English Springer Spaniel Twin Finder: 150 in the Pool

To find your English Springer Spaniel's twin, upload one clear photo to PetMatch and the model compares your dog's face against the 150 English Springer Spaniels already in the pool, returning the real dog whose face sits closest to yours. The crop it scores is a medium sporting head: a fairly broad skull that is flat on top, a moderate stop, and long ears whose leather reaches about the tip of the nose.

Ears set level with the eye

The AKC standard, approved August 8, 2023 and effective November 1, 2023, calls the English Springer Spaniel a medium-sized sporting dog with a moderately long coat, feathered on the legs, ears, chest, and brisket. The ears are long and fairly wide, hanging close to the cheeks. The leather is thin and about long enough to reach the tip of the nose. Correct set is on a level with the eye, and not too far back on the skull.

A docked tail and an undocked tail are given equal consideration, and the tail sits outside this crop. So does height. The ideal is 20 inches at the shoulder for dogs and 19 for bitches. More than one inch under or over that ideal is a fault.

Flat on top, oval through the eye

The skull is medium in length and fairly broad, flat on top, and slightly rounded at the sides and back. The stop is moderate: a subtle rise where the muzzle joins the upper head, divided by a groove, or fluting, between the eyes that fades by the middle of the forehead.

The eyes are medium size and oval, set rather well apart and fairly deep. Dark hazel is preferred on a liver and white dog, and black or deep brown on a black and white dog. Rims match the coat, and the lids are tight, with little or no haw showing. Small, round, protruding, yellow, or brassy eyes are highly undesirable. The muzzle is about as long as the skull and about half as wide, with a straight nasal bone and flat cheeks. The nose is fully pigmented, liver or black, to match the coat.

Black, liver, roan, and tricolor

Three combinations are equally acceptable. Black or liver with white markings, or mostly white with black or liver markings. Blue or liver roan. Tricolor: black and white, or liver and white, with tan markings usually on the eyebrows, cheeks, inside of the ears, and under the tail. Any white area may carry ticking. Lemon, red, and orange are off colors and are not placed.

The outer coat is medium length, flat or wavy, over a short, soft, dense undercoat. Fringe on the ears, chest, legs, and belly is moderate, and hair on the head is short and fine. A pet clip that strips the ear fringe changes the silhouette around leather of the same length.

Spaniels in the same crop

The Brittany is the pointing dog in this crop. The Brittany twin finder covers that head, and the Brittany pool holds 157 dogs, separate from these 150. Those ears sit above the eyes, short and triangular, reaching about half the muzzle, with little fringe. A Springer ear is level with the eye, and the leather reaches about the tip of the nose. Orange and white, or liver and white, is correct on a Brittany. On a Springer, lemon, red, and orange are off colors and are not placed. A black nose disqualifies a Brittany. A Springer's nose is liver or black to match the coat. Brittany height, 17½ to 20½ inches, overlaps the Springer ideal, so a face crop separates them by ear length.

The Cocker is the flushing spaniel already in the pool. The Cocker Spaniel twin finder covers that head. PetMatch lists 287 Cockers, American and English in one entry. The AKC has registered them as separate breeds since 1946. The Cocker Spaniel is the smallest member of the Sporting Group: a rounded skull with no tendency toward flatness, a pronounced stop, and ears placed no higher than a line to the lower part of the eye. A Springer skull is flat, the stop is moderate, and the ear is level with the eye. An English Cocker, a little taller than the American with a longer muzzle and a flatter skull, is the Cocker type a Springer face can resemble.

The Welsh Springer Spaniel is not in the pool. Its AKC standard, approved June 13, 1989, allows only rich red and white. The skull is slightly domed, the stop is clearly defined, and the ears are comparatively small, with leather that does not reach the nose. A red-and-white face is scored against these 150, because there is no Welsh entry to file it under.

When the twin is a mix

Mixed-breed dogs are the largest group on PetMatch, at 10,182. A mix that kept the long leather, the flat skull, and a black-and-white or liver-and-white face can place ahead of the registered Springers. The model is matching the face in the photo.

A photo that shows the leather

Shoot head-on at eye level in open shade, mouth closed, with both ears hanging close to the cheeks so the set and the full leather show. Direct sun blows out a white ground and hides the ticking, so a roan face and a patched face start to look like the same mask.