| Water Spaniel Dogs
Of this breed there are two varieties, a larger and smaller, both useful
according to the degree of range or the work required; the smaller,
however, being ordinarily preferable. Whatever be his general size,
strength and compactness of form are requisite. His head is long, his
face smooth, and his limbs, more developed than those of the
springer,
should be muscular, his carcase round, and his hair long and closely
curled. Good breaking is more necessary here than even with the
land-spaniel, and, fortunately, it is more easily accomplished; for, the
water-spaniel, although a stouter, is a more docile animal than the land
one.
Docility and affection are stamped on his countenance, and he rivals
every other breed in his attachment to his master. His work is double;
first to find, when ordered so to do, and to back behind the sportsman
when the game will be more advantageously trodden up.
In both he must be
taught to be perfectly obedient to the voice, that he may be kept within
range, and not unnecessarily disturb the birds. A more important part of
his duty, however, is to find and bring the game that has dropped. To
teach him to find is easy enough, for a young water-spaniel will as
readily take to the water as a pointer puppy will stop; but to bring his
game without tearing is a more difficult lesson, and the most difficult
of all is to make him suspend the pursuit of the wounded game while the
sportsman re-loads.
The water-spaniel was originally from Spain; but the pure breed has been
lost, and the present dog is probably descended from the large water-dog
and the English setter.
The water and land spaniels differ materially from each other. The
water-spaniel, although when at his work being all that his master can
desire, is, when unemployed, comparatively a slow and inactive dog; but
under this sobriety of demeanor is concealed a strength and fidelity of
attachment to which the more lively land-spaniel cannot always lay just
claim. The writer of this work once saved a young water-spaniel from the
persecution of a crowd of people who had driven it into a passage, and
were pelting it with stones. The animal had the character of being,
contrary to what his species usually are, exceedingly savage; and he
suffered himself to be taken up by me and carried from his foes with a
kind of sullenness; but when, being out of the reach of danger, he was
put down, he gazed on his deliverer, and then crouched at his feet.
From that moment he attached himself to his new master with an intensity
of affection scarcely conceivable — never expressed by any boisterous
caresses, but by endeavouring to be in some manner in contact with him;
resting his head upon his foot; lying upon some portion of his apparel,
his eye intently fixed upon him; endeavouring to understand every
expression of his countenance. He would follow one gentleman, and one
only, to the river-side, and behave gallantly and nobly there; but the
moment he was dismissed he would scamper home, gaze upon his master, and
lay himself down at his feet. In one of these excursions he was shot. He
crawled home, reached his master's feet, and expired in the act of
licking his hand.
Perhaps the author may be permitted to relate one story more of the
water-spaniel: he pledges himself for its perfect truth. The owner of
the dog is telling this tale.
"I was once on the sea-coast, when a
small, badly-formed, and leaky fishing-boat was cast on shore, on a
fearful reef of rocks. Three men and a boy of ten years old constituted
the crew. The men swam on shore, but they were so bruised against the
rocks, that they could not render any assistance to the poor boy, and no
person could be found to venture out in any way. I heard the noise and
went to the spot with my dog. I spoke to him, and in he went, more like
a seal than a dog, and after several fruitless attempts to mount the
wreck he succeeded, and laid hold of the boy, who clung to the ropes,
screaming in the most fearful way at being thus dragged into the water.
The waves dashed frightfully on the rocks. In the anxiety and
responsibility of the moment I thought that the dog had missed him, and
I stripped off my clothes, resolved to render what assistance I could. I
was just in the act of springing from the shore, having selected the
moment when the receding waves gave me the best chance of rendering any
assistance, when I saw old 'Bagsman,' for that was the name of my dog,
with the struggling boy in his mouth, and the head uppermost. I rushed
to the place where he must land, and the waves bore the boy and the dog
into my arms.
"Some time after that I was shooting wild-fowl. I and my dog had been
working hard, and I left him behind me while I went to a neighbouring
town to purchase gunpowder. A man, in a drunken frolic, had pushed off
in a boat with a girl in it; the tide going out carried the boat quickly
away, and the man becoming frightened, and unable to swim, jumped
overboard. Bagsman, who was on the spot, hearing the splash, jumped in,
swam out to the man, caught hold of him, and brought him twenty yards
towards the shore, when the drunken fellow clasped the dog tight round
the body, and they both went down together. The girl was saved by a boat
going to her assistance. The body of the man was recovered about an hour
afterwards, with that of the dog clasped tight in his arms, thus
dragging him to the bottom. 'Poor Bagsman! thy worth deserves to be thus
chronicled.'"
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