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English Springer Spaniel

Lifespan
13.5 years
95% CI 13.4 to 13.6 · McMillan 2024, n=17,905
Most carried variant
Cone-Rod Dystrophy
30% of 750 tested · Donner 2023
Behind this page
118 dogs
in the atlas · 751 tested for variants
Also carried:Chondrodystrophy and Intervertebral Disc Disease Risk · 24%Degenerative Myelopathy · 3.4%

English Springer Spaniels have a cited life expectancy of 13.5 years (McMillan 2024 / VetCompass, n=17,905, 95% CI 13.4 to 13.6). The most carried tested variant is Cone-Rod Dystrophy, in 30% of 750 English Springer Spaniels tested (Donner 2023), then Chondrodystrophy and Intervertebral Disc Disease Risk (24%) and Degenerative Myelopathy (3.4%).

English Springer Spaniel
Photo: Ratsniffer / CC0 · CC0 · Wikimedia

Also known as Spaniel, English Springer, Springer Spaniel, and Springer, English Spaniel.

See in the atlas → From CanVAS
Mendelian-disease genetics

What genetic diseases do English Springer Spaniels carry?

From a panel of 250 Mendelian-disease variants screened in 1,054,293 dogs (Donner et al. 2023), English Springer Spaniels carry 12 of them at observable frequency. Carrier frequency is not clinical risk. Most recessive variants require two copies for disease expression; many dominant variants show incomplete penetrance. Read this as a population fingerprint of what's in the gene pool, not a per-dog prediction.

Cone-Rod Dystrophy (cord1-PRA/crd4)
Autosomal recessive (Incomplete penetrance)
high 29.9%
n = 750 dogs · 1 variant tested · OMIA:001432-9615 · omia.org →
RPGRIP1what this gene does

RPGRIP1 is a gene involved in the function of photoreceptor cells in the eye, which help dogs see in different light conditions.

For your dog: If your dog belongs to a breed known to carry RPGRIP1 mutations, it’s worth discussing with your vet to understand the risks and monitor eye health.

Chondrodystrophy and Intervertebral Disc Disease Risk (CDDY)
Autosomal dominant
high 23.6%
n = 749 dogs · 1 variant tested · OMIA:000157-9615 · omia.org →
FGF4what this gene does

FGF4 influences leg length by affecting bone growth, leading to shorter legs in certain breeds.

For your dog: If your dog is from a breed known to carry this gene, it's worth discussing spinal health with your vet, but being a carrier doesn’t guarantee problems.

Cystinuria Type I-B (SLC7A9 p.A217T)
Autosomal recessive (Incomplete penetrance)
marker disputed 4.4%
n = 751 dogs · 2 variants tested · OMIA:001880-9615 · omia.org →
SLC7A9what this gene does

SLC7A9 is a gene that helps transport certain amino acids in the kidneys. It plays a role in how the body handles cystine, an amino acid that can form crystals.

For your dog: If your dog is a carrier, it’s worth discussing with your vet to monitor urinary health and catch any issues early.

Degenerative Myelopathy (DM)
Autosomal recessive (Incomplete penetrance)
low 3.4%
n = 751 dogs · 1 variant tested · OMIA:000263-9615 · omia.org →
SOD1what this gene does

SOD1 is a gene that helps protect cells from damage caused by harmful molecules called free radicals.

For your dog: If your dog is a carrier of SOD1 variants, it's worth discussing with your vet, but remember carrier status doesn't mean your dog will get the disease.

Glycogen storage disease VII (GSD VII) or Phosphofructokinase (PFK) Deficiency
Autosomal recessive
low 1.9%
n = 751 dogs · 1 variant tested · OMIA:000421-9615 · omia.org →
Acral Mutilation Syndrome (AMS)
Autosomal recessive
low 1.6%
n = 751 dogs · 1 variant tested · OMIA:001514-9615 · omia.org →
GDNFwhat this gene does

GDNF is a gene that helps support nerve cells, especially those involved in sensing pain and movement.

