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Dogs and All about Them
·
Robert Leighton
173
It
was
when
these
efforts
were
most
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
importers
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,
substantial,
intelligent,
good-tempered,
affectionate
companion,
faithful,
talented,
highly
cultivated,
and
esteemed,
in
the
season
and
out
of
it,
for
his
mind
as
well
as
his
beauty.
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