The Irish Water Spaniel Temperament

Irish Water Spaniels have fun loving personalities and are relatively even tempered animals. Irish Water Spaniels are playful, intelligent dogs that make great family pets. Despite how intelligent these Gundogs are, the Irish Water Spaniel is a difficult dog breed to train. Irish Water Spaniels need owners with straight forward positive training tactics in order for them to acquire higher levels of obedience skills. It might not be an easy job to do, but it's definitely worth training your Irish Water Spaniel correctly starting at an early age. Although Irish Water Spaniels do not always excel in obedience training, like most Spaniels they are naturally easy to train as hunting dogs and retrievers.


The Irish Water Spaniel makes a good running and exercising companion for those who enjoy any hobbies pertaining to physical fitness. Irish Water Spaniels are not suitable for people who like to spend many hours sitting around and watching TV with little physical activity and who stay inside for long intervals of time. To no surprise since these Gundogs are both large and require considerably high amounts of exercise, they need lots of room and land to play and run around in. The Irish Water Spaniel is by no means considered to fit the city and the urban lifestyle. In order for this dog breed to stay both mentally healthy and physically healthy, Irish Water Spaniels require living in spacious suburbs and rural areas.


If you're looking for a dog breed that suites the suburban and urban lifestyle, then I recommend reading the following article on the Top Ten Best Apartment Dogs.

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Irish Water Spaniel Appearance

The Irish Water Spaniel Appearance

Irish Water Spaniels are a relatively large sized dog breed, especially when you compare Irish Water Spaniels to their other Spaniel relatives which are noticeably smaller. Unlike other Spaniels, the Irish Water Spaniel tends to look as though it resembles a Standard Poodle more so than it does a Spaniel or Gundog. It's even thought that a bit of Standard Poodle could have been bred in somewhere along the history and formation for the more modern Irish Water Spaniel. Although this dog breed may not necessarily look like a Spaniel from first glance, don't be mistaken. If you take a closer look at the Irish Water Spaniel's facial features, you'll quickly begin to realize that these dogs clearly have the signature Spaniel face and head.


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If there's any feature that stands out about the Irish Water Spaniel it's by far without a doubt their coats. Irish Water Spaniels have long, extremely dense and thick, beautiful auburn red to liver colored curly coats. The Irish Water Spaniel's fur somehow naturally manages to look as though it has a picture perfect perm. As you might expect since Irish Water Spaniels have long thick curly hair, their coats require hefty amounts of grooming about once a week. If you're not an experienced dog owner with grooming or do not have the time to respectably groom an Irish Water Spaniel, than I probably wouldn't recommend this dog breed for you. If you're new to dog grooming though, and you would really love to own an Irish Water Spaniel, you should definitely do your research on how to specially and specifically care for this dog's coat before adopting or purchasing an Irish Water Spaniel puppy.


These Gundogs or Sporting Dogs have well defined fine pointed noses and snouts. Irish Water Spaniels have somewhat small almond shaped eyes that usually come in striking bright golden yellows or different shades of browns. The Irish Water Spaniel dog breed has an elegant long neck that stand on tall bodies. In fact Irish Water Spaniels are so large that they’re the tallest of all Spaniels believe it or not. Irish Water Spaniels have naturally short tails that meet up to a slender body hidden under their luxurious coats. This dog breed's chest is deep, and their waist is thin. Irish Water Spaniels have very long ears as that are low set and face parallel from one another on both sides of their heads.

Irish Water Spaniels have average life expectancies of between 12 and a half to 14 and a half years of age. These Gundogs can live fir more or less though depending on their livelihood and general health. Irish Water Spaniels have withers measuring roughly 21 inches to 24 inches in height; dogs (males) are usually larger and taller than bitches (females). Healthy Irish Water Spaniels weigh from 46 to 64 lbs on average.

The History of the Irish Water Spaniel

  Evidence proves that the Irish Water Spaniel has been a distinct dog breed since at least 17 AD. It is even thought that Irish Water Spaniels have been around in their country of origin, Ireland for over an entire millennium. Up until roughly the mid eighteen hundreds, the Irish Water Spaniel came in two different variations. One strain of this Gundog breed resided around Northern Ireland; the other strain of the Irish Water Spaniels was found about Southern Ireland. The more modern version of the Irish Water Spaniel noticeably takes after the Southern Ireland Irish Water Spaniel, opposed to the Northern Ireland style dogs.