Gundogs E-Book

David Hancock

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 427

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

This book is about gundogs, those ever-willing companions of both sportsmen and discerning dog owners. Gundogs is not a manual covering training, grooming, nutrition and dog care; it is very much a celebration of the gundog's contribution to the sporting and companion dog scene, an examination of their past, their performance and their prospects in an increasingly urban society. Painstakingly researched, it covers the well-known recognized breeds and the more obscure ones from overseas, some quite unknown to the British public.David Hancock's earlier books have been highly praised, as have his many articles in sporting magazine in the last thirty years. When reviewing one of his previous books, the revered writer on sporting dogs, the late Brian Plummer, described it as a 'masterpiece'. Reviewing his Sporting Terriers, Dogs in Canada magazine stated that it 'has the quality of a classic'. A reviewer of his last book, Sighthounds, stated that 'Hancock's work provokes thinking in the reader the way a good discussion stimulates and refreshes our minds.' A Canadian reviewer of another of his books gave the view that David Hancock is 'perhaps the most important living writer about dogs.' A comprehensive survey of the gundog's origins, its role and its future, Gundogs is essential reading for all those with an interest in these loyal dogs, especially gundog and country sport enthusiasts. Meticiously researched and packed with information it covers the well-known recognized breeds as well as more obscure ones. Superbly illustrated with 360 colour and black & white photographs. David Hancock has studied dogs for over half a century and is a past winner of the Dog Writers Association of America.

Leseprobe

GUNDOGS

Their Past, Their Performance and Their Prospects

GUNDOGS

Their Past, Their Performance and Their Prospects

DAVID HANCOCK

THE CROWOOD PRESS

Previous Books by the Author

Dogs As Companions – 1981Old Working Dogs – 1984 (reprinted 1998 and 2011)The Heritage of the Dog – 1990The Bullmastiff – A Breeder’s Guide Vol 1 – 1996The Bullmastiff – A Breeder’s Guide Vol 2 – 1997Old Farm Dogs – 1999The Mastiffs – The Big Game Hunters – 2000–06 (six editions)The Bullmastiff – A Breeder’s Guide – 2006 (one volume hardback edition)The World of the Lurcher – 2010Sporting Terriers – Their Form, Their Function and their Future – 2011Sighthounds – Their Form, Their Function & Their Future – 2012

First published in 2013 by The Crowood Press Ltd, Ramsbury, Marlborough, Wiltshire, SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2013

© David Hancock 2013

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 84797 631 4

Page 1: Studies of Three Spaniels by Edwin W. Cooper. Page 2: A group of shooting dogs, 1864. Page 3: Setters were called spaniels; Cocking spaniels were not a separate breed. Page 5: The Springer: a 19th century engraving/aquatint.

CONTENTS

Dedication

Preface

Acknowledgements and Author’s Note

Introduction: the Changing Fortunes of Gundogs

Chapter 1: Origins and Ancestry

Chapter 2: The Specialists

Chapter 3: The All-Rounders

Chapter 4: The Future: Conserving the Real Gundog

Conclusion: Conserving the Gundog as a Sporting Dog

Points of the Dog

Glossary of Terms

Bibliography

Index

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to the skilful pioneer gundog breeders who developed these remarkably gifted dogs for our appreciative use. They made function the main criterion in their breeding plans yet bequeathed to us handsome animals admired and favoured far beyond the shooting field. It is now for us to honour their memory, and respect the sporting dog heritage that they established, by breeding dogs they themselves would have coveted. Breeding functional dogs, gundogs especially, is a moral duty as well as a means to an end; we really must, in times when appearance is all, strive to protect the distinguished breeds of gundog from valueless exaggeration and unsound anatomies, in the misguided pursuit of purely show ring success. The casual seeking of ‘breed points’ ahead of stable temperament and a physique not suited to the gundog function is a betrayal of all that the pioneer breeders strove for in their honourable quest for an outstanding field dog. A sound gundog is a healthier gundog and that goal is the only true basis for the ethical breeding of subject creatures, especially those whose whole purpose is to serve us. Let us make the twenty-first century the one in which the very best interests of these quite admirable dogs were given the highest priority. They truly deserve it.

Laverack’s Monument at Whitchurch, Shropshire – the plaque.

