Many experts say that the Norfolk Spaniel is extinct, but this is only half true.
Maybe.
In the 17th century, spaniels were often named for where they were bred, and this was usually an estate or the kennels owned by royalty or aristocracy. Such was the case with the dogs bred by the Duke of Norfolk. Today’s English Springer Spaniel is believed by many experts to have descended from those dogs known then as “Norfolk Spaniels.” Subsequent Dukes of Norfolk, however, would disagree and say their family had no involvement with the breed at all, having owned Sussex Spaniels.
Others regard the true foundation of the modern English Springer Spaniel to be the dogs bred by the Boughey family in Shropshire. Starting in 1812, the family began to breed a pure strain of dogs called, not surprisingly, the Shropshire Spaniel, and this continued until the 1930s.
Some cynologists say the Shropshire and Norfolk Spaniels were closely related, and that one was descended from the other. Others say they were the same breed with interchangeable names. This latter point vigorously championed by author, Rawdon Briggs Lee who scoffed that there’d never been any difference between the Norfolk Spaniel and other Springer Spaniels.
Things were settled (at least in some people’s minds) when in 1872, England’s Kennel Club formally separated the Cocker and Springer Spaniels into different breeds, the Clumber and Sussex Spaniels separated from the Springer Spaniel, and all other varieties of Springer Spaniel lumped together into the English Springer Spaniel, among them the Norfolk Spaniel. The Kennel Club actually did consider naming the English Springer Spaniel the Norfolk Spaniel, but decided that the name, “Norfolk Spaniel” implied liver and white dogs only, and the Kennel Club went with a more inclusive option. From 1902 forward, the Norfolk was treated as the English Springer Spaniel, though debate rages to this day about the breed’s identity.
The breed club in America makes no mention of either the Norfolk or the Shropshire Spaniel, but the English Springer Spaniel Club of Canada writes, “First exhibited in the 1850’s as the Norfolk Spaniel, the breed was given its present name after the formation of the Sporting Spaniel Club which was founded in 1885.”
Where would the fun be of owning our different breeds if we couldn’t debate such things?
Image: “English Springer Spaniel with Duck” by Boris Riab (1898 – 1975)
Other works by this artist are available through auction here