Standard fci – English

American Kennel club l’organisme du chien au USA

Official Standard for the Cocker Spaniel

grand champion gina's n forman call me dickens

Gen­er­al Appear­ance:
The Cock­er Spaniel is the small­est mem­ber of the Sport­ing Group. He has a stur­dy, com­pact body and a clean­ly chis­eled and refined head, with the over­all dog incom­plete bal­ance and of ide­al size. He stands well up at the shoul­der on straight forelegs with a topline slop­ing slight­ly toward strong, mod­er­ate­ly bent, mus­cu­lar quar­ters. He is a dog capa­ble of con­sid­er­able speed, com­bined with great endurance. Above all, he must be free and mer­ry, sound, well bal­anced through­out and in action show a keen incli­na­tion to work. A dog well­bal­anced in all parts is more desir­able than a dog with strong­ly con­trast­ing good points and faults.

Size, Pro­por­tion, Sub­stance:
Size — The ide­al height at the with­ers for an adult dog is 15 inch­es and for an adult bitch, 14 inch­es. Height may vary one-half inch above or below this ide­al. A dog whose height exceeds 15½ inch­es or a bitch whose height exceeds 14½ inch­es shall be dis­qual­i­fied. An adult dog whose height is less than 14½ inch­es and an adult bitch whose height is less than 13½ inch­es shall be penal­ized. Height is deter­mined by a line per­pen­dic­u­lar to the ground from the top of the shoul­der blades, the dog stand­ing nat­u­ral­ly with its forelegs and low­er hind legs par­al­lel to the line of mea­sure­ment.
Pro­por­tion - The mea­sure­ment from the breast bone to back of thigh is slight­ly longer than the mea­sure­ment from the high­est point of with­ers to the ground. The body must be of suf­fi­cient length to per­mit a straight and free stride; the dog nev­er appears long and low.

Head: To attain a well-pro­por­tioned head, which must be in bal­ance with the rest of the dog, it embod­ies the fol­low­ing:
Expres­sion — The expres­sion is intel­li­gent, alert, soft and appeal­ing.
Eyes — Eye­balls are round and full and look direct­ly for­ward. The shape of the eye rims gives a slight­ly almond shaped appear­ance; the eye is not weak or gog­gled. The col­or of the iris is dark brown and in gen­er­al the dark­er the bet­ter. Dis­qual­i­fi­ca­tions: Eye(s) blue, blue mar­bled, blue flecked.
Ears — Lob­u­lar, long, of fine leather, well feath­ered, and placed no high­er than a line to the low­er part of the eye.
Skull — Round­ed but not exag­ger­at­ed with no ten­den­cy toward flat­ness; the eye­brows are clear­ly defined with a pro­nounced stop. The bony struc­ture beneath the eyes is well chis­eled with no promi­nence in the cheeks. The muz­zle is broad and deep, with square even jaws. To be in cor­rect bal­ance, the dis­tance from the stop to the tip of the nose is one half the dis­tance from the stop up over the crown to the base of the skull.
Nose — of suf­fi­cient size to bal­ance the muz­zle and foreface, with well devel­oped nos­trils typ­i­cal of a sport­ing dog. It is black in col­or in the blacks, black and tans, and black and whites; in oth­er col­ors it may be brown, liv­er or black, the dark­er the bet­ter. The col­or of nose har­mo­nizes with the col­or of the eye rim.
Lips — The upper lip is full and of suf­fi­cient depth to cov­er the low­er jaw.
Teeth — Teeth strong and sound, not too small and meet in a scis­sors bite.

Neck, Topline, Body:
Neck — The neck is suf­fi­cient­ly long to allow the nose to reach the ground eas­i­ly, mus­cu­lar and free from pen­du­lous "throat­i­ness." It ris­es strong­ly from the shoul­ders and arch­es slight­ly as it tapers to join the head.
Topline — slop­ing slight­ly toward mus­cu­lar quar­ters.
Body — The chest is deep, its low­est point no high­er than the elbows, its front suf­fi­cient­ly wide for ade­quate heart and lung space, yet not so wide as to inter­fere with the straight­for­ward move­ment of the forelegs. Ribs are deep and well sprung. Back is strong and slop­ing even­ly and slight­ly down­ward from the shoul­ders to the set-on of the docked tail. The docked tail is set on and car­ried on a line with the topline of the back, or slight­ly high­er; nev­er straight up like a Ter­ri­er and nev­er so low as to indi­cate timid­i­ty. When the dog is in motion the tail action is merry.

Fore­quar­ters: The shoul­ders are well laid back form­ing an angle with the upper arm of approx­i­mate­ly 90 degrees which per­mits the dog to move his forelegs in an easy man­ner with for­ward reach. Shoul­ders are clean-cut and slop­ing with­out pro­tru­sion and so set that the upper points of the with­ers are at an angle which per­mits a wide spring of rib. When viewed from the side with the forelegs ver­ti­cal, the elbow is direct­ly below the high­est point of the shoul­der blade. Forelegs are par­al­lel, straight, strong­ly boned and mus­cu­lar and set close to the body well under the scapu­lae. The pasterns are short and strong. Dew­claws on forelegs may be removed. Feet com­pact, large, round and firm with horny pads; they turn nei­ther in nor out.