Mrs A. Butter with early Labrador, Dungavel Jet, 1911.

Shooting Party by John Beer, 1889.

The Gamekeeper by John Emms, 1843–1912.

PREFACE

Most men who shoot appreciate the services of a good gundog, both as a quester and ‘flusher’ and as a retriever of dead and wounded game, particularly that which may fall in places not easily accessible to the gun himself. Many men find that working a gundog gives them as much, if not more pleasure than the actual shooting and, apart from increasing the bag, a well-trained dog enhances a day afield whether you are shooting alone or in company.

P.R.A. Moxon, writing in The Farmer’s Book ofField Sports edited by Colin Willock (1961)

Gundogs, developed and bred for their biddability, their strong desire to serve, their reliable temperaments and robust physiques, make ideal companion dogs – because of those very qualities. But unless gundog owners respect their dogs’ instincts, their innate desire to work, to be active, to be employed and then provide an outlet for such valuable instincts, they will end up with unfulfilled frustrated pets. It’s a real responsibility owning a dog from one of the gundog breeds. Of course it is vital to feed them, care for their physical needs and safeguard their health. But there is a distinct requirement to consider too their spiritual needs, their inherited instincts, their deeply-implanted desire to ‘use their noses’. Give them sensory stimulation! Give them spiritual release! Let them be gundogs!

Grant’s 1840 painting ‘Shooting at Ranton’ on display at Shugborough Hall in Staffordshire.

Much is made quite rightly of conserving precious old buildings; far less is made of the similar need to conserve our living heritage. The sporting dog is part of Britain’s living heritage; in the next decade we could not only lose some of our hounds of the pack, but betray our sporting forefathers by breeding gormless gundogs, timid terriers and supine sighthounds. The threats are manifold: animal welfare activists, financial pressures, demands on land and – perhaps often understated – the ignorance of a mainly urban dwelling population of the spiritual needs of sporting breeds. These dogs were not fashioned as companion dogs, however good they may be in that role. They had a use.

As our various breeds of dog were developing, function fashioned form. Breed type often reflected local preferences or breeders’ whims, but the phenotype of each breed was decided by function, not by preference or whim. Terrain or country usually decided, in pack hounds, the size of the hound, just as the grouse moor shaped the setter breeds. Colour and coat texture apart, most terrier breeds used as earth-dogs resemble each other. The need for retrievers in the shooting field gave us our highly popular retriever breeds, which were proficient enough to find wide-ranging employment away from the sporting world. A change in the needs of shooting men brought a whole range of hunt-point-retrieve all-rounder breeds to us, as versatility triumphed over specialization. But whatever their place of origin, every gundog breed developed from a function, not cosmetic appeal.

In these pages I have striven to depict gundogs from past times through the medium of sporting art. I am very much aware that dog writers of the past, Victorian ones especially, copied from each other and did little research outside Britain. It pays breed historians, rather than carelessly parroting previous writers, to look, for example, at the Golden Retriever superbly captured by Grant in his Shooting at Ranton of 1840 – long before stories of Russian imports and circus dogs were circulated. It’s important that breed historians are aware of the paintings in the Bowes Museum in County Durham of the Bowes family, with a fine yellow Labrador depicted as long ago as 1848. Charles Towne’s 1818 painting Pointers in a Stable and Sir William Beechey’s portrait of Richard Thompson and Pointer at the end of the 18th century depict a Pointer very much like the French breed of pointing dog, the Braque Français. In 1713 Desportes produced his depiction of the Earl of Burlington’s Pointers, with one of them having a distinct continental pointer look to it. James Barenger, too, in his Awaiting the Flush of 1811, depicts in the left-hand dog the French Braque influence on our Pointer stock. The casual acceptance that our Pointer originated in Spain rather than France is challengeable. This I discuss in the coverage of the gundog breeds that follows.

Portrait of Josephine Bowes by Antoin Dury, 1850.

Pointers in a stable by Charles Towne, 1818.

Portrait of Richard Thompson by Sir William Beechey, 1753–1839.

