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Labrador Retriever, History, Puppy
management, Food,
Breeding, Methods, Expenses,
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Satin smooth and aristocratic,
courageous yet peace loving ,
powerfully built yet able to swim like a fish.When it comes to hand with your bird it carries it, even
at a gallop, as discreetly as a butler bearing porcelain on a
silver tray. Who would doubt that this great praise is reserved
for the Labrador Retriever? Who would doubt that this magnificent
animal has behind him centuries of assisting the shooting man in the
field? The answer is everyone knows a little of his history. The Labrador
is not the member of an old Breed. When first heard of in 1822
it had, so it would appear, never seen a gun. It was working in Newfoundland
for the fishermen. As it was too dangerous for the boats to approach
close to the shore, the dogs task was to go overboard and drag the
ends of the nets through the water to men who took them over on shore
and pulled them in full of fish. Also they had to, at all times to retrieve
objects lost overboard by the fishermen. They were as it turned out ready
made retrievers, although not of birds!
When the holds were full many of the fishermen sailed for Britain
to sell their fish there. Occasionally they sold their dogs as well.
Thus the Earl of Malmesbury in a letter dated 1870 described buying
his first dog of the breed from a fishing boat going between Newfoundland
and Poole. He said of the type he specialized in, " We always call mine
Labradors", the name stuck. Soon after this the Labrador faded from the
Newfoundland scene, in part this was caused by a heavy local dog tax,
which few fishermen were prepared to pay. Next , and more important,
the English quarantine laws were introduced, thereby ending the fishermen's
profitable sideline of breeding dogs for export. Fortunately by this
time the breed was firly established in Britain.
There is an amusing story told of the third Viscount Knutsford who sent to Labrador and Newfoundland to see whether he could find any of the breed in their home country. Upon meeting a local dog breeder, he asked from where he could obtain Labradors. He was told: " Go over to England and try to get one from a man called Holland-Hibbert" Holland -Hibbert was the family name of Lord Knutsford. Today the Labrador Retriever is always among the winners in field and non slip retrieving trials. He competes with honour at breed shows, tracking and obedience trials, Labradors have proved their excellence as guide dogs for the blind, are ace drug detectors for the police and brilliant sniffer dogs for customs departments all over the world, wonderful pets-as therapy and absolutely superb family dogs and companions. They are infact the most popular dog in the world. THINKING OF BREEDING
YOUR LABRADOR RETRIEVER? II hope to continue here with some interesting
things, but will have to wait until I am feeling a bit
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