10/28/2020
Story from “Gun Dog Magazine “by Jerry Cacchio
Gundogmag.com
In the upland-flusher world, the debate over “which breed is better” typically pits the springer (sometimes cocker) against the Labrador. For certain, I am a springer man, and I always have been. That said, I’ve owned and trained and hunted a pile of Labs over the years, some of which performed exceptionally well in the context I placed them in. For a variety of reasons, though, springers have my heart, just as Labs command the love of more gun dog owners than any other breed. But where does the Lab make more sense than the springer, and why does the springer nearly always edge out the Lab for the type of hunting and training I do? Well, the answer is based in the physical mechanics of each breed, the prevalent genetic makeup, and the personal tastes that I’ve developed over a lifetime of hunting and trialing.
Let’s begin with the more emotional side of the debate. I grew up in a family of hunting-spaniel people, and I owned and trained my first springer when I was quite young. From the very start, I came to think of “gun dog” and “English springer spaniel” as synonymous terms, just as I came to believe that any tableau of an upland hunt required a springer or two, a double gun, and a grouse or a pheasant in hedgerow cover. Boyhood sentiments seem to stick; from the very start I saw springers in the uplands.
Comparing the Breeds
In comparing Labradors and springers, it is important to remember that the Labrador, in America anyway, has been refined to work more often as a retriever than a flusher. Similarly, the better bloodlines of springers have been selected, largely in the UK, to flush birds in front of the gun. Labradors are called Labrador retrievers because retrieving was the job they were designed to do. Certainly, some of those attributes that served a retriever well also suited an upland flusher, and therefore the transition from wetland to upland worked well for many a Labrador. But springers, though competent water dogs, are flushers first, and for what it’s worth, I’m an upland hunter first.