More Options For Retrieving

Though you rarely hear about them, there are breeds other than Labrador and golden retrievers that hunters can use. Let's look at some of these dogs.

By Carolee Boyles

Fall bird hunts bring out all sorts of hunters and all sorts of dogs. Most of the retrievers you see are familiar, like elegant goldens, and Labs that are wildly enthusiastic.

One fall, however, I saw a dog that was unforgettable -- one that sparked my weakness for retrievers into a full-blown fascination. He had all the grace of a golden, with the same long, thick winter coat, but he was a glossy, shining black. He looked like a big golden someone had dipped in an inkwell.

I asked the owner if he was a black goldador crossbreed, or a cross with something like a Newfoundland.

"No," the owner said. "He's a flat-coated retriever."

Having never heard of the breed, I looked it up. That led to my discovery of not only flat-coats, but also curly-coated retrievers and that "little red dog" known as the Nova Scotia duck tolling retriever. Those three, plus the Chesapeake Bay retriever, make up a foursome of lesser-known breeds that are rarely discussed, but just as versatile as their better-known cousins.

The place to begin any discussion of lesser-known retriever breeds is with the curly-coated retriever. In fact, this breed probably should be the starting point of any discussion about any of today's retrievers. Most historians say that this is the oldest of all the retrievers, and it figured significantly in the development of most related breeds. Thus, this breed deserves more recognition than it gets.

The exact lineage of all the retrievers probably will never be known exactly, since early breeders didn't keep the kinds of records or follow the same scientific approach that breeders do today. However, some generalizations are possible.

Flat-coated and curly-coated retrievers sprang from a common ancestry based on longhaired breeding producing the former and the shorthaired version becoming the curly-coated.

Flat-coated -- and even more rarely, curly-coated -- retriever breeding occasionally yielded a yellow-colored offspring. Early on, those pups were destroyed, but eventually some were bred, leading to today's golden retriever.

The Labrador retriever probably came from a cross between curly-coats and Newfoundlands, and some other breeds thrown in.

The Chesapeake Bay retriever is probably a mixture of curly-coats with some other breeds as well.

"Some of this is educated guesses," explained Jim Crosby, who has professionally trained more curly-coated title winners than anyone in the U.S., and is president of the Curly-Coated Retriever Club of America. "We're not really sure about a lot of it. Once you get back a couple hundred years, it's hard to say what really happened. But what we do know is that the curly-coated retriever has been a recognized breed for a very long time."

CURLY-COATED RETRIEVER

The curly-coated retriever is about the same size as the other retrieving breeds and built very much like its cousins. Their average size is 60 to 85 pounds. However, its coat is quite different. The hair is short, very tightly curled and may be black or liver-colored.

"The curly-coat, as a purebred, goes back between 400 and 500 years," Crosby noted.

In terms of personality, curly-coats share many family traits with their cousins.

"They're very friendly, but they can be a little reserved if they don't know you," he said. "Once they realize you're good for cookies, though, forget it. You're a friend forever.

"They're more laid back than a Labrador," Crosby continued. "It's like having all the good characteristics of a Lab in a dog you don't have to try not to kill for the first two years. They aren't serious by any means, but the puppies aren't quite as silly as flat-coats. And they don't have the 'edge' that the Chesapeakes do."

Curlies often were used by gamekeepers in old England, but not as guard or protection dogs. Rather, they were good trackers for finding poachers and the game they had stashed.

One aspect of the curly-coat's personality that's different from other retrievers is its apparent ability to "think through" a situation.

"Curlies think way too much," Crosby agreed. "The best illustration I can give you is the first hunt test I ever did with one of my dogs, Sam. It was on a day that was very cold, when the wind was blowing very strongly from left to right. The bird was thrown out into a pond about 40 yards beyond the bank and the weeds. All the Labs were splashing and swimming through the cold water and chasing the duck down and struggling back through the wind and the cattails.

"When I sent Sam after the bird, he went to the edge of the water and stopped. He looked at the bird, sniffed the wind, and ran directly around the right side of the pond and stopped in one place and sat down. The bird blew up right to his feet. He brought it back to me in the same amount of time it would have taken him to swim it down, but he stayed dry. That's a dog that's thinking."

Of course, Sam failed the hunt test, because that's not what the judges wanted to see, but it illustrates just how smart a curly-coat can be.

"Curlies make horrible kennel dogs," Crosby concluded. "They need that human companionship. They do best when they're part of the family."

Check out the Curly-Coated Retriever Club of America online at http://www.ccrca.org/ for more information about this breed.