Hindquar­ters: Hips are wide and quar­ters well round­ed and mus­cu­lar. When viewed from behind, the hind legs are par­al­lel when in motion and at rest. The hind legs are strong­ly boned, and mus­cled with mod­er­ate angu­la­tion at the sti­fle and pow­er­ful, clear­ly defined thighs. The sti­fle is strong and there is no slip­page of it in motion or when stand­ing. The hocks are strong and well let down. Dew­claws on hind legs may be removed.

Coat: On the head, short and fine; on the body, medi­um length, with enough under­coat­ing to give pro­tec­tion. The ears, chest, abdomen and legs are well feath­ered, but not so exces­sive­ly as to hide the Cock­er Spaniel's true lines and move­ment or affect his appear­ance and func­tion as a mod­er­ate­ly coat­ed sport­ing dog. The tex­ture is most impor­tant. The coat is silky, flat or slight­ly wavy and of a tex­ture which per­mits easy care. Exces­sive coat or curly or cot­tony tex­tured coat shall be severe­ly penal­ized. Use of elec­tric clip­pers on the back coat is not desir­able. Trim­ming to enhance the dog's true lines should be done to appear as nat­ur­al as possible.

Col­or and Mark­ings:
Black Vari­ety — Sol­id col­or black to include black with tan points. The black should be jet; shad­ings of brown or liv­er in the coat are not desir­able. A small amount of white on the chest and/or throat is allowed; white in any oth­er loca­tion shall dis­qual­i­fy.
Any Sol­id Col­or Oth­er than Black (ASCOB) — Any sol­id col­or oth­er than black, rang­ing from light­est cream to dark­est red, includ­ing brown and brown with tan points. The col­or shall be of a uni­form shade, but lighter col­or of the feath­er­ing is per­mis­si­ble. A small amount of white on the chest and/or throat is allowed; white in any oth­er loca­tion shall dis­qual­i­fy.
Par­ti-Col­or Vari­ety — Two or more sol­id, well bro­ken col­ors, one of which must be white; black and white, red and white (the red may range from light­est cream to dark­est red), brown and white, and roans, to include any such col­or com­bi­na­tion with tan points. It is prefer­able that the tan mark­ings be locat­ed in the same pat­tern as for the tan points in the Black and ASCOB vari­eties. Roans are clas­si­fied as par­ti-col­ors and may be of any of the usu­al roan­ing pat­terns. Pri­ma­ry col­or which is nine­ty per­cent (90%) or more shall dis­qual­i­fy.
Tan Points — The col­or of the tan may be from the light­est cream to the dark­est red and is restrict­ed to ten per­cent (10%) or less of the col­or of the spec­i­men; tan mark­ings in excess of that amount shall dis­qual­i­fy. In the case of tan points in the Black or ASCOB vari­ety, the mark­ings shall be locat­ed as fol­lows:
 1) A clear tan spot over each eye;
 2) On the sides of the muz­zle and on the cheeks;
 3) On the under­side of the ears;
 4) On all feet and/or legs;
 5) Under the tail;
 6) On the chest, option­al; pres­ence or absence shall not be penal­ized.
Tan mark­ings which are not read­i­ly vis­i­ble or which amount only to traces, shall be penal­ized.
Tan on the muz­zle which extends upward, over and joins shall also be penal­ized.
The absence of tan mark­ings in the Black or ASCOB vari­ety in any of the spec­i­fied loca­tions in any oth­er­wise tan-point­ed dog shall disqualify.

Gait: The Cock­er Spaniel, though the small­est of the sport­ing dogs, pos­sess­es a typ­i­cal sport­ing dog gait.
Pre­req­ui­site to good move­ment is bal­ance between the front and rear assem­blies. He dri­ves with strong, pow­er­ful rear quar­ters and is prop­er­ly con­struct­ed in the shoul­ders and forelegs so that he can reach for­ward with­out con­stric­tion in a full stride to coun­ter­bal­ance the dri­ving force from the rear. Above all, his gait is coör­di­nat­ed, smooth and effort­less. The dog must cov­er ground with his action; exces­sive ani­ma­tion should not be mis­tak­en for prop­er gait.

Tem­pera­ment: Equable in tem­pera­ment with no sug­ges­tion of timidity.

Dis­qual­i­fi­ca­tions:
Height — Males over 15½ inch­es; females over 14½ inch­es. Eye(s) blue, blue mar­bled, blue flecked.
Col­or and Mark­ings — The afore­men­tioned col­ors are the only accept­able col­ors or com­bi­na­tion of col­ors. Any oth­er col­ors or com­bi­na­tion of col­ors to dis­qual­i­fy.
Black Vari­ety — White mark­ings except on chest and throat.
Any Sol­id Col­or Oth­er than Black Vari­ety — White mark­ings except on chest and throat.
Par­ti-col­or Vari­ety — Pri­ma­ry col­or nine­ty per­cent (90%) or more.
Tan Points — (1) Tan mark­ings in excess of ten per­cent (10%); (2) Absence of tan mark­ings in Black or ASCOB Vari­ety in any of the spec­i­fied loca­tions in an oth­er­wise tan-point­ed dog.

Approved Jan­u­ary 9, 2018
Effec­tive March 1, 2018