For your dog: If your dog is from a breed that can carry this gene change, it’s worth asking your vet about testing to understand any potential risks.

Von Willebrand's Disease, Type 1 (vWD 1)
Autosomal recessive
low 0.60%
n = 751 dogs · 1 variant tested · OMIA:001057-9615 · omia.org →
Familial Nephropathy (Discovered in the English Cocker Spaniel; FN)
Autosomal recessive
low 0.47%
n = 751 dogs · 2 variants tested · OMIA:000710-9615 · omia.org →
Factor VII Deficiency
Autosomal recessive
low 0.13%
n = 751 dogs · 1 variant tested · OMIA:000361-9615 · omia.org →
F7what this gene does

The F7 gene helps produce a protein important for blood clotting, which stops bleeding when dogs get injured.

For your dog: If your dog is from a breed known to carry F7 variants, it's worth mentioning to your vet before any surgery or if you notice unusual bleeding.

Dilated Cardiomyopathy risk factor (Discovered in the Doberman Pinscher; PDK4-related)
Autosomal dominant (Incomplete penetrance)
marker disputed <0.1%
n = 751 dogs · 2 variants tested · OMIA:000162-9615 · omia.org →
PDK4what this gene does

PDK4 helps regulate how cells use energy, especially in the heart muscle.

For your dog: If your dog is one of the breeds known to carry this gene, it’s worth discussing heart health with your vet, but being a carrier doesn’t mean your dog will develop disease.

Exercise-Induced Collapse (EIC)
Autosomal recessive (Incomplete penetrance)
low <0.1%
n = 751 dogs · 1 variant tested · OMIA:001466-9615 · omia.org →
DNM1what this gene does

DNM1 is a gene that helps nerve cells communicate properly by managing how they send signals during muscle activity.

For your dog: If your dog belongs to one of the breeds known to carry this gene variant, it's worth discussing EIC with your vet, especially if your dog is very active or shows signs of weakness during exercise.

Progressive Rod-Cone Degeneration (prcd-PRA)
Autosomal recessive
low <0.1%
n = 751 dogs · 1 variant tested · OMIA:001298-9615 · omia.org →
PRCDwhat this gene does

PRCD is a gene involved in the health of a dog's retina, the part of the eye that detects light and helps with vision.

For your dog: If your dog belongs to a breed known to carry PRCD changes, it's worth discussing eye health and potential genetic testing with your vet.

Source: Donner J et al. 2023. Genetic prevalence and clinical relevance of canine Mendelian disease variants in over one million dogs. PLOS Genetics 19(2):e1010651 · Evidence: Limited (DTC ascertainment, tag-SNP proxy) · Confounding MEDIUM · License CC-BY-4.0 · Phene IDs from OMIA (Sydney School of Veterinary Science, The University of Sydney; DOI 10.25910/2AMR-PV70).
Sample size in this breed: 751 dogs from the Donner 2023 cohort.
In plain terms

What these results mean for a English Springer Spaniel

Chondrodystrophy and disc disease risk (CDDY)

23.6% of English Springer Spaniels in the Donner 2023 cohort carried it (n=749).

  • Two extra copies of a growth gene, FGF4, shape dog legs and spines. The one on chromosome 12 is the one tied to disc disease; the one on chromosome 18 shortens legs.
    OMIA 000157-9615

    “Two FGF4 retrogenes (FGF4L1 on chromosome 18 and FGF4L2 on chromosome 12) have been identified to cause dwarfism across many dog breeds.” OMIA 000157-9615

    “Brown et al. (2017) reported that an FGF4 retrogene insertion in chromosome CFA12” OMIA 000157-9615

  • Carrying it raises risk. It does not say which dog will have a disc problem. In Dachshunds researchers found the test is not a valid risk indicator on its own.
    OMIA 000157-9615

    “the FGF4 retrogene insertion on CFA12 is not a valid risk indicator on its own” OMIA 000157-9615

What to do
Ask your veterinarian what a carrier result changes for your dog. What lowers risk in a carrier is not established in the sources this page draws on.

