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    Labradors - History, Breeding, Field Trials & Shows
    Labradors - History, Breeding, Field Trials & Shows
    Labradors - History, Breeding, Field Trials & Shows
    Ebook110 pages1 hour

    Labradors - History, Breeding, Field Trials & Shows

    By Leonard E. Naylor

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    The colourful early history of the breed is here vividly told, while in the chapters dealing with breeding, rearing, exhibiting, field trials and police work the comments of leading fanciers will be found of great value to the novice owner and indeed to labrador lovers of longer standing. The book is well illustrated with photographs and it contains some striking and hitherto unrecorded instances of Labrador intelligence and sagacity. "The Labrador owes its renown not to any passing whim of fashion. It has come about through the gradual realisation by dog-lovers of the high endowment of brains, beauty and honest-to-goodness desire to please, which has been increasingly shown through several decades by this grand companion of field and fireside, who has so convincingly demonstrated his right to be acknowledged as the prince of gun-dog, and first-rate friend and guard into the bargain." Contents Include : The History of the Labrador; Hints on Breeding Labradors; The Labrador Puppy; The Labrador Retriever; Training to Retrieve; Preparation for Show and Field Trial; The Labrador Retriever Club's Rules for Field Trial; Meetings; The Labrador as Police Dog; First Aid; Hints; A Labrador Glossary.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRead Books Ltd.
    Release dateJan 15, 2013
    ISBN9781447486558
    Labradors - History, Breeding, Field Trials & Shows

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      Labradors - History, Breeding, Field Trials & Shows - Leonard E. Naylor

      Chapter I

      THE HISTORY OF THE LABRADOR

      So FAR AS Britain is concerned, it cannot be claimed that the Labrador breed is a very old one, for his authenticated history in this country goes back only to the 1820’s, when trading vessels plying between Poole and Labrador brought back with them a number of the hardy and handy dogs that were so much esteemed by the fishermen of Labrador. Some of these dogs were seen and admired by the second Earl of Malmesbury (one-time Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs under Canning). Impressed by their all-round retrieving ability, and especially in water, the Earl founded a kennel of them which he maintained until his death.

      The purity of the breed was maintained for many years by breeding only from imported dogs or their descendants, for it was felt that the introduction of blood from our native sporting breeds might adversely affect the qualities which the Labrador possessed in such abundance. Eventually, however, it became necessary to seek an infusion of fresh blood, and as, by then, the importation of suitable dogs from Labrador had become almost impossible, the breed’s admirers were obliged to have recourse to native breeds of retriever and even of spaniel. This was forced upon them by the circumstance that the seamen who had formerly been in the habit of bringing a dog or two with them on their homeward voyage and selling them to discerning noble sportsmen, found this lucrative side-line hampered by the customs men of Poole, whose demands so whittled down the poor sailormen’s profits on these live imports that finally they became not worth while.

      So the flat-coated retrievers indigenous to Britain, and also Tweed water-spaniels, found favour as regenerative influences. Doubtless these crossings were beneficial not only to the Labrador but to the other retriever breeds as well, for many years later, in the 1890’s, we find the Duke of Buccleuch’s head gamekeeper expressing the opinion (presumably intended to be complimentary) that there are few retrievers on the borders of England and Scotland that have not a dash of Labrador in them.

      In the early days of the breed in Britain there seems to have been some confusion as to what a Labrador dog really was. The breed which was the ancestor of our present-day Labradors, and another breed hailing from Newfoundland were both described as Newfoundland dogs. To add to the confusion, Lieut.-Colonel Hawker, the famous sportsman, described what he called the proper Labrador as being very large, strong in limb, rough-haired, small in the head, and carries the tail very high. The other [which he and others called the St. John’s breed] is of tener black than any other colour, and scarcely larger than a pointer. He is made rather long in the head and nose, pretty deep in the chest, very fine in legs, has short or smooth hair, does not carry his tail so much curled as the other, and is extremely quick and active in running, swimming or fighting.

