Well, that is a tough one to answer. Generally speaking, that would be the Springer spaniel because of its endurance. The breed is bigger than the Cocker, more powerful and strong. On the other hand; there are probably a lot of people who think that they are each others equals, and maybe they are right. Even though we still think that the Springer is a bit better equipped for the hard work, we have seen Cockers being just as good.
A few years back, we had the good fortune of borrowing Tilda, a hard working Cocker bitch, and she proved herself, and her breed, in a way that confirms that there are always exceptions from the rules. She stayed with us that whole season and she was, without comparison, the best spaniel we have ever had the pleasure of hunting with. Just as endurable as any Springer and as obedient as no other dog we have ever seen. We hardly ever needed to control her by any signals or signs, she knew exactly what she was doing and she never crossed any lines, but the best of it all was that she could go on the whole day without ever tiring.
It was she and her niece, our own Tezla, who showed us the joys of woodcock hunting. As the name, Cocker spaniel, implies, they really are the best for that particular sort of bird hunting. They do not have to learn how to handle them, they just do it. The difference between Tilda and Tezla is that the latter is more like the ordinary cockers we have seen, not quite as endurable as the Springer spaniel. The drive that makes her into such an excellent gun dog is at the same time her biggest enemy; one hour of hard work takes the best out of her and she will have to have a long rest.
The Springer on the other hand, may sometimes have to be taught to handle the woodcock properly. The handler has to make the dog stay as close as the Cocker usually does, but also encourage it to search every bush, every hole in the ground and, just to be sure, turn on every leaf as well. The woodcock sits extremely hard and the dog very often has to force it to leave its seat. All those traits belong to the cocker, but it does not come naturally to the Springer. On the other hand; once taught how, the Springer usually handles the situation fairly well.
When it comes to the more traditional wood fowl hunting, we have found out that the Springer’s swifter and more forceful way of hunting is the best. We need the speed, the pace that allows us to move fast forward in the terrain in order to keep up with the game and therefore force them to their wings when still in range for the shot. The Cocker is a bit slow, but also too thorough to keep up with the fast running birds; there is always a risk that they run away too far only to fly away well out of range. That does not mean that the Cocker is useless, only that it must be allowed to hunt the densest cover there is, where the Cocker often enough can be the better choice, because it is more agile and the birds tend to sit harder.
Of course the Cocker can very easily be taught to hunt in the same way as the Springer, but that would not be fair to the Cocker, would it? We can see no reason to take away from the Cocker the qualities that makes it the excellent gun dog it really is. To us the two breeds are the two sides of the same coin that makes our day of hunting complete. Toss it; heads or tails make no difference, we can always toss it again.
