Page 20 - ShowSight Presents The Golden Retriever

Photo by Barb Loree
Gerry Clinchy, author, Golden breeder and field enthusiast, commented on an online discussion group, Off the Beaten Path: “I also would be of the opinion that those particular gentlemen took their hunting and their hunting dogs pretty seriously. Hunting back then was a sig- nificant addition to the larder, not just an occasional delicacy. I find it hard to believe that Lord Tweedmouth spent all that effort just to produce a “sweet” hunting dog. The sweet temperament came along as proba- bly a pleasant bonus to the breed’s service- ability on the hunt. And the breed must have been serviceable or it would not have survived when there were always the Labs and Flat Coats and various other breeds to take up the slack if Lord Tweedmouth’s new “design” couldn’t keep up.”
Marcia Schlehr, artist, author and breed authority, responded with “Gerry is quite right about the seriousness of the “gentlemen” and their “sport”. The Guisa- chan record book, where dogs are invento- ried and litters noted, also contains notes about the game acquired during the year. There are many years where the numbers of pheasant, grouse, blackcock, hare, deer, etc. number into the thousands! And it was all used to feed people on the estates, along with the cattle and sheep raised there. Of course, the family got the pick of the lot, but counting family and guests, staff, workers, and their families housed on the estate, some 200 people altogether.”
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“Before mechanical refrigeration, per- ishables were kept in a cool house or lar- der, with ice cut from the loch each win- ter and stored under sawdust insulation for future use. Meat could also be salted, or dried. Back in those days there were no “seasons’ for game and no bag limits. The landowner owned the game on his land (and Guisachan originally was some 20,000 acres) and had all rights to it. It was considered just as much a cash crop as the cattle and sheep. By the way, tracking wounded deer was another job the retriev- ers had to do. And that job required a fair amount of courage as well as bidability and an excellent nose.”
At an earlier Guisachan Gathering in 2006, Golden Retriever breeder-judge Nancy Talbott took the time to walk the hillsides around Guisachan (and it’s nearly ALL hillsides and mountains). Nancy had an “epiphany” that occurred while travers- ing the lands where Goldens originally worked, a new understanding of what was required, physically, for a retriever to work in the dense, harsh, wiry heath- er and bracken on those rocky slopes, in the constant wet of this cool climate. Leg length, musculature, agility, coat texture and quality of undercoat suddenly took on considerable added importance.
Nancy further related the following: “The day at Guisachan did indeed firm up what I had believed for decades regarding Golden type, but those opinions had been
Photo by Nancy Talbot
formed from reading and seeing still pho- tos only. I have spoken of my “epiphany” at each judging seminar since that summer, and continue to make it my mission to get that word out.”
“One of the things that struck me about Northern Scotland was the fact that there is virtually no level ground, and where it is level it is strewn with large rocks and heavy cover. It rained every day that we were there, even during what the Scots called a “heat wave” (I think it got up into the 80s). When I watched the Goldens at the estate participate in a “scurry” (timed singles retrieving competition), it became achingly clear why a moderate dog with moderate coat would be ever so much more efficient than either a weedy and fine boned dog or a clod with massive coat. I watched for hours, and the image etched itself into my memory. Up hills, running on ground that would turn the ankle of any humans who tried to run on it, dodging around boulders, and driving through heavy wet grasses. And the dogs were all entered in the conformation ring that day and the day following. It was delightful to see.”
While it may not be realistic to expect most Golden owners, in this day and age, to hunt with their Goldens, it is realistic to expect them to know just what constitutes “hunting” and what is needed in a good hunting dog. When Goldens were devel- oped, they were expected to have the cour- age to bust through that dense, harsh, wiry