The Story of the Irish Water Spaniel
Click here to read the complete article
By Lee Connor
When I was fourteen, my father suddenly announced that he was going to buy a ‘holiday property’ down on the bleak Essex coast, at a place called Maldon.
Maldon’s biggest claim to fame was salt production and the thought of spending long summer holidays and most weekends in such a brain-numbing, dull place filled my siblings and me with complete dread!
To get me through the tedium, I came up with the enterprising idea of walking the site’s many dogs. They seemed to share my boredom and many of them were tethered up outside their owners’ holiday homes. Two of my favorite ‘clients’ were a huge Borzoi and a gorgeous Irish Water Spaniel called Paddy.
I spent many hours in the company of this extremely distinctive dog and although I was expressly told, “do not let him off the lead as he’s completely crazy,” I have to admit–when well out of sight of his owner’s close scrutiny–to releasing Paddy to run free across the vast, flat, salt marshes. It was something he quite obviously enjoyed, vividly bringing to life Nick Waters’ memorable description of the breed as a “bundle of rags in a cyclone”!
The Irish Water Spaniel may well be the oldest of Ireland’s native breeds and there are a wealth of theories relating to its origins.
Click here to read the complete article
Short URL: http://caninechronicle.com/?p=199566
Posted by AnthonyA
on Apr 11 2021. Filed under Current Articles, Featured.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Comments are closed
