History
An American-bred dog, the Boykin Spaniel was created in South Carolina around 1900 as a dog that could excel at hunting turkey and waterfowl. As the story goes, a man by the name of Alexander White found a spaniel-type dog, which he adopted, outside of his church. White took his new dog hunting with his other retrievers, and when the little dog showed just as much promise in birding as his other pedigreed bird dogs, he sent him for further hunting training with a man named Whit Boykin. After learning more about this dog’s penchant for hunting, Boykin created an entire breeding program around the dog, crossing him with other excellent hunting breeds like the American Water Spaniel, English Springer Spaniel and Chesapeake Bay Retriever. The emerging breed — the Boykin Spaniel — has become the official state dog of South Carolina and gained full AKC recognition in 2009. “Though the Boykin is a relatively rare dog to most people, they are well known in their native state of South Carolina,” said Klein. “But this relative rareness may make it difficult to see them in person or to find breeders.”
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