Breed Priorities – Sussex Spaniel

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242 – April, 2026

By Nikki Riggsbee

The Sussex Spaniel was among the first ten breeds recognized by the American Kennel Club when it was formed. The breed was developed in the 1700s in Suffolk County, England, as a long, low, rather massive dog to hunt in dense cover.

The initial individuals registered in the AKC stud book were not recorded as producing any litters. Other Sussex Spaniels were imported from England in the 1920s. These and their descendants produced the dogs in the United States from the 1930s through the 1950s. After World War II, there were more Sussex in America than in the United Kingdom. None of those imported before the war are in the breed’s pedigrees today.

Interest in the breed revived in the United States in the 1970s. Dogs imported then are behind the Sussex Spaniel lines that are active today. The breed has likely always been a low entry breed. It is listed 175th in the most recently available AKC list of breed popularity based on registration statistics.

We found thirty-one Sussex Spaniel experts to invite to take a survey on their breed’s priorities in evaluating conformation. Twenty-two agreed to participate. By the deadline, fifteen completed surveys were returned. The experts contributing have been in the breed for an average of over twenty-seven years. Those who are judges have been approved for thirteen-and-a-half years on average. Most of them have judged their national specialty and other Sussex Spaniel specialty shows.

Sussex Spaniel Virtues

The experts prioritized a list of desirable characteristics taken from the AKC Sussex Spaniel breed standard. Below are the virtues–in sequence–by the average of the experts’ ranks, with 1 being the most important.

Click here to read the complete article
242 – April, 2026

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