Golden Retriever: A Golden History

the history of the Golden Retriever - Amici del Golden Retriever
11–14 minutes

Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks, later Baron of Tweedmouth (29 December 1820 – 4 March 1894), was a Scottish businessman, with interests also in politics, but above all a great passion for dogs and hunting.

Second half of the nineteenth century. Lord Tweedmounth is attending a Russian circus show, where some Russian shepherds also perform, performing exceptional agility and carry-over exercises. The Lord is thrilled by their dexterity and the ease with which they carry out the orders, so much so that on returning home, in his Guishacan estate, he continues to rethink those developments: and the same in the days to come and so also during the hunting trips . A thought begins to come up in his head: create a new breed.
the stimulating factors

Hunting weapons were changing towards the end of the nineteenth century. In fact, up to that time muzzleloader rifles were used, which were very slow, but with the advent of the new cartridge weapons the hunting modes also change: the hunters begin to proceed side by side in line and the moment of recovery of the prey is progressively moved at the end of the hunting trip; therefore much faster recovery was needed than previously and, consequently, faster and smarter dogs, capable, especially of going into the waterways of the area, so as to recover the prey more quickly.
The breeds that were first used i.e. the Tweed Water Spaniel,the Setter and the Wavy-Coated) were no longer suitable for the new hunting needs that were emerging. Lord Tweedmounth began to think of pairings between different dogs but with similar peculiarities, to give life to a new breed with characteristics of intelligence, strength and versatility, but also which has a good harmony with man.. The history of the Golden Retriever did not begin with the purchase of Russian shepherds from the circus, contrary to what has been thought for many years. the story of the Golden Retriever begins in another way.

Isabel Abeerden’s family with Lady and Dundley C. Marjoribanks (lord Tweedmouth )

THE DISCOVERY OF DIARIES

The registers found in 1952 by Lord Ilchester, the great-grandson of Lord Tweedmounth, definitively denied the fable that the Golden Retrivier descended from Russian shepherds: the registers tell a whole other story, made of passion, intelligence and tenacity. The real story was revealed for the first time by an article in the famous “Country life” magazine. Subsequently, we must give credit to Elma Stonex, future president of the Golden Retriever club, of the definitive reconstruction of historical truth and its formalization: Elma devoted herself for many years to the study of diaries, recomposing the narration; the Lord was very precise in his writing and meticulously noted all crosses, the litters, the names of the dogs etc.

THE SELECTION STARTS

1868: Lord Tweedmouth owns Nous, a yellow Wavy-Coated. The Wavy (progenitor of the current Flat-Coated Retriever) was a corrugated-haired retriever dog, coming from crossbreeds with the St. John’s of Newfoundland and English Setter. The Lord had purchased Nous a few years earlier, from a Brighton cobbler, who in turn had bought it from a certain Lord Chichester.

Lord Tweedmounth paired Nous with Belle, a Tweed Water Spaniel, an extinct breed, which originated from the Tweed pads (hence the name) – whose progenitors, in turn, descended from coastal dogs. Tweeds had curly, water-resistant fur.

Four puppies are born from Nous and Belle: two of them, later called Cowslip and Primrose, are kept by the Baron , while of the remaining two the female, Ada, is donated to the Earl of Ilchester and will found the Melbury line, the male, Crocus , is given to Lord Tweedmounth’s son, Edward.

Cowslip was used for some mating, and her daughter Topsy mated with Sambo, a Wavy from which Zoe was born, another female.

In 1875 Cowslip was mated with Lord Tweedmounth’s red Setter: only the Jack and Jill puppies, male and female, respectively, are kept. So in 1884 Jack and Zoe are crossed, from which yellow puppies are born: among them a male, Nous ll, and a female, Gill ll; Gill II is then paired in turn with a black Wavy: ten black puppies will be born from the union. Of these black puppies, the female Queenie is paired in 1889 with Nous ll: Prime and Rose are born, two yellow Retriever females, the last mentioned in the diaries.