The word cocker is commonly held to stem from their use to hunt woodcock in England, while spaniel is thought to be derived from the breed's origins in Spain.

[3] The breed is the smallest of the sporting dogs recognized by the AKC, and its distinctly shaped head makes it immediately recognizable.

Members of the breed suffer from a wide variety of health ailments including problems with their hearts, eyes and ears.

[7][8] The first Cocker Spaniel recorded in America was a liver and white dog named Captain, who was registered with the American Kennel Club in 1878.

He differed greatly from the modern breed, being only 10 inches (25 cm) tall and with a long body, but was considered to be an excellent dog of that era and became a popular sire.

[9] Towards the end of the 19th century, the breed had become popular in America and Canada due to their dual use as a family pet and a working dog.

[12] The first UK Kennel Club registered American Cocker Spaniel was Aramingo Argonaught, born January 17, 1956, and bred by Herbert L. Steinberg.

This included Aramingo Argonaught, who was the first American Cocker Spaniel to be shown at Crufts in 1960 in a class entitled "Any variety not classified at this show".

In 1952, an American Cocker Spaniel became a household name when United States Senator Richard Nixon made his Checkers speech on September 23.

[19] It is a dog of normal proportions, with medium long silky fur on the body and ears, hanging down on the legs and belly (known as feathering).

[18] The head of an American Cocker Spaniel makes the breed immediately recognizable, with the rounded dome of the skull, well-pronounced stop, and a square shaped lip.

[28] IQ tests run on a variety of breeds in the 1950s and 1960s showed that the American Cocker performed the best when tested on its ability to show restraint and delayed response to a trigger, a trait which was put down to the breed's bred-in ability when hunting to freeze upon finding a bird before flushing it out on command.

However, they proved to be the worst breed tested when it came to manipulating objects with their paws, for instance uncovering a dish of food or pulling on a string.

[29] With a good level of socialization at an early age, an American Cocker can get along with people, children, other dogs and other pets.

It was bred more and more in conformation with the breed standard, resulting in certain attributes, such as a long coat, which no longer make it an ideal working dog.

[32] A study in the US veterinary data found the American Cocker Spaniel to be predisposed to glaucoma with 5.52% of dogs having the condition, the greatest prevalence of all breeds.

[33] American Cocker Spaniels can present with a nutritional form of dilated cardiomyopathy that is associated with low blood concentrations of the amino acid taurine.

[34] The American Cocker Spaniel is predisposed to the following dermatological conditions: allergic skin disease, intertrigo, Malassezia dermatitis, melanoma, otitis externa, plasmacytoma, primary keratinisation defects, sebaceous adenoma, and vitamin A-responsive dermatosis.