No test, or a mix
Without a test nobody can say whether a dog carries it. Leg length alone does not tell you: the disc-disease copy and the short-leg copy are different insertions.

SLC7A9 p.A217T (sold as a cystinuria test)

Marker disputed

4.4% of English Springer Spaniels in the Donner 2023 cohort carried it (n=751).

  • The curated record finds no support for this variant causing cystinuria, and the researchers who studied it advise against using it as a test.
    OMIA 001880-9615

    “there appears to be no support for the variant to be causal” OMIA 001880-9615

    “strongly recommend not to use "the variant in SLC7A9 as a test to predict the risk of developing cystinuria in male English bulldogs.” OMIA 001880-9615

What to do
A carrier result for this variant does not predict bladder stones. Straining to urinate or blood in the urine is a reason to see a veterinarian whatever a DNA test says.

No test, or a mix
The curated record gives no reason to test for this variant.

Degenerative myelopathy (DM)

3.4% of English Springer Spaniels in the Donner 2023 cohort carried it (n=751).

  • DM is a loss of function in the spinal cord that begins in adulthood and progresses to paralysis of the back legs. There is no treatment that stops it.
    OMIA 000263-9615

    “This is an adult onset degeneration of the spinal cord that progresses to paraplegia and tetraparesis. There is no successful treatment. A genetic test is available.” OMIA 000263-9615

  • Two copies of the SOD1 variant mean at risk, not affected. Some dogs with two copies never show signs.
    OMIA 000263-9615

    “some homozygous mutant dogs had no signs of degenerative myelopathy, which suggests incomplete penetrance or other causative loci” OMIA 000263-9615

  • One copy makes a dog a carrier. In the study that found the variant, every affected dog tested had two copies.
    OMIA 000263-9615

    “All affected dogs tested were homozygous mutant.” OMIA 000263-9615

What to do
A DNA result is not a diagnosis. Take the result, and any change in how the dog walks, to a veterinarian.

No test, or a mix
Without a test nobody can say how many copies a dog has. A breed's carrier frequency describes the breed, not this dog.

Which Mendelian variants matter most for English Springer Spaniels?

The Mendelian-disease table above lists variants screened in 751 English Springer Spaniels (Donner 2023). Two matter most by carrier frequency and clinical impact.

Cone-Rod Dystrophy (cord1-PRA/crd4)

Cone-rod dystrophy in English Springer Spaniels is a recessive progressive retinal disease caused by the crd4 locus. Affected dogs lose vision gradually, typically beginning with reduced vision in dim light and progressing toward complete blindness. It is incurable and leads to functional blindness by middle age. About 29.9% of English Springer Spaniels in the Donner cohort carry the variant (n=750). Nearly one in three. This is the single most common Mendelian variant in the breed.

The inheritance is autosomal recessive with incomplete penetrance, meaning not every dog with two copies will show symptoms, though the published evidence on penetrance in this breed is limited. Testing is widely available through commercial DNA labs and breed-specific panels. Breed-club health committees generally recommend testing breeding stock to avoid carrier-by-carrier pairings; owners can verify current guidance at the English Springer Spaniel Field Trial Association health pages (essfta.org).

What should I feed an English Springer Spaniel?

Feeding an English Springer Spaniel well means feeding around the breed’s known genetic vulnerabilities and the breed’s working metabolism. English Springer Spaniels were bred as gun-dog retrievers for long days in the field. A pet English Springer Spaniel eating a maintenance kibble in a suburban home is being fed for a job they aren’t doing, which leads to weight gain. The breed’s CDDY-associated IVDD risk is weight-sensitive, making body condition the first lever an owner pulls; hip dysplasia is also reported in the breed at OFA (ofa.org/breeds/results/?breed=ESS), and excess weight worsens both conditions.

