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The History of the Clumber Spaniel

 The origins of the clumber spaniel as a breed are up for debate. What we do know is that the clumber spaniel shows up in paintings in England around 1788. The most famous of these paintings is, The Return From Shooting, by Francis Wheatley. Referenced as springers or cockflushers, the image shows what might be considered an early standard for the breed (low, long, protective ears, mostly white with some red-brown markings). This predates the French revolution; France is considered one of the possible origins.

The majority of the clumbers of this era were owned by several manor houses in Nottinghamshire in England. The major players were Welbeck Abby, the residence of the Duke of Portland, William John Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, the 5th, and Clumber House’s, Duke of Newcastle.

The man given actual credit for the clumber we know goes to William Mansell, Gamekeeper of Houghton , Nottinghamshire.

The breed was brought to North America in the mid 1800’s and recognized by the AKC in 1878. The clumber is a member of the 9 founding breeds of the American Kennel Club.

England established their breed standards and formed their Clumber Spaniel Club in late 1904.

One of the more famous clumber breeders of the world was his Majesty King George V.. His favorite dog was Sandringham Spark of the Royal kennels. WWII was quite hard on the English and by extension was very hard on all of the clumbers in Europe and especially England. During the war the numbers in this theater were substantially depleted.

The clumber as a breed in the US has been steady but fairly low key since its arrival and likely owes much of its American presence to the DuPont family who have always kept a substantial kennel of clumbers.

The clumber is one of the last hunting breeds to not have been broken into two separate breeds; meaning that the working clumber is the same as a show clumber. Their noses are second only to a few select breeds which makes them exceptional flush and retrieve hunters.

The Clumber Spaniel as a Dog

The clumber spaniel is fiercely loyal and is a wonderful addition to a family. The clumber is one of the few dogs trained to hunt in groups and as such does not do well by themselves; whether it be humans, dogs or both as their pack, they need a pack.

The clumber is affectionate and loves to snuggle with their pack. They are most often calm around other dogs and should not be overly protective of their humans.

Clumbers are heavy dogs, and we consider the breed mid-sized because of their height but they are densely packed dogs and the males can come in at as much as 90 pounds (about 41 Kilos).

The Clumber tends to be athletic but not the fastest of the spaniels. They are referred to as the retired gentlemens’ hunting dog because of their steady purposeful pace. As a hunting dog they tend to stay “under the gun” and will relentlessly follow a trail. This is in fact one of their little bugs; when the nose goes down, the hearing can shut off, at least until they can be distracted. We have hunted with some of our dogs and the girls seem to be much more inclined to be hunters. They are designed to be short tanks, thick underbrush and woody thickets are “their zone.”

Their fur is soft and can be straight or slightly curly but never wiry. They have no undercoat but they shed all year long. Even though their coat is mostly white, they shed much of the dirt as the hair dries.

Be ready for a lot of attention when you are out and about with your clumber, they attract attention as an exceptionally rare and handsome breed. There are only a few hundred born each year in each of the major breeding countries. When we went to Disneyland with Riley (he loved Ariel’s Underwater Adventure) we felt like one of the rides from the number of questions from all of the people who met him. We will follow that up with letting you know that Riley is actually a PTSD service animal.

Clumber features…They love food, this makes them easy to train but you will learn how skilled they are at knowing when you are distracted. We would probably put them in the category of being food fanatics which can be a challenge if you are going to train one as a service dog.

They do not have the issues with cancer that many pure breeds have but have been labeled as having hip issues. As heavy understory hunters they were bred to be great contortionists and as such their sockets are supposed to be loose. So hip dysplasia does not manifest the way that you would see it in a golden retriever.