History of the Labrador Retriever
The Labrador Retriever is liked and generally known as possibly the best all round dogs on earth and is also used first and foremost as being a family companion. It is actually just about the most popular dog in america, Canada and also the UK. It comes in three colours, yellow, black and chocolate. His classic role has been for retrieving game but also in modern-day times has been utilized very effectively being a ‘sniffer’ for drugs and explosives and also as a guide dog to the blind. As a consequence of his excellent weather-resistant coat, distinctive otter like tail and webbing to his toes, he also makes an exceptional water dog and is particularly useful for waterfowl retrieval.
They originated on the island of Newfoundland, now section of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada; where they were employed to retrieve fish getting out of the nets, help haul fish nets while they were drawn ashore together with the ropes between boats. The starting variety of the Labrador was the St John’s Water Dog, a breed that surfaced within the 16th century through ad-hoc breeding through the early European settlers.
The assumption is the forebears of St John’s Water Dog were from dogs such as Mastiffs that had been brought to the island by decades of Portuguese fishermen and interbred with breeds brought from England and Ireland. They were most likely crossed with Setters, Spaniels together with other Retrievers to develop their abilities at retrieving with all the emphasis on a gentle personality which makes them acceptable for several different roles.
It wasn’t till the dogs were brought back to Poole in England that they became valued waterfowl hunting dogs by the gentry. The breed is thought to have come to the united kingdom in the late 1800s by Col Peter Hawker and the Earl of Malmesbury. His dog called ‘Malmesbury Trump’ was described by The Countess Howe (Lorna) as one of the founding sires of the breed. It was not until 1925 that The Yellow Labrador Retriever Club was established with its breed club being formed only nine years earlier in 1916.
After they reached England they were given the name ‘Labrador’ following the area referred to as Labrador Peninsula. This forms part of the province Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada. The province was named after the Portuguese explorer Joao Fernandes Lavrador who gave it it’s name in 1498. ‘Lavrador’ was a title he was permitted to use for a landowner and meant practically ‘landowner’. The origins therefore of the Labrador label could be traced back to a 15th century Portuguese title.
The name was picked to tell apart them from the larger St Johns Dog or Lesser Newfoundland breed. The original St Johns Dog breed survived until the 1980′s when the last two were being photographed in 1981 in outlying Newfoundland.