Control weight through the whole life cycle. Cited life expectancy is 13.5 years (McMillan 2024 / VetCompass, n=17,905, 95% CI 13.4 to 13.6). Hip dysplasia is reported in the breed, and the CDDY variant at 23.6% carrier frequency predisposes to intervertebral disc disease. Both conditions worsen with excess weight. A sporting-breed or medium-breed adult formulation with controlled portions is the right starting point. Portion control guided by body condition score is the practical lever; labels overestimate needs for inactive dogs, and most nutritionists suggest starting 10 to 20% below label recommendations for sedentary pets (NRC, Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats, 2006).

Puppy growth matters because the breed grows steadily from birth to adulthood. A puppy formulation with controlled calcium (target 0.8 to 1.5% on a dry-matter basis) and a calcium-to-phosphorus ratio between 1.1:1 and 2:1 minimizes growth-plate stress. The growth rate is slower than in giant breeds, but rapid enough that a high-calcium free-fed puppy diet can predispose to orthopedic disease later.

Joint support is worth calibrating, not guessing. The breed’s CDDY carrier frequency and IVDD risk mean that spinal health is a concrete priority. Omega-3 supplementation from fish oil supports joint and spinal-cord health; dose guidance for a medium-sized adult dog is available from your veterinarian or the NRC 2006 nutrient guidelines. Glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate are widely used in the breed; peer-reviewed evidence for efficacy is mixed, but the compounds are safe and breed-club health committees often recommend them as adjuncts to weight management.

Grain-free diets carry no breed-specific signal in English Springer Spaniels. English Springer Spaniels were not among the breeds flagged in the FDA’s 2018 and 2022 DCM advisories. A grain-free diet is a valid choice for this breed if it meets AAFCO standards, though the FDA investigation remains open and breed-neutral caution is reasonable. The more important decision is calories and portion control.

What we don’t know

The penetrance of cone-rod dystrophy in English Springer Spaniels is incompletely characterized. We know 29.9% of the breed carries the variant. We do not yet have solid data on what fraction of dogs with two copies actually become symptomatic and at what age. Donner 2023 did not report confirmed phenotype data for this variant in the breed, so the published evidence is limited. Breeders and owners who test positive should discuss risk with their vet and the breed-club health committee.

The long-term functional outcome of CDDY carriers in English Springer Spaniels is also not fully resolved. The variant is at 23.6% frequency, but we do not have good prospective data on how many carriers remain asymptomatic for life versus how many develop IVDD. Weight management, activity modulation, and careful spinal awareness appear to reduce risk, but the exact magnitude of that protection is not published.

Cancer epidemiology in English Springer Spaniels is undercharacterized. The breed is not flagged in the peer-reviewed oncology literature the way Goldens and Bernese Mountain Dogs are, but that may reflect lower enrollment in cancer studies rather than lower actual incidence. We do not have breed-club cancer registry data equivalent to what exists for other sporting breeds.

Frequently asked questions about English Springer Spaniels

What is the most common genetic disease in English Springer Spaniels? Cone-rod dystrophy (crd4). 29.9% of English Springer Spaniels carry the variant (Donner 2023, n=750). It is a progressive retinal disease that leads to vision loss and eventual blindness. Not every carrier with two copies becomes symptomatic, but the risk is real for breeding decisions.

Are English Springer Spaniels prone to back problems? Yes. The FGF4 retrogene (CDDY) is present in 23.6% of the breed. Carriers are at elevated risk for intervertebral disc disease (IVDD), which can cause back pain and neurological signs. Weight management and careful activity modulation reduce risk.

Should I do a DNA test on my English Springer Spaniel? For breeding stock, yes. A breed-specific panel covering cone-rod dystrophy, CDDY, cystinuria, degenerative myelopathy, and von Willebrand’s disease Type 1 is a high-yield starting point; verify current breed-club guidance at essfta.org. For pet dogs, testing is useful if you want to know your dog’s carrier status for planning activity and veterinary monitoring.