Whilst researching this book I have become increasingly aware of the sporting motives, breeding philosophy and, often, noble aspirations of the pioneers in each gundog breed. I believe that unless you are aware of their intentions and the thinking behind them you cannot fully appreciate the dogs of today. I have therefore made full use of quotes and illustrations from those early times, in each gundog breed, to provide the reader with such essential fundamental background. I have striven to give the dedicated talented breeders, who gave us these superb breeds, a voice. I have also given space to the expert show ring judges whose after-show critiques provide so much of value to the future breeding plans of pedigree gundog breeders. These are very rarely mentioned in books on dogs.

The general public may not work their gundog pets, but all gundogs require activity and stimulation; they need exercise as well as human company. These breeds were selectively bred, not as hearthrugs but as shooting field assistants, and developed over centuries for function. A fat Labrador tells you more about its owner than any words of excuse from that owner. An excessively coated Cocker Spaniel, with overlong judges-wig’s ears, illustrates human indulgence beyond any canine need. We betray the pioneer breeders of these magnificent breeds when we elect to ignore their proven criteria and follow our less well-informed whims. These breeds need responsible ownership, they deserve conscientious patronage, they have earned our best endeavours on their behalf. This book is not a multi-breed book containing advice on rearing, training, breeding, care and maintenance and exhibiting; it’s a celebration of the gundog function, the contributing breeds, their form, their function and worries about their future. Sportsmen owe a massive debt of gratitude to these remarkable dogs, for, without, their enthusiastic service, the sport of shooting would become just a firing range exercise. May gundogs be treasured for centuries to come; they richly deserve our very best custodianship.

Awaiting the Flush by James Barenger, 1811.

If we take the large classes of English Setters that a Kennel Club or Birmingham Show brings together, and compare them with the Field Spaniels of to-day, we see at once a very marked distinction – differences so wide that, unless we reflect on the influences that have been at work in producing both, we cannot realise that they are from the same stock. But ever since dog shows began Setters have been undergoing alteration in form, and the long, low, workmanlike Setter of a quarter of a century ago has been changed to a lighter, more leggy, and – and, in appearance at least – less enduring animal; whereas the Field Spaniel has been bred lower on the leg, and with longer body – so that the divergence is now greater than ever it was in the history of the group.

British Dogs by Hugh Dalziel (Upcott Gill, 1888)

Earl of Burlington’s Pointers by Desportes, 1713.

An old friend of mine insisted that a thoughtful Providence had sent the gundogs of this world to be of use to man. I preferred to look at it in another way, suggesting that man had been endowed with an intelligence that enabled him to mould animals to his advantage.

British Dogs by A. Croxton Smith (1945)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author is grateful to the staff at Sotheby’s Picture Library, Christie’s Images Ltd, Bonhams, Arthur Ackermann Ltd, David Messum Galleries, Richard Green & Co., The Bridgeman Art Library, The Bowes Museum, Rountree Fine Art Ltd, The Nature Picture Library, The National Art Library, The Wallace Collection, R Cox & Co., Lane Fine Art, The Kennel Club, The American Kennel Club, The National Trust, The Royal Collection – Photographic Services and private collectors (especially the late Mevr A.H. (Ploon) de Raad of Zijderveld, Holland, who gave free use of her extensive photographic archive of sporting paintings), for their gracious and generous permissions to reproduce some of the illustrations used in this book.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

A number of the illustrations in this book lack pictorial quality but are included because uniquely they either contribute historically to or best exemplify the meaning of the text. Old depictions do not always lend themselves to reproduction in today’s higher-quality print and publishing format. Those that are included have significance beyond their graphic limitations and I ask for the reader’s understanding over this.

Where quotes are used, they are used verbatim, despite any vagaries in spelling, irregular use of capital letters or departures from contemporary grammar. For me, it is important that their exact form, as presented by the author originally, is displayed, as this can help to capture the mood of those times.

Spaniel and game, engraving of 1854.

INTRODUCTION

THE CHANGING FORTUNES OF GUNDOGS

The main body of this family is composed of Spaniels proper, the Setters and Retrievers, while pointing dogs and diminutive allies are the miscellaneous members of the group. Head characteristics are rather broad skulls which are convex or ‘domed’ across the top, well-defined stop, fairly thick, long and pendant ears, loose lips, and rather full round eyes. Body formation is generally lithe and muscular, with the back slightly sloping to the set-on, legs of substantial but not coarse bone, and feet fairly large with toes that are capable of spreading out on soft earth. Tails are naturally long (except in some foreign Pointers which are purposely docked, and most British Spaniels), tapering and flagged with long fine hair on the underside. Coats are always soft, usually medium in length and well feathered. Employment is usually in flushing, setting, pointing and retrieving game.

