Labrador Retriever History

labradors — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 16:52:44 +0000

The Labrador Retriever, despite his name, did not come from
Labrador, but from Newfoundland. The area was populated with small
water dogs, who, when bred with Newfoundlands, produced a breed
referred to as the St. John’s Water Dog, a prototype for the Lab
of today. Early in the 19th century, the Earl of Malmesbury
reputedly saw one of the dogs of this type and had it imported; in
1830, the noted British sportsman Colonel Hawker referred to the
Lab as “the best for any kind of shooting…generally black and no
bigger than a Pointer, very fine in legs, with short, smooth
hair…is extremely quick running, swimming, and fighting…and
their sense of smell is hardly to be credited.”

Initially, the dogs were not known as Labradors until the Duke of
Malmesbury admitted that he “always called [his] Labrador dogs.”
However, the breed eventually died out in Newfoundland due to a
heavy dog tax and quarantine law. Many Labs were interbred with
other types of retrievers, but luckily, the breed prevailed and
fanciers drew up a definitive standard. Accurate pedigrees of
today’s Labs go back as far as 1878. The Lab was recognized as a
distinct breed by the English Kennel Club in 1903. The first
registration of Labradors by the AKC was in 1917, and from the
1920s through the ’30s, there was a great influx of British dogs
that formed the backbone of the breed in this country.

Old Dominion Labradors

Labrador Retriever History