THE RETRIEVERS. 



255 



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. His im- 

 porters called him a Spaniel — a breed name 

 which at one time was also applied to his 

 relative the Newfoundland. Probably there 

 were not many specimens of the race in 

 England, and, although there is no record 

 explicitly saying so, it is conjectured that 

 these were crossed with the English Setter, 

 producing what is now familiarly known as 

 the black, flat-coated Retriever. 



One very remarkable attribute of the 

 Retriever is that notwithstanding the known 

 fact that the parent stock was mongrel, 

 and that in the early dogs the Setter type 

 largely predominated, the ultimate result 

 has favoured the Labrador cross distinctly 

 and prominently, proving how potent, even 

 when grafted upon a stock admittedly 

 various, is the blood of a pure race, and how 

 powerful its influence for fixing type and 

 character over the other less vital elements 

 with which it is blended. 



From the first, sportsmen recognised the 

 extreme value of the new retrieving dog. 

 Strengthened and improved by the Labrador 

 blood, he had lost little if any of the Setter 

 beauty of form. He was a dignified, sub- 

 stantial, intelligent, good-tempered, affec- 

 tionate companion, faithful, talented, highly 

 cultivated, and esteemed, in the season and 

 out of it, for his mind as well as his beauty. 



" Idstone " described one of the early 

 Retrievers, and the description is worth 

 quoting : — 



" He was black as a raven — a blue black- 

 not a very large dog, but wide over the back 

 and loins, with limbs like a lion, and a thick, 

 glossy, long, silky coat, which parted down the 

 back, a long, sagacious head, full of character 

 and clean as a Setter's in the matter of coat. 

 His ears were small, and so close to his head 



that they were hidden in his feathered neck. 

 His eye was neither more nor less than a human 

 eye, and I never saw a bad expression in it. 

 He was not over twenty-five inches in height, 

 but he carried a hare with ease ; and if he could 

 not top a gate with one — which about one dog 

 in two hundred does twice a year — he could get 

 through the second or third span, or push it 

 through a gap before him in his mouth, and 

 never lose his hold. And then for water. He 

 would trot into the launching punt, and coil 

 himself up by the luncheon basket to wait for 

 his master as soon as he saw the usual prepara- 

 tions for a cruise. For this work he had too 

 much coat, and brought a quantity of water 

 into the boat ; but for retrieving wildfowl he 

 was excellent ; and in the narrow water-courses 

 and amongst the reeds and osiers his chase of a 

 winged mallard was a thing to see. They seemed 

 both to belong to one element, and he would dive 

 like an otter for yards, sometimes coming up 

 for breath, only to go down again for pleasure." 



It is only comparatively recently that 

 we have realised how excellent an all-round 

 sporting dog the Retriever has become. 

 In many cases, indeed, where grouse and 

 partridge are driven or walked-up a well- 

 broken, soft-mouthed Retriever is unques- 

 tionably superior to Pointer, Setter, or 

 Spaniel, and for general work in the field 

 he is the best companion that a shooting 

 man can possess. 



Doubtless in earlier days, when the art of 

 training was less thoroughly understood, 

 the breaking of a dog was a matter of infinite 

 trouble to breeders. Most of the gun dogs 

 could be taught by patience and practice to 

 retrieve fur or feather, but game carefully 

 and skilfully shot is easily rendered valueless 

 by being mumbled and mauled by powerful 

 jaws not schooled to gentleness. And this 

 question of a tender mouth was certainly 

 one of the problems that perturbed the 

 minds of the originators of the breed. The 

 difficulty was overcome by a process of 

 selection, and by the exclusion from breeding 

 operations of all hard-mouthed specimens, 

 with the happy effect that in the present 

 time it is exceptional to find a working 

 Retriever who does not know how to bring 

 his bird to hand without injuring it. A 

 better knowledge of what is expected of 