Dogs in Britain by Clifford L.B. Hubbard (1948)

Native Breeds Admired

Britain has every reason to be proud of her contribution to the breeds of gundog in the world. Our sportsmen, supported by the landed families, developed the renowned breeds that are still active in the field today – pointers, setters and spaniels – although some of these breeds sadly are little used in the shooting field. If you want sheer style on the grouse moor, a dog that excels at flushing, starting or springing game, or a specialist retriever for picking up, our sporting breeds are still supreme. But if you want a dog that is capable of hunting game, pointing out where it is and then retrieving it to hand when it is shot, then you must choose a breed from overseas. In a later chapter I suggest that this should be rectified – that we in Britain should develop our own ‘hunt-point-retrieve’ breed. It is strange that British gundog breeders, revered the world over, have not responded to the contemporary demand for all-round skills in a gundog. As the paintings of George Morland, James Barenger and Ben Marshall illustrate, our Pointers once used to retrieve, as did some setters, as the Paul Jones painting of 1859 shows. Dog breeders are not usually so slow to respond to the marketplace, as our exports of gundogs in past centuries demonstrate.

Partridge Shooting; an engraving by C. Catton after George Morland, 1763–1804.

Partridge Shooting by James Barenger, 1804.

The Artist with Two Pointers by Ben Marshall, 1767–1835.

Retrieving Setter by Paul Jones, 1859.

Popularity has its Price

This book is a tribute to the gundog, whether a bird-dog, a water-dog, a decoy-dog, a flushing dog, a retrieving dog or a versatile all-rounder. Modern living presents many problems to sporting dogs, ranging from contemporary lifestyles that do not suit such active creatures to unwise unskilled breeding, often in the unashamed pursuit of money. But for some breeds, especially some gundog breeds, there is a special danger from their being appreciated, wanted, coveted and therefore over-bred – their sheer popularity. The sport of shooting is thriving; it is vital that the hard-working dogs providing irreplaceable support in the field to this sport are well-served, not just by trainers and shots once mature, but by their breeders, breed clubs and parent bodies. It would be good to see an energetic organisation like the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) extending their remit still further in the promotion of healthier, better-bred and sounder gundogs, as well as the conservation of our native minor gundog breeds.

Challenge to British Breeds

If you look at the annual registrations of gundog breeds with the Kennel Club (KC), you can quickly see the fairly recent popularity nowadays of the hunt-point-retrieve (HPR) breeds from the continent. In the first decade of the twenty-first century, twice as many German Short-haired Pointers (GSPs) were registered here as our own native breed of Pointer; 1,000 more Hungarian Vizslas were registered than the combined totals of our Clumber, Field, Sussex and Irish Water Spaniels; more Weimaraners were registered than all our native setter breeds put together. More Italian Spinoni were registered than the combined totals of our Curly-coated Retrievers, Irish Red and White Setters and two of the minor spaniel breeds. Less than fifty years ago, only around 540 GSPs, 330 Weimaraners and under 100 Hungarian Vizslas were registered each year and no Spinoni. But nearly four times fewer Irish Setters were registered in 2000 as in 1975. Is this entirely down to sheer merit in the newly popular foreign breeds or an indication of our fondness for the exotic, the casual pursuit of novelty or copycat fashion-following?

Even fifty years ago, the shooting men went for British gundogs; not any more. The preference for hunt-point-retrieve breeds has largely caused this, but our national fascination with all things foreign plays a part too. The sustained popularity of the Labrador and Golden Retrievers and the English Springer and Cocker Spaniels must not be allowed to mask the worryingly small numbers of far too many of our native gundog breeds. In succeeding chapters I discuss this alarming decline in numbers in far too many of our long-established British breeds.

