Only one sporting breed standard allows its breed to have its ears shaved, and that standard belongs to the American Water Spaniel (the only other breed which allows shaving the ears is the Bedlington Terrier). From its AKC standard: Coat may be trimmed to present a well groomed appearance; the ears may be shaved; but neither is required.

The American Water Spaniel is special in so many ways, and one of those ways is that it’s one of only a handful of breeds that is allowed by the AKC to acquire both spaniel and retriever titles. Another way in which the AWS stands out is that it doesn’t have show lines versus field lines. The breed can do it all, and thus, many American Water Spaniels have both conformation and field titles.

Evidently, not enough people know about these terrific dogs because the breed remains rare with only an estimated 3,000 in existence at any given time. These happy, energetic, and eager-to-please dogs just might be dogdom’s best kept secret. They can hunt, compete in agility and obedience, do therapy dog work, perform in rally, barn hunt, and tracking, and of course, because there is no split between conformation dogs and those that excel in the field, one can walk out of a show ring and compete in a hunt test. 

Image: American Water Spaniel by Lyn Hamer Cook from DogArtByLyn
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