English Cocker Spaniel

Cheerful, affectionate and keen to please its people.
An English Cocker Spaniel
Photo: Jean-Pol GRANDMONT
Adult weight
13–14.5 kg
29–32 lb
Lifespan
13.3 yrs
Class · Family
also Field, Companion

What it's like

In temperament it is cheerful and affectionate, and it is often called the merry cocker, a nod to its lively nature and busy tail. It is keen to please and closely attached to its people. Working-line dogs are generally more driven than show-line ones.

Day to day
Activity
A good daily walk and play
Intelligence
Learns readily, likes games
Handler demand
Needs steady training
With people
Affection
A lap or leaning dog
Loyalty
Bonded to its family
Independence
Keen to work with you
Around the home
Sensitivity
Needs a calm, predictable home
Voice
Barks to alert, then settles
Prey drive
Chases; needs managing
Breed explains only about 9% of how individual dogs differ in behaviour1. Meet the dog. A good breeder breeds for temperament as well as health, and matches each puppy's personality to the right home2,3.
Is an English Cocker Spaniel right for you?
Take the breed matcher

Living with one

Besides brushing, an English Cocker usually needs a trim about once a month around the feet, face, throat, under the ears and beneath the tail, and owners can learn to do it at home. Bred to work the field all day, it needs plenty of exercise compared with other breeds.

Size and growth

An English Cocker Spaniel is a medium dog, about the weight of a grown Staffordshire Bull Terrier. It is one of the lightest medium breeds.

It is a compact, solid spaniel with a well-developed, cleanly chiselled head, a square muzzle and long, low-set ears. Its coat is silky and flat, with feathering on the legs, chest and underside. Colours include solid black, red and golden, as well as parti-colours and roans such as blue roan.

Two types

The growth curve, the weight table and the size class on this page use the UK / FCI type's weights.

UK / FCI type

FCI 5
Adult weight
Males
13–14.5 kg
Females
13–14.5 kg5
Height at the withers
Males
39–41 cm
Females
38–39 cm5
Its weights are the ones used on this page.

American type

AKC standard
Adult weight
Males
13–15 kg
Females
12–15 kg8
Height at the withers
Males
40.6–43.2 cm
Females
38.1–40.6 cm8
Its weights are not the ones this page uses.

Puppy growth

Reference curve · community data appears as owners log
By about 5 months, a male English Cocker Spaniel puppy is already as heavy as a grown Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. They grow fastest between 3 and 4 months old.
Fully grown
10 mo
Both sexes, at 99% of adult weight10
Male
Female
Shaded: expected range
0510152m4m6m9m12m18m
0510152m3m4m6m9m12m18m
Age
Male
Female
2 months
3.3–3.7 kg 7.3–8.2 lb
3.7–4.1 kg 8.2–9.0 lb
3 months
4.5–5.0 kg 9.9–11.0 lb
4.7–5.3 kg 10.4–11.7 lb
4 months
6.3–7.0 kg 13.9–15.4 lb
6.4–7.1 kg 14.1–15.7 lb
5 months
7.8–8.7 kg 17.2–19.2 lb
7.7–8.6 kg 17.0–19.0 lb
6 months
9.0–10.1 kg 19.8–22.3 lb
8.8–9.8 kg 19.4–21.6 lb
7 months
9.9–11.1 kg 21.8–24.5 lb
9.6–10.7 kg 21.2–23.6 lb
8 months
10.6–11.9 kg 23.4–26.2 lb
10.2–11.4 kg 22.5–25.1 lb
9 months
11.2–12.5 kg 24.7–27.6 lb
10.7–12.0 kg 23.6–26.5 lb
10 months
11.5–12.9 kg 25.4–28.4 lb
11.1–12.4 kg 24.5–27.3 lb
11 months
11.9–13.2 kg 26.2–29.1 lb
11.5–12.8 kg 25.4–28.2 lb
12 months
12.1–13.5 kg 26.7–29.8 lb
11.8–13.1 kg 26.0–28.9 lb
15 months
12.6–14.0 kg 27.8–30.9 lb
12.4–13.8 kg 27.3–30.4 lb
18 months
13–14.5 kg 29–32 lb
12.9–14.4 kg 28.4–31.7 lb

Health and lifespan

Vets record these more often in English Cockers than in crossbreeds or other dogs, and none is rated serious. Dry eye (moderate), ear discharge and an outward-drooping eyelid (both minor) are far more likely. Muscle and joint pain and skin fold inflammation (both moderate) are much more likely. These are figures for the breed as a whole, not a prediction for your dog.
Listed by likelihood level, highest first, then by how serious it is, then by name. These are the first 5 of 32 measured.
  • Dry eye
    Far more likely
    Impact: moderate
  • Ear discharge
    Far more likely
    Impact: minor
  • Outward-drooping eyelid
    Far more likely
    Impact: minor
  • Muscle and joint pain
    Much more likely
    Impact: moderate
  • Skin fold inflammation
    Much more likely
    Impact: moderate

Lifespan

In UK vet records, the typical English Cocker Spaniel lived to about 13 and a half years, about average for a medium breed.

Where it comes from

The English Cocker Spaniel began as the cocking spaniel, a flusher of woodcock; soon after the Kennel Club's founding in 1873 it was classed apart from the Field and Springer Spaniels. In America a smaller type drew away, and fanciers of the English dog won a separate variety in 1936 and breed status in 1946. Show and working lines have since parted, the show dog being sturdier and heavier5,17.

The English Cocker Spaniel took its modern form in Britain in the late nineteenth century, when breeders fixed its type around a few foundation dogs. Among them was a black dog named Obo, often called the father of the breed. In the twentieth century the Ware kennel of H. S. Lloyd did much to shape the breed, and its dogs won the top award at Crufts several times. Bred to push through dense cover, flushing game for the gun and then retrieving it, the breed remains a common working gundog and is also used as a detection dog.

Breed standard

Kennel clubs do not all register this breed the same way.

The Cocker Spaniel

The Cocker Spaniel is the same dog on this index: its figures are this page's.

Questions people ask

General guidance for dogs rather than a measured English Cocker Spaniel figure: most females have a first season somewhere between six and fifteen months, and cycles then settle to roughly every 180 days. Smaller breeds tend to start earlier and larger ones later, so a medium-sized breed is most likely somewhere in the middle.

Compare with related

English Springer Spaniel
Retrievers & water dogs · Medium
American Cocker Spaniel
Retrievers & water dogs · Small
Cavalier King Charles Spaniel
Companion & toy · Small
Golden Retriever
Retrievers & water dogs · Large
Or compare the English Cocker Spaniel with any breed you choose
Track your own English Cocker Spaniel
Log a minute a day and watch them sit on these curves. Free.

Sources

Something wrong on this page?
Parts of this page were written by AI ·