The Clumber Spaniel - Dog Belonging To Kings And Queens

Have you ever heard of the Sheriff of Nottingham….of course you have, everybody has! Well it is said that the Clumber Spaniel originated in France, coming from the Kennels of the Duc de Noailles, now the duke -during the French Revolution- took all of his prized dogs and gave them to the Duke of Newcastle who lived in Clumber Park in Nottinghamshire. I think that is so sweet and romantic!

There is one other theory though that states that the Clumber Spaniel was developed in Great Britain, possibly from other hound, older spaniels and possibly even Saint Bernards .But that is not quite as romantic as the other theory.

Anyway, the one thing everybody agrees on is that the Duke of Newcastle’s gamekeeper, William Mansell, is the one that really developed and improved the breed. Prince Albert, the Prince consort of Queen Victoria, his son, King Edward VII and even Queen Victoria herself were all people who loved and promoted the breed.

The Clumber spaniel is an extremely big boned, heavy dog that is surprisingly low to the ground, I don’t know, for some reason I always had the impression that dogs that had such big, heavy bone work should just naturally be very tall dogs, with very long legs. Not the Clumber spaniel though, he is only, or should only be 18 to 20 inches high at the withers, the females being 17 to 19.

The males should weigh between 75 and 80 pounds while the female should only weigh between 55 and 70 pounds. This is a dog that gives the impression of pure strength, and he is, the Clumber spaniel is a dog that is very powerful and he also has a lot of endurance!

The Clumber spaniel was developed, just like all the other Spaniels, for hunting, it is said that the Cumber Spaniel is one of the best dogs to have if you have to hunt in thick and dens underbrush, he wasn’t bred to be short and strong for nothing you know.

As the Clumber spaniel is a dog that will always stay in sight of the hunter and because the Clumber spaniel has a pure white coat it is easy to keep track of him while in the field. The Clumber spaniel is a dog that prefers to hunt partridges and pheasants; when it comes to retrieving though, you might have to do a little bit of training in that area. Nevertheless, they are excellent water dogs!

Please, when you are training the Clumber spaniel, do not get to rough on the poor thing, because if you start yelling or whatever, you are going to realize that you just met a dog that can be just as stubborn as you are! These dogs have a very good memory and it is in their natural instinct to please their masters; training the
Clumber spaniel is usually no problem.

Because the Clumber spaniel is a hunting dog and because he loves his master so much you might want to provide plenty of chew toys for your furry friend because if not, you are going to find your shoes in places where they are not supposed to be, usually all chewed up and slobbered on. Slobber, now that is something that you will have to get used to because the Clumber spaniel is a dog that slobbers a lot, make sure you have a towel handy when he decides to give his head a shake, because you will be cleaning the slobber off, not only yourself but the tables, chairs and everything else.

Let’s not forget the fact that this is a long haired dog, long, white haired dog and boy can he shed, believe me, you are going to be finding Clumber spaniel hair everywhere, even in your food.

Now, because the Clumber spaniel has such a long coat it is a good idea to brush him quite often, also professional clipping is something that you might want to consider, you know, everybody wants a sharp looking dog, long hair or not. Make sure that you keep the ears clean and the hair trimmed every now and then, because The Clumber spaniel’s ears can become irritated.

The Clumber spaniel is a true couch potato; he is not active in the house so this leads to weight problems. Plenty of exercise and a carefully watched diet are a must!

If you want a nice dog, get a Clumber spaniel!