Azul Celeste International Kennel

Aquamarine (#110617) History Do Labradors come from Labrador? It seems reasonable to assume that our much loved and lovable Retriever is called a Labrador Retriever, because it retrieves things and comes from Labrador in North America! In fact the dogs that formed the foundation of the Labrador breed in England in the 1800s, were imported not from Labrador but from Newfoundland. Two areas that tended to get lumped together for general discussion purposes. What is more, those Newfoundland dogs were almost certainly not natives of Newfoundland at all. Let’s investigate. Our story really gets going, in the harsh and inhospitable region that was 18th Century Newfoundland. The dogs of Newfoundland When we think of Newfoundland dogs, we tend to think of the large heavy and very hairy black dog whose breed carries the Newfoundland name. A breed that was long thought to be the ancestor of the Labrador. When Europeans began to visit and later colonise the island of Newfoundland, there were almost certainly no dogs there at all. The peoples who settled there and fished in the rich waters around the coast, brought their own dogs with them. Richard Wolters and the history of the Labrador Retriever American Labrador enthusiast and trainer Richard Wolters wrote a detailed history of The Labrador Retriever in 1981 He was given access to some important archives and historical documents, by The Kennel Club and Her Majesty the Queen’s own Sandringham Kennels, and by several families whose ancestors were instrumental in establishing the breed. Wolters described the early settlers to Newfoundland as ‘tough characters’ – deserters from the British fishing fleet. Hard men who settled and survived in a hard environment. The fishermen’s dogs Wolters notes that there are no records of any native dogs on the Island and that the majority of settlers were fishermen and hunters from Devon in the South West of England. Wolters believes that these men brough their dogs with them from England and that their hunting dogs were the ancestors of the dogs that became known as Newfoundland dogs. Today we think of Newfoundlands as large even giant and very hairy dogs with thick wavy coats, dogs from which some have concluded the Labrador Retriever may have descended. But Wolters believes it was the other way around. He thinks that the smaller fishermen’s dogs with their oily short coats that are the forebears of the Labrador, were also of the ancestor of the Newfoundland and that the bigger dog was bred up in size to cope with the heavier work of hauling carts in the inhospitable climate.

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