The history of English cocker began no more than a century, the origin of the spaniels instead has to be searched far back in time, so much so as to go back to the Canis Familiaris intermedius to get to the Chien d'Oysel, of which there is traces in almost the entire European continent. The cocker it is a direct descendant of the spaniels, derived in turn from spaniel dogs probably imported into Great Britain many centuries ago and selected there and specialized in particular hunts.
The English setter, for example, is a spaniel selected for hunting where stopping is required, but is a close relative of the cocker, as well as relatives are the small spaniels selected for the company.
To draw a broad picture here, mentioning all the various hypotheses, since nothing is certain, and to point out all those who have been interested in epagneuls in recent centuries, would require many pages, so it will be good to jump at the foot of a few centuries to bring us to the 1870-80 decade in which more precise information can be had, but which still does not show us the current one cocker. It is known that at that time in Great Britain there was a considerable heterogeneity of types all used for hunting, called Land's Spaniels, in fact each breeder took care and selected for his particular need and therefore resulted in a considerable variety of types, which however had in a strong hunting aptitude is common.
The birth of the today's cocker, birth as a breed obviously, seems to be due to an ancestor named Obo, black, originally from Wales or Devonschire, whose owner Mr. Farraw, mating him with great caution, obtained the prototype of today's cocker. A type was thus created, which other breeders such as CA Philipps, A. Lloyd, T. Harrington, de Courcy, Mr. Fytche, JE Sothern, WS Hunt and others, were able to fix definitively, however the type was not yet what today we know.
Main characteristics
It is clear that natural evolution and careful selection, over the course of a century, have considerably changed the morphological structure, but it should be noted that the "change" of the breed has followed a precise constant graph, so much so that we hardly perceive the evolution occurred, with slight gradual modifications. Today in fact all over the world the type of cocker it is almost unified. The standard that the British have drawn, even if incomplete and incomplete like all English standards, has allowed breeders to follow a constant that has given excellent results everywhere.
In Italy, especially in the last 40/50 years, it has been able to interpret this standard so well that, in some cases, we can anticipate the country of origin in the slight changes that the British have brought to their own standard in recent years.
By measuring many sample subjects, almost all of Italian breeding, it was possible to detect a uniformity of measures in order to write a comment on the standard which, once disclosed, will be able to give greater clarity of ideas to those who are not too familiar "in intuiting" the ideas. British. From these measurements it was easy to establish that for example: the ideal head of the cocker it must have a length (from the tip of the nose to the occipital crest) at least equal to half the height at the withers, that the direction of the upper craniofacial axes must be divergent from each other, which despite having the height from the ground to the elbow equal to height from the elbow to the withers the trunk of the cocker it must be in a rectangle, in fact the best is when the length from the withers to the root of the tail is equal to the height at the withers.
Even in Italy some time ago it often happened that some breeders, trying to enhance the qualities of elegance of their subjects, came to exaggerations, so much so as to touch the hypertype, but then it was possible to foresee and hit these "super qualities", which they ended up being flaws. For instance. We had come to subjects with too long necks, very elegant, of course, but not responding to the function of the cocker which, let's not forget, is essentially a hunting dog, with very specific tasks and characteristics. A long neck would have fatally affected the center of gravity and the speed would have had to be increased, thus distorting its original nature, furthermore the dog with a too long neck (consequently not very strong), would have had greater difficulty in retrieving, for example, a Hare. The neck of the cocker it should be 4 tenths of the height at the withers in length. The British, after us, I don't know if for the same reasons, have changed the official standard, making it clear that the cocker's neck must be "moderately" long.
Practical use
Too bad that this breed is so beautiful, in fact I believe that the biggest flaw of the English cocker spaniel is precisely its beauty and its friendliness.
Too often a cocker has been chosen for company, too often his passion has been deliberately ignored, too often his "desire" for hunting has been mortified. It is really sad to see a cocker made idiotic, fat, indolent, by people who misinterpret the love for this dog, use it only to pet it, to play with it as if it were a rag doll. In the tests, the cocker must beat the available terrain, with courage, determination, and speed, whatever the vegetation, he must "pistare", that is, he must follow the invisible trace of the wild that has stolen the pawn, all this within range. shotgun, to get the game off "loading" it, and stopping when it is at its most aroused, it should in fact sit down or freeze as soon as the pheasant flies or the hare splashes.
Once the wild has been killed the dog must bring back from any terrain and in any condition, recover, if the wild has fallen injured, but only on command. That is, after stopping when the game is up, at the command of the handler he must leave for recovery. It's not easy but the cocker does it (almost always).
The cocker is an excellent hunting dog, with this dog you can practice all forms of hunting, from lark to post to thrushes, to waiting for ducks, although of course it is much more suitable for hunting pheasant or woodcock, not only as a yield, as an auxiliary , but able to satisfy even the most sophisticated and demanding hunter. Those who hunt in wooded areas should, in order to be perfectly in line with the hunting ethics, hunt only with a spaniels.