Field vs. Show – What’s the Difference?

Field vs. Show – What’s the Difference?

By Geoffrey English

This past winter I attended a number of Sportsman Shows throughout the northeast where I performed numerous waterdog retrieving demonstrations, showing the versatility of the English springer spaniel and Labrador Retriever. What amazed me while speaking to the average outdoorsmen was not the fact that they were unaware of a spaniel or the Labrador Retrievers’ versatility, but rather that they were unaware that there was a difference between show and field gundogs.

During the show I was absolutely amazed at the number of avid outdoorsmen who had little, if any, understanding of the qualities that go into breeding world-class gundogs. Throughout the course of these sportsmen shows and meeting tens of thousands of avid outdoorsmen, I would venture to guess that better than 70% of the folks I met were unaware that such a difference existed. Ask those same individuals what gauge or shot size they would use to hunt a species of upland game or waterfowl and they could easily rattle off the pros and cons of each.

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