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THE LABRADORIt is obviously useless to shoot game unless you can find it after it has been wounded or killed, and from the earliest times it has been the habit of sportsmen to train their dogs to do the work which they could not always successfully do for themselves. The Pointers, Setters, and Spaniels of our forefathers were carefully broken not only to find and stand their game, but also to fetch the fallen birds. This use of the setting and pointing dog is still common on the Continent and in the United States, and there is no inaccuracy in a French artist depicting a Pointer with a partridge in its mouth, or showing a Setter retrieving waterfowl.
The Springer and the old curly-coated water-dog were regarded as particularly adroit in the double work of finding and retrieving. Pointers and Setters who had been thus broken were found to deteriorate in steadiness in the field, and it gradually came to be realised that even the Spaniel's capacity for retrieving was limited. A larger and quicker dog was wanted to divide the labour, and to be used solely as a retriever in conjunction with the other gun dogs. The Poodle was tried for retrieving with some success, and he showed considerable aptitude in finding and fetching wounded wild duck; but he, too, was inclined to maul his birds and deliver them dead. Even the old English Sheepdog was occasionally engaged in the work, and various crosses with Spaniel or Setter and Collie were attempted in the endeavour to produce a grade breed having the desired qualities of a good nose, a soft mouth, and an understanding brain, together with a coat that would protect its wearer from the ill effects of frequent immersion in water. It was when these efforts were most active--namely about the year 1850--that new material was discovered in a black-coated dog recently introduced into England from Labrador. He was a natural water-dog, with a constitution impervious to chills, and entirely free from the liability to ear canker, which had always been a drawback to the use of the Spaniel as a retriever of waterfowl. Moreover, he was himself reputed to be a born retriever of game, and remarkably sagacious. Within recent years the original smooth-coated Labrador dog has taken its place as a recognised variety of the Retriever and become prominent both at exhibitions and as a worker. It is not probable that any have been imported into England for the past quarter of a century, but without the assistance of shows or imported blood they have survived marvellously. Thanks especially to the kennels of such breeders as the Dukes of Buccleuch and Hamilton, the Earl of Verulam, Lords Wimborne, Horne, and Malmesbury, the Hon. A. Holland Hibbert, Sir Savile Crossley, Mr. F. P. Barnett, Mr. C. Liddell, Mr. O. L. Mansel, and others equally enthusiastic. To the Duke of Buccleuch's kennel we are probably more indebted in the last twenty years than to any other. Its foundation was laid in two bitches by a dog of the Duke of Hamilton's from a bitch of Lord Malmesbury's. At Drumlanrig, as well as on the Duke's other estates, they have been most particular in preserving the purity and working qualities of their strain. And the same may be said of the Hon. A. Holland Hibbert, whose principal dogs are not only typical in appearance, but broken to perfection. The Duchess of Hamilton's kennels have been responsible for some of the best field trial winners of the present day. As far as looks are concerned, one cannot say that the Labrador compares favourably with either the flat or the curly coated Retriever, but that is immaterial so long as he continues to work as he is doing at present. from: Dogs and All About Them by Robert Leighton
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