There is also a regrettable fickleness in the fancying of gundog breeds. Take the Gordon Setter as an example: in 1908, 27 were registered; in 1927, 74; in 1950, 100; in 1975, 255; in 1985, 586; in 2001, 288; in 2009, 192 and then 306 a year later. Such comparatively wide fluctuations in a small breeding population calls for extraordinary shrewdness from breeders if top-quality dogs are to be bred and a virile gene pool maintained. Another of our native gundog breeds, the English Setter, is declining alarmingly, with 240 being registered each year either side of the First World War, as many as 1,700 in 1980, a drop down to 768 in 2000, then further drops in 2009 (295) and 2011 (234). To lose 1,500 registrations in 30 years is a dramatic loss of patronage and of enormous concern to breed enthusiasts. This cannot be put down purely to changes in shooting habits.

Hungarian Vizsla pup, 1998.

Three Springer Spaniels by Reuben Ward Binks, 1944.

The Many Colours of the Cocker Spaniel (courtesy of Dogs In Canada magazine).

Fashioning Fame

If you look at the list of the twenty most popular breeds of dog, as registered with the Kennel Club in 2011, you see a wide range of types. There are terrier and spaniel breeds, gundogs and herding dogs, foreign breeds and British ones, toy dogs and working breeds. The Labrador Retriever easily heads the list, with nearly 40,000 registered, as in the previous four years. The Golden Retriever and the Cocker and English Springer Spaniels feature high in the popularity stakes, with all three breeds proving popular overseas too. The fashion-following of the dog-owning public can be seen in the changing fortunes of two British breeds: the Cocker Spaniel and the Fox Terrier. In 1910, over 600 Cockers and 1,500 wire-haired Fox Terriers were registered. The wire-haired Fox Terrier was top dog from 1920 to 1925 and again from 1928 to 1935. It was still the third most popular breed half a century ago. Eighty years ago it was the third most popular breed in the US too. Now fewer than 700 are registered here annually, only one third of the numbers registered in 1956.

The Cocker Spaniel was top dog here from 1936 to 1953, with over 7,000 registered each year in the 1950s. In the US in 1977, as many as 53,000 were registered, the breed having been top there even thirty years before. The registrations here of Cockers went up by 1,600 between 1989 and 1998, with the breed moving into third place here in 2000, with 13,000 registrations. Unlike the Fox Terrier, this is a story of sustained popularity. There seems no discernible reason for such varying fortunes. The Fox Terrier has lost its working role but perhaps the rise of the Jack Russell has contributed to its fall. The Cocker Spaniel is not worked as much as it once was, but the steady rise of another small spaniel breed – the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel – has not affected its numbers. It is now more popular than the English Springer Spaniel.

Labradors: FT Ch Peter of Whitmore and Ch Type of Whitmore by Maud Earl, 1914.

Golden Retriever Vesta of Woolley by Reuben Ward Binks, 1928.

Success Stories

The gundog breed success story of the twentieth century here was undoubtedly that of the Labrador Retriever, with the Golden Retriever, the Cocker Spaniel and the English Springer not far behind. In his Dogs since 1900 (1950), Arthur Croxton Smith wrote:

The year 1903 was memorable in the history of Labradors, which had hitherto been little known except among a few select sporting families… I must admit that before 1903 I had never seen one… Then in that year a class was provided for them at the Kennel Club show at the Crystal Palace.

In 1908, 123 were registered, in 1912, 281, in 1922, 916, by the 1950s 4,000 were being registered each year, in the 1980s 15,000 a year, rising to nearly 36,000 in 1998 and over 45,000 a year after that. No other breed in the history of purebred dogs can match that rise in popularity. This degree of popularity calls for visionary breeding control, both a voluntary one at breeder level and firm leadership at the top, both at breed club and KC level. Sadly, this has not been entirely successful and far too many unsound unhealthy dogs have been born – and bred from – to respond to public demand. The breed, and indeed the public, deserve better and I argue for that in succeeding pages.

Stabyhoun or Frisian Pointing Dog (courtesy of Dutch Kennel Club).

Threat from Abroad

Is there a need to restrict the often whimsical way in which fresh foreign breeds are imported into this country? Coming along behind the German Short- and Wire-haired Pointers are the Stichelhaars and the Langhaars; behind the Large Munsterlander is the small variety and then there are the French braques and epagneuls, as well as the Dutch dogs: the Stabyhoun (Frisian Pointing Dog) and the Drentse Patrijshond, with the Italian Spinone and Bracco, the Portuguese Pointer and the Slovakian Rough-haired Pointer already imported. I am full of admiration for these breeds and have seen many of them at work in their native countries. I would like to see talented, well-bred specimens from those breeds gracing our shooting fields but I would not want them to gain ground here at the expense of our own breeds. As I argue in Chapter 3, we are more than capable of creating our own hunt-point-retrieve breed from native working stock.

