Like Julius Caesar's Gaul, the AKC Sporting Group is divided into three parts, more commonly known as "Classifications": pointing breeds, retrievers, and flushing spaniels. This division facilitates three distinct formats for AKC field trials and hunting tests to meet the different needs of each type dog.

The happy AWS here may not be smiling, but he put a big smile on owner Mike Raemaeker's face.

For a breed to participate in these field events, it must be both AKC-recognized and classified as one of the three. Each breed's parent club determines its breed's classification. Of course, for most breeds, the appropriate classification is obvious, not a matter of intra-club controversy.

Not so for the American water spaniel (AWS), a breed made up of equal parts of retriever and flushing spaniel. Because of this duality, although the AWS was AKC-recognized in 1940, it wasn't classified until 2005, and then only after decades of agonizing debates and verbal donnybrooks within the parent club, the American Water Spaniel Club (AWSC).

During that 65 years sans classification, AWSs could be AKC registered, and could participate in the various "generic" AKC events, like conformation shows, obedience trials, and agility trials. But they couldn't participate in AKC field trials or hunting tests, for which classification is required.

Granted, in their hunting skills, few breeds are purists, although some are purer than others. Many pointing dogs retrieve, with greater or lesser enthusiasm, usually even from water. Many retrievers "hunt to the gun" in the uplands, some flushing, others pointing. Many flushing spaniels retrieve waterfowl, at least under reasonable weather and water conditions. Even so, when operating outside of their classification, most such animals don't measure up to the specialists.

Again, not so the AWS. A properly bred and trained AWS not only hunts the uplands with spine-tingling "spaniel-esque" style, enthusiasm, and (when necessary) reckless abandon, but he also operates like the best of the retriever breeds in waterfowling, regardless of the weather and water conditions. The breed is truly half-retriever and half-spaniel.

The Breed
Simply put, the AWS is physically tough and mentally tenacious. Physically, the breed is a medium-sized spaniel, and a small retriever. Solidly built and muscular, they stand 15 to 18 inches at the withers, and weigh 25 to 45 pounds, with the females averaging smaller than the males.

The coat may be liver, brown, or chocolate, with or without a dash of white on the chest and feet. This practical double coat has a wavy or curly outer coat overlying a wooly undercoat. The outer coat protects the dog from cover and is reasonably water-repellent. The undercoat provides insulation for warmth.

Unlike flushing spaniels but like retrievers, the AWS has a full (non-docked) tail, which is helpful in water work. Clearly, the breed is equipped physically to handle the most punishing conditions both in the uplands and in the marshes. Their relatively small size makes them ideal for waterfowling from a boat. Granted, in the uplands the coat picks up burrs, in typical spaniel fashion.

The AWS temperament is uniquely American: bold, self-confident, fearless, sometimes saucy and truculent, and yet surprisingly sensitive, tenderhearted, and fiercely loyal. Watching an AWS work in the field always reminds me of James Cagney's legendary performance as George M. Cohan in the movie, Yankee Doodle Dandy. (This movie, available on DVD and VHS, will tell you a lot about the AWS character, as well as a lot about your own American character.)