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So if our retrievers wernt born to do this?

2K views 8 replies 9 participants last post by  hotel4dogs 
#1 ·
Where and when did it all start? Always hear that our dogs wernt born to do these things we ask, we teach em to do it.
How did they get the retriever name if retrieving was mans idea?
Curious?
 
#4 ·
The act of retrieving is the only natural thing they do...It is all the obed, handling and the contrived test we set up ..They hauled nets from one boat to the other I'm told back when they were first discovered in Newfoundland...Then imported to England...Someone with all the history of the breed ( labs) can tell you a lot more than I can....Steve S
 
#5 ·
In brief:

Labradors ancestors came from Newfoundland dogs known as St. John's water dogs. They were primarily used for helping fisherman haul nets, buoys and fish from the water. They were "discovered" by Englishman who brought them back to England to use them as hunting dogs.

Do a search on google for more info.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Marked retrieving and picking up dozens of shot game birds on His Lordships estate is what they were named/bred for. By the mid 1800's the modern breech opening shotgun became so easy and accurate that the sport of wing shooting took off on the British Isles amongst the aristocracy, landed gentry and the very wealthy. Shooting parties became pivotal events on the social calender and a weekend's "shoot" might produce a "bag" of 200 to 2000 birds, retrieving dogs were essential to relieving the burden on estate staff.
The division between natural talents and trained skills were permanently set once Jay Carlisle brought Dave Elliot over from Scotland. Blinds as we know them today were never part of the thought process behind the development of the retriever, this and demanding that dogs go in a laser straight line to marks and blinds is man's idea of ideal retriever work, not the dogs'.
 
#8 ·
They WERE born to "do this."

What some folks wrote about St. Johns dogs retrieving fishing nets is true. Then the breed was developed for hunting in Great Britain.

YOUR dog that you have today was born to "do this." They were born to retrieve. They were born to love birds. They were born to mark them with their eyes, smell them with their noses, retrieve them and flush them.

However, when it comes to blind retrieves, being steady, handling in general, hunt tests (at least those above junior/started), and field trials I think it is best said that "none of this was their idea." They were not born to sit instead of go (insert show dog and/or brit lab joke here) and they were not born to run blinds IMO. I know that those abilities are taken into consideration in breeding so even that may be debatable, but I think it is a stretch to say they were born to run blinds or sit instead of go.
 
#9 ·
I read (can't quote the source) that the desire to retrieve comes from the instinct to bring things back to the den, so yes, they were born to do this.
 
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