Full of the joys of spring(ers)

Big brother to the fashionable cocker, the energetic, enthusiastic and thoroughly endearing English springer remains our most popular working spaniel, says Matthew Dennison

- Matthew Dennison

My husband is completely, obsessively in love with her.' At Spetchley Park in Worcestershire, home to her husband Henry's family for more than 400 years, Kate Berkeley is discussing the family's newest springer spaniel, 18-month-old, black-and-white bitch Radish. Currently completing her first full shooting season, Radish is the latest in a line of English springers Mr and Mrs Berkeley have owned since 2001. At Spetchley, she lives companionably with two English pointers, a cockapoo and a Bedlington whippet. Does Radish, I wonder, return Mr Berkeley's affection? 'She loves anyone and everyone,' Mrs Berkeley confirms. 'She's the most enthusiastic of our dogs.'

Enthusiasm and an affectionate nature rank high among springer-spaniel characteristics. 'They give you undivided love, they have such heart,' enthuses Richard Griffith, whose first springer was given to him by his parents when he was 15. Like labradors, springers are people-pleasers, described by the Kennel Club (KC) as 'merry... friendly, [of] happy disposition', traits that inspire passionate loyalty in those they encounter. Many owners become devotees for life and pass on their love for the breed to their children and even grandchildren.

'I didn't consider anything else,' admits historic-portraits dealer Nick Cox of his decision, three years ago, to buy sisters Skye and Scamp, one liver and white, the other black and white. Mr Cox's family—including both sets of his grandparents—have owned springer spaniels for eight decades. Among his own earliest memories is scrambling, as a very small child, under a desk and into the basket in which were sleeping his grandfather's springer bitch and a clutch of her puppies.