      From this it would appear that the St. John’s breed of retriever, as Colonel Hawker knew him, is almost certainly the ancestor of the proper Labrador of today, and the very large, rough-haired breed known to the Colonel as a Labrador was in fact the ancestor of the breed we know as the Newfoundland.

      Hawker’s encomiums on the St. John’s breed were enthusiastically seconded by Delabere Blaine, a noted sporting writer, who was a contemporary of his. In his Encyclopœdia of Rural Sports, published in 1840, he says that the breed is to be preferred by the sportsman on every account, being smaller, more easily managed, and sagacious in the extreme. His scenting powers also are great. Some years ago these dogs could be readily procured at Poole, and when well broken in were very valuable. Indeed, some gentlemen . . . have found them so intelligent, so faithful, and so capable of general instruction, that they have given up most other sporting varieties and contented themselves with these; and, as we are told, found the places of the others perfectly well filled up. A genuine Newfoundland dog of the true water-loving sort, and addicted body and soul to hunting wildfowl, is most valuable. We once knew such an one, the property of a gentleman of our acquaintance, who resided at New-haven. We . . . sometimes went along the sea wall, and in so doing we often fell in with this admirable zealot. Whenever it was likely that wildfowl would come in-shore, and that consequently gunners would go along the levels to intercept them, then she was sure to be found, waiting for and attending on them as long as they staid, fetching either out of the sea or the river, spite of ice or snow, any that were shot. She had been known to stay two entire nights, and, as was supposed, without food, waiting at the shore side to assist any shooting parties that might go out; for at the time we allude to an intense frost of two or three weeks had frozen up every river and spring. Hers was indeed self-devotion, and she truly had a sporting mania.

      The opinions of Hawker and Blaine are borne out by another notable contemporary of theirs—the celebrated General W. N. Hutchinson, who a hundred years or so ago wrote a book on dog-breaking which is still regarded as a classic. Writing on the virtues of retrievers, he held that the best land retrievers are bred from a cross between the setter and the Newfoundland or the strong spaniel and the Newfoundland. I do not mean the heavy Labrador, whose weight and bulk is valued because it adds to his power of draught, nor the Newfoundland, increased in size at Halifax and St. John’s to suit the taste of the English purchaser; but the far slighter dog reared by the settlers on the coast, a dog that is quite as fond of water as of land, and which in almost the severest part of a North American winter will remain on the edge of a rock for hours together, watching intently for anything the passing waves may carry near him. Without his aid the farmer would secure but few of the many wild ducks he shoots at certain seasons of the year. The patience with which he waits for a shot on the top of a high cliff (until the numerous flock sail leisurely underneath) would be fruitless did not his noble dog fearlessly plunge in from the greatest height, and successfully bring the slain to shore.

      These dogs, moreover, were not mere longshoremen, for it is on record that they were equally esteemed by the fishermen working the deep sea fishing-grounds of Labrador and Newfoundland for their adeptness in retrieving fish which had escaped from the hook when surfacing. These dogs would dive in without hesitation, seizing the fish even under the water and bringing it to the side where both could be hauled aboard.

      The pioneer kennels of Labradors in this country were those of the fifth Duke of Buccleuch (1806-1884), who in the 1840’s owned several notable dogs, including Brandy, Moss and Drake; Lord John Scott (1809-1860) and the tenth Earl of Home (1769-1841), whose most outstanding Labradors were Jock and Drake. (In those days little imagination was exercised in the naming of dogs, and as a consequence most names were of one syllable—or at most two—and repetition of names was frequent.) In the veins of practically all the Labradors of today runs the blood of one or more of the select group of notable specimens of the 1870’s and 1880’s, which included Lord Malmes-bury’s Juno (a renowned dam) and Nell, and his sires Sweep, Tramp and Nelson; the Hon. M. Guest’s Sankey; the Earl of Home’s Netherby Boatswain; the Duke of Buccleuch’s Netherby Nell; and Sir R. Graham’s (later the Earl of Verulam’s) Kielder.

      A later, but highly important, entry into the ranks of Labrador fanciers was that of the Hon. A. Holland Hibbert

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