300 BRITISH DOGS 



least fifteen minutes in the first round ; but they can, if they think fit, carry on the 

 trial of two dogs simultaneously, not requiring them to take notice of each other, 

 nor ordering down together two dogs worked by the same person. All shooting 

 will be done by guns appointed by the Committee. 



2. In Brace and Team Stakes the order of running in the first round shall 

 be decided by lot, and the dogs composing a brace or team must belong to the 

 same owner. No dog shall form part of more than one brace or team at the same 

 meeting, and only one man at a time shall work any brace or team. 



3. In all Stakes the Spaniels shall be regularly shot over in the customary 

 sporting manner, and may be worked up and down wind, and on feather and fur. 



4. In all Stakes the principal points to be considered by the judges are 

 scenting power, keenness, perseverance, obedience, freedom from chase, style, 

 method of beating, and hunting to the gun whether in cover, hedgerow, or the 

 open. In Single Stakes, besides, the Spaniels are expected to retrieve at 

 command from land or water as required tenderly, quickly, and right up to 

 the hand ; and any additional excellence, such as dropping to hand and shot, 

 standing to their game and flushing it at command, etc., will be taken into 

 account ; while in Brace or Team Stakes they ought to drop to shot, and beat 

 their ground harmoniously together. In all Stakes for Puppies under twelve 

 months, the retrieving of fur shall be optional ; and in Non-retrieving Stakes, 

 if a dog retrieves wounded or dead game, it shall be reckoned a serious fault 

 against him. 



The first trials were held at Sutton Scarsdale in January, 1899 ; 

 and the work, for a beginning, was very good a Cocker, some 

 Clumbers, and a Sussex, besides other Springers, all distinguishing 

 themselves. Since then progress every year has been evidenced 

 in the breaking of the Spaniels ; but, in spite of this, at the last 

 meeting (1901) two breakers, novices at trials, appeared and carried 

 off some of the best prizes. 



These Spaniel articles are written from the point of view of a 

 sportsman, because Spaniels were invented by such, and were 

 originally kept for work with the net, with the falcon, with the 

 cross-bow, and with the gun, and are still used by hundreds with 

 the last-named weapon. We must, for the same reasons, resist 

 the handing over of these, the most generally useful of the gundogs, 

 to the non-sporting community for fancy-toy purposes. When 

 practicable, the points of each variety are quoted from the descriptions 

 of the Sporting Spaniel Society, which advocates that all Spaniels 

 shall be considered by Rule of Gun. This Society declares in 

 its Preface that it exists for the purpose of recalling attention to 

 the working points of Spaniels, which have been neglected in favour 

 of fancy points brought latterly into fashion by dog shows and 

 " fancier " judges ; that its members are resolved to breed Spaniels 

 strictly on sporting lines, and to judge them by a similar standard ; 

 that in Spaniels the ornamental and the useful types were originally 

 one and inseparable ; that it is strenuously opposed to the modern 

 exaggeration of certain points, alike on aesthetic and utilitarian 

 grounds ; and that, the ideal Spaniel, like the ideal of all other 

 sporting dogs, being the one with no faults and no exaggerations 