How long do English Springer Spaniels live? Cited life expectancy is 13.5 years (McMillan 2024 / VetCompass, n=17,905, 95% CI 13.4 to 13.6). Individual dogs vary based on genetics, weight, health screening, and veterinary care.

What is the best diet for an English Springer Spaniel? A sporting-breed or medium-breed formulation with controlled portions and moderate calories. The breed’s IVDD risk and hip dysplasia susceptibility are weight-sensitive, so body condition is the most important dietary lever. Grain-free diets are not contraindicated in this breed the way they are in Goldens.

Are English Springer Spaniels good with kids? Yes. The breed was developed for hunting and retrieving, traits that select for trainability and biddability. English Springer Spaniels are typically social, eager-to-please, and gentle. Individual temperament varies; early socialization and adult supervision with young children are always best practice.

Do English Springer Spaniels need a lot of exercise? Yes. They are gun-dog retrievers bred for full-day work in the field. A pet English Springer Spaniel needs at least an hour of meaningful exercise per day, walking, retrieving, or structured activity, to stay mentally and physically satisfied.

What is the most common health problem in English Springer Spaniels? Hip dysplasia and intervertebral disc disease are among the orthopedic conditions reported in the breed (OFA data available at ofa.org/breeds/results/?breed=ESS). The breed also carries cone-rod dystrophy at high frequency (29.9%), making vision screening worthwhile in breeding dogs and valuable for planning exercise and veterinary monitoring in carriers.

Names & origins

Other names

The English Springer Spaniel is also recorded as Spaniel, English Springer, Springer Spaniel, and Springer, English Spaniel.

Identified as English Springer Spaniel (VBO:0200497) in the Vertebrate Breed Ontology (Mullen et al. 2025, CC-BY 4.0) · registry IDs FCI 125 · iDog 97 · VeNom 14884.

For researchers Population genetics, disease models and every recorded condition Open the research detail for the English Springer Spaniel
What the atlas says about English Springer Spaniel

In the atlas, the English Springer Spaniel clusters consistently as English Springer Spaniel (100% of the 118 dogs here).

Genetic dimensions · CanVAS atlas

What the atlas genotypes say about English Springer Spaniel

Computed from the 14,478 CanVAS dogs in the Atlas, on an imputed genotype backbone: 77,215 directly typed sites per dog, imputed to 9.67 million variants.

The confidence below counts dogs, not reads: it is the size of the sample, and it is separate from how the genotypes were measured.

Dogs in the Atlas
118Founders
57 from Shannon, 49 from Hayward2016, 10 from Spatola
Genetic diversity
0.29Moderate
Mean heterozygosity across the breed. 74th most diverse of 107 ranked populations.
What does genetic diversity mean?

How varied a breed's gene pool is — the share of gene spots where a typical dog of the breed carries two different versions rather than two identical ones.

How to read it: Higher = more diverse. Among well-sampled breeds it ranges roughly 0.22 (least diverse) to 0.33 (most diverse).

Diversity is a strength, not a verdict on any individual dog. Lower diversity means it's worth paying attention to recessive-risk testing — not that a dog is doomed.

Cluster structure
Splits into two genetic sub-populations
Intra-breed RMS distance: 30.63 · likely working/show-line, regional, or kennel lineage split.
What does within-breed variation mean?

How much individual dogs within the breed differ from each other genetically.

How to read it: Higher = more internal variety among individuals of the breed.

Sensitive to how many dogs of the breed we've sampled.

Related breeds
In the Sporting group
Explore the full lineage map →
VBO foundation stock (breeding records) · AKC breed group
Relatedness is documented lineage + kennel family. Genetic-ancestry distance measures diversity, not kinship, so it isn't used here.
How long they live
13.5years (life expectancy)
95% CI 13.4–13.6 · VetCompass, McMillan 2024, n=17,905. source
What does typical lifespan mean?

The median age dogs of the breed tend to reach.

