History of The Labrador Retriever

A book written in 1576, Booke of Hunting, by George Turbervile, discusses various hunting dogs used by the West Country hunters. One of the available dogs was a black dog called a “Saint Hubert’s hound” in honor of the patron saint of the hunter. Although no definitive evidence exists, the available data makes it likely that the St. John’s water dog descended from the St. Hubert’s dog. Other breeds have been posited as potential precursors, the theories have been disproven. What is known is that sometime during the 16th and 17th centuries, it is very likely that the English, including outdoorsman from Devon, imported hunting dogs to Newfoundland. Subsequently, selective breedings of these dogs based on both the environment and the work needed from them led to the St. John’s water dog.

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The Coast of Newfoundland was the St. John’s Water Dog’s place of origin. Identified as a landrace, the St. John’s Water Dog (“SJWD”) was a forerunner/ancestor of all retriever breeds, as well as the Newfoundland.

The SJWD and the Labrador are sometimes referred to as one and the same, which is not the case. The Labrador is one of many breeds that descends from the SJWD.

SJWD was heralded for unsurpassed working ability in Newfoundland’s coastal waters. They could swim effortlessly through the frigid Atlantic pulling fishing lines and heavily laden nets back to their masters’ boats. The SJWD was also used for retrieving fish that had fallen from the fishermens’ nets.

Little is known of the types that went into its genetic makeup, although it was probably a random-bred mix of old English, Irish and Portuguese working dogs.

One aspect of retriever history that has been overlooked is that St. John’s water dogs came in both smooth and feathered varieties.

While the Newfoundland dog’s distant ancestry is uncertain, there is consensus over the breed’s more recent predecessor, the St. John’s water dog. In that regard the breed shares some commonality of consanguinity with the Labrador but they are also distinctly different breeds today.

The earliest account of the water dog from Newfoundland being used as a retriever is from Col. Peter Hawker’s Instructions to Young Sportsmen in 1814. Hawker was a celebrated shooter and a veteran of the Napoleonic Wars. He recommended the “true Newfoundland” as the best retriever, which he describes as being “scarcely bigger than a pointer.” He describes the coat as “short or smooth,” a phrase that could mean that some with “smooth coats” were actually long-haired but had no wave to them. Hawker included an image of one of his “Newfoundlands” fetching a flock of Brant geese and swans. The dog’s tail can be seen sticking above the surface of the water.

The reason why the long-haired dogs became common in England and disappeared from Newfoundland can be found in the writings of William Epps Cormack, the first European to walk across the interior of Newfoundland in 1822.

He wrote of the settlers of Newfoundland using their smaller water dogs to hunt waterfowl and game birds, but they preferred to use the short-haired dogs for this task:

“The dogs here are admirably trained as retrievers in fowling, and are otherwise useful. The smooth or short-haired dog is preferred, because in frosty weather the long-haired kind become encumbered with ice upon coming out of the water.”

Any long-haired puppies that would have been born to the smooth-haired dogs would have been among those they would have exported to Britain, where they would have worked very nicely as working retrievers on shooting estates. In the more mild climate of the British Isles, the long coat would not have been so much of a problem.

Some texts call this dog a “lesser Newfoundland” or “true Newfoundland” to differentiate between this smaller dog and the large Newfoundlands.

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Early in the nineteenth century the Earl of Malmesbury imported these “small water dogs” to England.

When SJWD’s were imported in England, they were crossed with a variety of English hunting dogs. Breeding programs were reserved to the landed aristocracy. In due time, breeding programs converged to the point where one breed, the Labrador Retriever, was officially recognized in 1903 by The United Kingdom Kennel Club.

The 3rd Earl of Malmsbury in a letter written to the 6th Duke of Buccleuch said, “We always call mine Labrador dogs and I have kept the breed as pure as I could from the first I had — the real breed may be known by their having a close coat which turns water off like oil, and, about all, a tail like an otter.” However, all breeders did not always “keep the breed pure”. Many breeders, realizing the excellent qualities, crossed Labradors with other retrievers. Still, if a Labrador is crossed with some other strain, the Labrador type nearly always predominated and their descendants were most always called Labradors.

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In 1884, a group of 13 breed clubs, 10 American clubs and three Canadian clubs founded the American Kennel Club.

Crufts is named after its founder Charles Cruft. In 1876, a young Charles left college with no desire to join the family jewellery business. Instead he took employment with James Spratt who had set up a new venture in Holborn, London selling ‘dog cakes’.

Charles Cruft was ambitious and a relatively short apprenticeship as an office boy led to a promotion to travelling salesman. This brought him into contact with large estates and sporting kennels. His next career move with Spratts saw him travelling to Europe and here in 1878, French dog breeders, perhaps seeing entrepreneurial talents in Cruft, invited him to organise the promotion of the canine section of the Paris Exhibition. He was still just two years out of college.

Back in England in 1886 he took up the management of the Allied Terrier Club Show at the Royal Aquarium, Westminster. It was in 1891 that the first Cruft’s show was booked into the Royal Agricultural Hall in Islington and it has evolved and grown ever since.

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Labradors were recognized as a breed by the Royal Kennel Club.

A little known fact, the lion’s share of retrieving for the early Labrador in England was on land. The great shooting estates of the landed aristocracy showcased the early Labrador Retrievers in driven field shoots. The keen marker, the swift and agile dog, were breed traits considered to be of great value.

Much about the early days of our breed was not well-documented. Few records were kept of outcrosses to other breeds. The Duke of Buccleuch, one of the breed’s founding fathers, kept formalized, well-chronicled breeding records, which are still available today for review.

King George V (Wolverton) Labrador Retrievers at Crufts 1922.

An example of Cambridgeshire Labrador Retriever Club Trials in the United Kingdom – hunting upland game.

The Labrador Retriever Club, the AKC Parent Club of the breed, was incorporated. It adopts its own breed standard, which is accepted by the AKC.