Page 26 - ShowSight Presents The Golden Retriever
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THE GOLDEN RETRIEVER:
PRIMARILY A HUNTING DOG, A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE.
olden Retriever enthu- siasts from around the world will gather this July in the beau- tiful Cotswold town of Cirencester, Eng-
land to celebrate the centenary (100th anniversary), of the Golden Retriever Club. From July 12th to 15th, the GRC will celebrate with two championship shows, two working tests, displays from the archives, demonstrations of Goldens doing heelwork to music and a Golden drill team, all on the beautiful Bathhurst Estate. There will be a Gala dinner and a day of seminars and international net- working, where noted judge and Golden Retriever historian, Valerie Foss, will speak, along with a panel of international breed experts and veterinarians.
A highlight for many will be a sub- sequent pilgrimage to the highlands of Scotland, near Inverness. From July 16th to 19th, the Golden Retriever Club of Scotland will continue the celebration with social events, a “scurry” (timed, singles retrieving test) and a champion- ship show, with many of the events at the ruins of the Guisachan estate, home from 1854 to 1894 of Sir Dudley Mar- joribanks, the first Lord Tweedmouth. He was the person largely responsible for the development of the Golden Retriever breed at this Scottish retreat.
The Golden Retriever was regarded as a “gentleman’s” hunting dog and a com- panion to the aristocracy. Certainly, the Golden was not the working man’s dog, out to help him secure his dinner or earn his livelihood. But apparently some fan- cier’s idea of a gentleman is a jolly, fat man who leisurely strolls on a lawn simi- lar to those shown in photos of Blenheim, shooting a bird that lands twenty yards away. After spending a vigorous fifteen minutes or so, the dog and Gentleman
retire to sit beside a blazing fire so the Gentleman can enjoy a hot toddy or two! This description is far from reality, as the retriever was expected to expend a full day’s effort in the field.
The Scots were a tough people, and their working dogs had to be as well. The dogs all had to get along, as they worked with, and lived with, other dogs. Scottish breeds, including the Scottish Deerhound, Collie, Shetland Sheepdog, Cairn Terrier, West Highland White Terrier, and the Golden Retriever are hardy breeds whose conformation, coats and constitutions were developed to withstand the climate and terrain in which they lived and worked.
Like many of the gentry of this time, Marjoribanks was keenly interested in the breeding of sporting dogs and other livestock. He wanted to develop a retriev- er suited to the Scottish climate, terrain and type of available game. In 1868 and 1871, breedings between Nous, a yellow wavy-coated retriever, and Belle, a Tweed Water Spaniel, (a breed now extinct), resulted in several yellow pups that became the foundation for a distinctive line of yellow retrievers. The breed was officially recognized by The Kennel Club in 1911 as “Retriever-Yellow or Golden” and finally, “Retriever-Golden” in 1920. Early Golden Retrievers were seen in Canada and the U.S. some years before their official recognition by the Canadian Kennel Club in 1927 and the American Kennel Club in 1932.
Those ‘gentlemen’ who visited the Highlands in the late 1800s took their sport very seriously indeed. As an example, the following is a list of the “head of game” taken on the Guisachan estate in 1871. This is in the Guisachan record book, along with the information of the dogs and breedings: Total head of game: 4672. This included 37 stags (male red deer), 2458 grouse, 200 blackgame (blackcock, a Scot-
Photo by Barb Loree
By Glenda Brown & Ainslie Mills
Photo by Barb Loree
tish bird), 191 ptarmigans, 118 partridges, 101 pheasants, 201 woodcocks, 14 snipes, 4 wild ducks, 328 hares, 977 rabbits, 13 roe deer (males) and 29 hinds (female deer), 1 capercaillie, 1 Reeves’ pheasant. Rabbits trapped were not included.
Game was a crop, and managed for production as well as for sport. Yes, “the gentlemen” enjoyed a long weekend of sport (especially when entertaining visi- tors), and one or two of the retrievers made it to house-dog status, but they were very definitely hard working dogs, all of them. Many call Goldens “the gentleman’s hunt- ing dog” with no real understanding of what the dogs actually did! Those dogs probably retrieved literally thousands of birds (and rabbits) in the hunting season,