Drentse Partridge Dog (courtesy of Dutch Kennel Club).

English Pointer, depicted by F. Deiker in 1880, happily retrieving feathered game, whilst distracted by fur.

Portuguese Partridge Dog (courtesy of Portuguese Kennel Club).

Threats from Within

One of the less satisfactory aspects of the purebred dog industry in breeds that still work is the tiny contribution to the gene pool from the top working dogs. In the retriever world, the early dogs nearly always had field trial champions in their five-generation pedigree. Nowadays, with over 50,000 retrievers being newly registered with the Kennel Club each year, only a very small percentage have that input. Gundog experts who take the view that if the top working dogs are good then there is little wrong with the breed are not living in the real world. It is illuminating, too, to note that the only group of sporting dogs still earning their keep in the field and whose breeders still register their stock with the KC is the gundog group. Racing Greyhounds, hounds of the pack and working terriers do not feature in KC lists. Working sheepdogs never have. This is discussed in the concluson.

Changing Fortunes

Generally speaking, in the world of dogs, kennel clubs keep the breeds going and sportsmen keep the functions alive. Our Kennel Club does stage field trials, working tests, agility and obedience events but it is sportsmen who use hounds, gundogs and terriers as sporting assistants. The KC oversees the world of the pedigree gundog; in every decade, in the world of the show gundog, the faddists are at work, sadly in far too many breeds. Sporting dogs, like the setters, were once famed for their lung-power; now they are mostly slab-sided in the chest, despite the evidence that such a structure enhances the likelihood of bloat. A Cocker Spaniel can, it appears win Best in Show at Crufts with ears that defy the breed standard. ‘Oh, doesn’t he know,’ I can hear the gundog gurus proclaim, ‘that there is a division now between working and show gundogs?’ My response is two-fold: firstly, nearly all the gundogs taking part in the working tests I have judged were show-bred; secondly I am prepared to bet that many readers of sporting magazines buy their gundog from a show breeder. In later pages, I make regular reference to the views of show-ring judges; this is usually overlooked in books on dogs but here provides extremely valuable insight into the state of each gundog breed and is of value to the future breeding of each breed. I have also made full use of registration figures to illustrate the changing fortunes of each breed; popularity does not bring security to a breed, but a lack of it can spell disaster for limited gene pools.

Fads may be passing indulgences for fanciers but they so often do lasting harm to breeds. If they did harm to the breeders who inflict them, rather than to the wretched dogs that suffer them, fads would be more tolerable and certainly more short-lived. What are the comments of veterinary surgeons treating the ill-effects of misguided fads? In his informative book The Dog: Structure and Movement, published in 1970, R.H. Smythe, himself a vet, wrote:

Many of the people who keep, breed and exhibit dogs, have little knowledge of their basic anatomy or of the structural features underlying the physical formation insisted upon in the standards laid down for any particular breed. Nor do many of them – and this includes some of the accepted judges – know, when they handle a dog in or outside the show ring, the nature of the structures which give rise to the varying contours of the body, or why certain types of conformation are desirable and others harmful.

Every gundog owner needs to know what his dog is for! This is covered in later chapters.

Curly-coated Retriever and Pointer by John Emms, 1895.

Celebratory Survey

I have striven in this book to promote the best longterm interests of gundogs; it is a book intended to be a celebratory survey of the gundog breeds, covering their origin, evolution, employment, essential form and their future. It is not a manual covering animal husbandry, training and breeding. It aims at the production of better gundogs in the years to come, with a renewed respect for their needs and best interests. Gundogs represent a very special collection of breeds both native and imported; they were developed by skilled breeders for a precise sporting function. It is our duty to continue the inspired work of those pioneers in each breed who bequeathed these precious breeds into our care. These words are intended to encourage just that.

