by crackerd » Wed 10 Nov 2004 7:05 am
Thanks, Maureen. Wondered if quarantine would be a big hitch or just that the dog was unheard of down there. Boykins are purely field-bred, as there's no fancy--the breed is not recognized by the American Kennel Club, not in having been rejected, but as preferred by the breed club. That's the flip side of the UK Kennel Club saying no to the "Russian spaniel," which it calls a ESS x cocker cross rather than a new breed. Boykins are plenty of cross, too: a hotchpotch of Chesapeake Bay Retriever, English cocker and some claim Sussex spaniel. And though a spaniel, most are worked primarily as nonslip retrievers.
Their "cousin", by the way, the larger American Water Spaniel, after 75 years, has just "chosen" to become a flushing breed. For all that time, the AWS had been the only AKC-recognized breed ineligible for trials and tests--because the breed club was split as to whether it should be declared a flushing dog or a retriever. And the way AKC trials and tests are structured, a dog can compete in one venue but not both.
MG