Field Bred or Show?

[FCSpringer]

We offten hear ESS Owners more than anyone talk about their dog being field bred, well some make that claim but nothing in the pedigree to prove that. Anyway the reason is because for 70 or more years there has been two distinctive directions the breed went, Show dogs and field. There is some still in limbo with show being bred to field dogs and have the droopy eyes longer ears ect. But there is no compairson at all between the two that have completely separated, both being the best that they were bred for. No Show winning trials, and no field winning bench. One would think AKC would have to recognize the differance at some point and give them each their own breed class. They look nothing close to one another. And when I have seen Show dogs being run at a hunt test while gunning it is painfull to watch, as the show person would just laugh if I floped Odie up on a bench. The problem is what to do about all the ones stuck in the middle.

So this is the ?, It is interesting. But I was wondering are there other breeds this is going on with? Between show and field bred.

 

[birdshooter]

I think the same could be said to some degree with most of the hunting breeds. Maybe not to the degree as in Springers though.

Our family had a Springer when I was in high school. Bought her out of the paper. Knowing what I know now I am convinced she had mostly show blood in her. She would hunt, but became gunshy as a result of my misinformed methods at the time of introducing a dog to a gun.

As you eluded to, and probably more so than any other sporting breed, the bench springer and field springer look nothing like each other. I now have Shorthairs, and while the bench people are trying to develop leggy, big show dogs for the ring, many of them don't have the stamina or the same inbred instincts as their field bred counterparts. I think the chances of getting a good field bred shorthair are greater to some degree than in other breeds because of the popularity of them in the hunting fields. But the differences within even THEM.. can still be night and day. Field trialing has most definitely deversified the breed since it's inception into this country.

The Dual type dogs on the other hand do have the goods for both arenas IMO. If I'm not mistaken there are more Dual champion Brittany Spaniels than any other sporting breed. I think this shows a real testament to the breeders wanting to keep form and function as we call it, intact.

There you have it, that's take on it anyway.

 

[Dakotazeb]

I think the Irish Setter has gone through the same thing. Perhaps even more so than the Springer. Everyone wanted an Irish because they were such beautiful dogs and they didn't want for hunting. Thus the hunting nearly got bred out of them. There has been a real effort to bring back the field Irish Setter. From what I see out there in an attempt to distinquish the field Irish from the show they are now calling the field dogs Red Setters.

There are still very few field bred Irish (Red) Setters around. I have never seen one in the field but I did consider getting one last year before I decided to stay with my Brittanys.

 

[bobeyerite]

I have not been in the dog market for 10 years. But when I bought my last dog, we had to look for how many Field Trail champions were in the bloodline and how far back. If all the latest Champion stuff was from being a Show Dog we would pass on the pups. I can't really see where that should have changed. With advent of the Shoot to Retrieve and like championships, I would think good hunting pups would be easy to figure out......Bob