Like us on Facebook
​Boykin Spaniel Plantation

The Boykin Spaniel is medium in size, sturdy, and a typical spaniel. They are first and foremost a hunting dog with proven retrieving and flushing abilities characterized by boundless intelligence. Boykin Spaniels show great desire to please. They are a strong swimmer, taking to the water easily and are valuable for water retrieving as well as field retrieving. The Boykin Spaniel is peaceful, obedient and loyal. They are known for being good with children, and are a friendly family pet. They are generally good-natured and affectionate, wagging their stub of a tail to move their whole bodies. Their hunting aptitudes are excellent and they have served hunting families since the early 1900s. They are usually chocolate brown with an enthusiastic expression. Boykin Spaniels have great endurance, and make excellent pets for the country home.

Size: 14-18 inches tall and 25 to 40 pounds

Colors: Solid, rich, liver (reddish brown or dark chocolate). They range from solid liver to dark brown, allowing a small white spot on chest.

Coat: The coat can be flat, wavy, or very curly. The coat is waterproof as well, and they have a light feathering all over. The coat is medium length. Their ears are exceptionally curly.

Temperament: Boykins are friendly with an admirable disposition. They have no hostility toward other dogs or people in normal situations. Excessive timidity or hyperactivity is not seen with the Boykin character. They retain excellent hunting and retrieving skills as well as a sweet, docile temperment, and want to please and be obedient. They swim well and have great endurance.

With Children: Great with children, like their cousins the Cocker.

With Pets: Usually get along well with everyone.
HistoryThe ancestry of the Boykin Spaniel involved Springer Spaniels, American Water Spaniels, Pointers, Cocker Spaniels, Chesapeake Bay Retrievers and a stray, unidentified male spaniel. In the year of 1911, a man named Alexander White was coming home from church in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and found a stray brown spaniel. He decided to take it home and use it as the family pet. The dog, apparently, had very good hunting abilities and was sent to White's hunting partner, L. Whitaker Boykin. With Boykin's training, the dog was developed into an excellent waterfowl and turkey retriever. Boykin bred the stray with other female cockers that had similar aptitudes, eventually breeding those dogs with the aforementioned breeds and thus producing the Boykin Spaniel. The Boykin Spaniel was apparently "just right" size to hop into boats used on the Wateree River Swamp, and did well to keep quiet hunting in the brush on ground. The place in which Boykin resided was ideal for a northerner's vacation, therefore puppies were sold there and the breed spread from that point. The Boykin Spaniel is now the South Carolina state dog and fans of the breed have created the Boykin Spaniel Society. The Boykin Spaniel is still used today to retrieve a hunt all along the Atlantic coastline