History of Gundogs
When Christians took their hounds to the Holy Land, they found that the Arabs were equally obsessed with hunting. So dogs were exchanged. Crossed and subsequently back-crossed with the ‘Peat Dog’ thrown into the mix, they created a new type of dog designed for a more specialized form of hunting, called Fowling.
Before the invention of guns, Fowling was the hunting of game birds including geese and ducks, which could be used for food, or for their down and feathers.
Fowling involved creating of two types of Spaniels, Land Spaniels and Water Spaniels. By the 1500's the Setting Spaniel had also been developed in Britain. All these three types of Spaniels could be used in conjunction with either a trained hawk or falcon, or with the net as illustrated.
The Spaniel according to Dr. Cauis (first written in1536 AD)
In 1536, Dr. Johannes Cauis gave the name Spaniel to the type of dog that was used for the type of hunting called Fowling. Dr. Caius' classification was originally written in Latin and translated into English by A Fleming in 1576 [1]. The original translation of this important work is in my opinion too difficult to read to be printed in its original form. So it appears here as my interpretation in modern English:
| Interpretation by Jane Harvey | Source Material |
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Of gentle dogs serving the hawk; and first the Spaniel ; called in Latin, Hispaniolus. Such dogs are used for Fowling are Spaniels of the gentle kind (meaning what is known today as 'soft mouthed' or those dogs which would not puncture the skin of the game with their teeth). There is also the Spaniel Gentle which is purely a companion dog. But here we shall consider those which are used for Fowling of which there are two kinds
There were also Setting Spaniels which worked on land, but found their game in open land doing so by questing (galloping ahead of his master in search of game) to search out or spring the bird so his master, the huntsman could trap it. Alternatively these Spaniels would stand and somehow mesmerize the bird, betraying or showing the huntsman where it had settled. These were the Setting Spaniels (which today are known simply as Setters). (Before guns were invented) the game would be trapped by one of these alternatives:
Neither the Setting Spaniels nor the Land Spaniels had particular names assigned to them. However one name Caius suggested calling the dogs was after the trained bird of prey they most commonly used to assist the huntsmen in catching like 'The Falcon Spaniel''. |
Derived from pages 18 of A. Fleming's 1576 Latin-English Translation[1]
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References and Further Reading
[1] Dr Johannes Caius 'De Canibus Britannicus (of Englishe Dogges, the Diversities, the Names, the Natures, and the Properties)' pub. 1536 (in Latin). Trans. Abraham Fleming (1576).
Spaniel was the type of dog used for fowling. Fowling dates back to the first Century BC when the marshes and the banks of the Nile abounded with water fowl, small birds and migratory quail which were hunted with spears and throwing sticks [1]. So Spaniels were first used to flush this game out of the undergrowth into nets. Today there are around a dozen different Spaniel breeds are recognized, which are divided between two groups, Land Spaniels and Water Spaniels.
Setting Spaniels or Setters first appeared in Britain in the late 1400's when a bond signed by a John Harris on October 7th, 1485 agrees to keep for six months to train a certain spaniel to 'set partridges, pheasants and other game for ten shillings of lawful English money'[4]. Though today's Setters are divided into three distinct varieties, there can be no doubt that all have a common origin. Most authorities agree that the Spaniel family had definite influence and of all the theories put forward, the old Spanish Pointer seems to have completed the mix [1].