How to read it: Higher = longer-lived. Compare to longevity-for-size to see whether it's just a size effect.

Drawn from population lifespan records; individual dogs vary widely with care, genetics, and luck.

n = 118 dogs · high sample · CanVAS (Brundage 2026) · Sniff Atlas
A gift to human medicine

English Springer Spaniels are a natural model for human disease

Because the same genes cause the same conditions across species, the inherited conditions documented in English Springer Spaniels help researchers understand, and work toward treating, the human diseases they model. This is the dog advancing human medicine. The breed models the human disease; it does not have it, and this is not a prediction for your dog.

Human equivalents via OMIA → Mondo / OMIM. Model-of, not identity. The named gene is the canine locus, not a claim that a pet has the human disease.
Documented in OMIA

Every condition recorded in the English Springer Spaniel

Beyond the testable carriers above, OMIA's literature catalogue records 19 genetic conditions in the English Springer Spaniel, 15 of which have a known human equivalent. This is the documented landscape across all English Springer Spaniels ever studied, not a prediction for any one dog.

Plus 1 more conditions recorded in the English Springer Spaniel in OMIA.

Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals (OMIA); Nicholas, Tammen & Sydney Informatics Hub, DOI 10.25910/2AMR-PV70
Documented in the breed's literature is not carrier status and not a forecast for an individual dog. Human equivalents are mapped via Mondo/OMIM. Carrier frequencies (above) are the separately-measured testable subset (Donner 2023).
The data behind this page

Where every number on this page came from.

This page draws on three primary data sources. Carrier frequencies for the Mendelian section come from Donner et al. 2023 (CC-BY-4.0). We grade these data at evidence Limited because the cohort is a direct-to-consumer ascertainment, which biases toward owners who chose to test their dogs. The panel also uses tag-SNP proxies for some variants rather than direct causal-variant assays. Limited is a study-design grade, not a quality grade: the Donner cohort is the largest open canine-genotype dataset in existence and we are grateful for it. We rate the confounding MEDIUM.

Population-genetic dimensions (heterozygosity, intra-breed PCA distance, nearest neighbors, trait-locus frequencies) come from CanVAS (Brundage 2026), harmonized through the Sniff Atlas. The exact release date and verification commit are pinned at the bottom of the page so a researcher can trace a number back to a specific snapshot. The disease-gene-variant graph comes from OMIA (Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals; Nicholas, Tammen, and the Sydney Informatics Hub at the Sydney School of Veterinary Science, The University of Sydney; retrieved April 2026, DOI 10.25910/2AMR-PV70).

What this page does not yet have. Inheritance modes and per-disease penetrance evidence from Donner 2023 are in the structured data for every variant the panel covers. Mondo, OMIM, Ensembl, and HGNC cross-references live on the gene and disease pages this page links to, rather than being repeated here. What is still absent from this breed page is anything not in the cited panel, and each such gap carries its cause where it appears.

How to cite this page. The computed dimensions on this page are derived from the open Sniff Atlas v1.0.1 (Gehring 2026, doi:10.5281/zenodo.20566358, CC-BY 4.0). Full citation formats including BibTeX, RIS, and CITATION.cff at sniff.world/cite.

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References
  1. Donner J, Freyer J, Davison S, Anderson H, Blades M, Honkanen L, et al. (2023). Genetic prevalence and clinical relevance of canine Mendelian disease variants in over one million dogs. PLOS Genetics 19(2):e1010651. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1010651
  2. Brundage DM (2026). CanVAS: A Harmonized and Imputed Canine Variant Atlas. bioRxiv. doi:10.64898/2026.04.13.718238
  3. Nicholas, F.W., Tammen, I., & Sydney Informatics Hub. (2026). Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals (OMIA) [dataset]. The University of Sydney. https://omia.org. doi:10.25910/2AMR-PV70 (retrieved April 2026).
Last updated
Sources: CanVAS (Brundage 2026) · Donner 2023 · OMIA