BUCCLEUCH GUNDOGS - ENGLISH SPRINGER SPANIEL HISTORY

The Buccleuch Spaniels started with David Lisett when he joined the Buccleuch Group in January 2004 and brought his Spaniels with him. 

David researched many different bloodlines before he purchased three female English Springer Spaniels from three different bloodlines.  There were two reasons for this, the first reason was to find out which bloodline suited David's training methods and the second was so that he could use a variety of stud dogs as the bloodlines were all different. 

This was back in 1996 and the Spaniels were Rytex Ricicles from Mr Ian Openshaw, Edwardiana Tweed from Mr John Edwards and Toonarmy Top-Tip from Mr Peter Richardson.  David has gone on to have much success with these three foundation bitches and has bred top quality puppies from them who are also achieving great heights.

All spaniels can trace their origins back to the spaniels of Spain. Up until the 1600's all spaniels were considered as being of the same group of dogs, with various sized dogs in the same litter. The larger of these were the forefathers of today's English Springer Spaniel. In 1892 the Kennel Club of Great Britain recognised Cocker and Springer spaniels as separate breeds even though they sometimes appeared in the same litter. This was soon stopped by the two breed clubs and a standard conformation was made of each breed. The Kennel Club of Great Britain granted breed recognition in 1902; the American Kennel Club granted recognition in 1927. This breed is one of the oldest sporting gundogs. Their original purpose was for finding and springing game for the net, falcon or greyhound. Nowadays they are used to find, flush and retrieve game for the gun.