almost thirty years later.
Q 28Which problem did a 2023 study of UK vet records find most often in English Cockers, about one in five a year?
Gum disease
Gum disease, logged in 21% of cockers a year, heads a list much like that of dogs in general, which is why the Royal Veterinary College team called the breed 'a fairly typical' dog.
Q 29A 2024 Royal Veterinary College study found English Cockers about seven times less likely than other dogs to suffer what?
Allergies
Allergies and the itchy skin that goes with them were rare in cockers, though the same records showed the breed far more prone than other dogs to dry eye and to muscle and joint pain.
Q 30The Cocker Spaniel topped Kennel Club registrations in the 1940s but lost first place in the mid-1950s to which breed?
Miniature Poodle
Miniature Poodle: in 1954 it had more registrations than any other breed. The cocker's boom had been in pets and show dogs, a type that now looks so unlike the working strain that the breed club describes the two separately.