DOGS USED IN SPORT 65 



that of its " Flatcoated " comrade, does not go back, 

 it is thought, before the commencement of this cen- 

 tury. Some think the old " water dog " we see de- 

 picted in the sporting pictures of our ancestors (and 

 which looked like a cross of indifferent Poodle, with an 

 inferior old English sheep dog, without much of the 

 good points of either variety!), others claim the Irish 

 Water Spaniel, and others again, the Poodle, to have 

 been one of its parents in a cross with the Labrador 

 dog, in the same way as its flat-coated cousin is sup- 

 posed to have been produced by a cross between a Set- 

 ter and a Labrador dog. I do not propose to enter 

 into this controversy at all, personally I have had 

 more to do with the Irish Water Spaniels (of which my 

 brothers and I have had a great many amongst us since 

 we were lads), and Poodles, of which I have had a good 

 many and handled and judged hundreds, and I think I 

 can see traces of the Irish Water Spaniel and the Poo- 

 dle in the modern Curly-coated Retriever, but more of 

 the former than the latter. I think, undoubtedly, the 

 Curliesare the hardest to breed approaching perfection, 

 but they are wonderfully " fetching," when up to the 

 mark. The absence of curl, too much hair on face, and 

 the openness of coat, are the faults I most often notice, 

 and some fail in the tail not being as it should be, cov- 

 ered from root to end with small, tight curls, as on 

 body. The sort of curls on the body may be described 

 as like those on a nigger's head. 



The Points for Show of the Curly Retriever are not 



much at variance with those for the Flat-coated. But 



5 