The discovery of the gun superseding the use of the falcon, the powers of the Dog were directed to the new acquisition; but his fleetness, wildness and courage, in quest of game, rendering him difficult to manage, a more useful kind was established, with shorter limbs and less speed…

Cynographica Britannica by Sydenham Edwards (1800)

There was great competition amongst English sportsmen at the beginning of the nineteenth century to secure the ideal gundog. There were plenty of breeds to choose from because gundogs had appeared long before the gun in England. Springers had flushed game for the falconer. ‘Crouchers’ had driven partridges or quails into a net and setters had been developed for the same purpose.

The British Dog by Carson I.A. Ritchie (1981)

Black Retriever with Duck by Reuben Ward Binks.

CHAPTER 1

ORIGINS AND ANCESTRY

GUNDOGS – BEFORE THERE WERE GUNS

The cross-bow, the arbalast and the stone-bow (both variants on the cross-bow) were becoming increasingly used in sport. With blunt bolts or stones for killing birds they were an effective weapon. Other methods of securing birds and small game, such as decoying, netting, trapping and liming were becoming increasingly common as the Middle Ages drew to their close and the protection of the ‘fowls of warren’ became correspondingly ineffective. Yet still the immense wild bird population showed little signs of suffering from these persecutions.

Hunting and Shooting by Michael Brander (1971)

Pre-Firearm Hunting

Strictly speaking, once you have named a distinct group of dogs as ‘gundogs’, their history begins with the invention of firearms. But hunters were ‘armed’ long before the introduction of firearms, with the spear, the bow and arrow, the boar-lance and the bolt-firing weapons to the fore. The net could also be described as a weapon, being used to capture rabbits or envelop game birds indicated by setting dogs. Before the invention of firearms, hunters were reliant on dogs that could indicate unseen game and not run in, as well as those that could retrieve valuable bolts, especially from water, when used on wildfowl.

In the late middle ages, the netting of birds was not a simple matter; dogs had to be trained to find the quarry and ‘hold’ them whilst crouching expectantly but with immense patience. To further deter the birds from taking off, a kite-hawk, a device resembling a bird of prey, would be flown over them. Alternatively, a falcon could be positioned above them, either flown free or at the top of a long pole, within sight of the birds. Each stratagem ensured the birds clung to the ground, so enabling the hunter to proceed. Once the targeted, transfixed birds were grounded by this system, the netsmen could advance with their net and trail it over the prone dog and cast it over the stupefied birds. Gamekeepers would often spread obstacles in open fields to prevent game being poached in this manner.

Pot Filling

Shooting birds with a gun was initially regarded as pot-filling rather than sport. The sporting way was locating them with ‘setting dogs’ which then lay low to allow the hunters’ net to be drawn both over them and the crouching dogs, or chiens couchant. There are many setters to this day that instinctively crouch low rather than stand and point in the classic pose. In continental Europe a draw-net or tirasse was employed; this involved the dogs crawling slowly towards the stationary birds, gradually driving the alarmed but not flight-prone birds towards the approaching netsmen. In such a way, the dogs ‘worked’ the birds into the net, rather as a well-trained collie urges sheep to move but not run. The value to the hunter, both here and on the continent, of a dog which instinctively found game on the ground, indicated its find, then almost hypnotised it into staying on the ground until a net descended on it, must have been priceless.

Spaniels taught to crouch from Blome’s Gentleman’s Recreation, 1686.

The rapport between sportsman and setting dog was captured in The Sportsman’s Cabinet of 1803, with these words:

Hawking from a drawing by Francis Barlow, 1626–1704.

The Setting Dogg & Partridges from Blome’s Gentleman’s Recreation, 1686.

That the setting dog has more continual and intimate relations with man, than almost any other of the species; he hunts within his view, and almost under his hand; his master affords him pleasure, for the pleasure is mutual when the game is in the net; which being shown to the dog, he is caressed if he has done right, corrected if he has done wrong; his joy in the first instance, or his remorse in the latter, are equally apparent, and in this mutual gratification is formed the very basis of reciprocal affection.

We may well have lost that particular intimacy with our gundogs as operating distances increased with developing shooting methods.

Dogs of the Net

I am inclined to believe that the earliest sporting dogs, other than hounds of the chase, were the dogs ‘da rete’ (of the net) and the water dogs that would retrieve bolts, arrows and wildfowl which had fallen into water. The ‘oysel’ or bird dogs of the sixteenth century were much more setter-like than anything else. I take the view that the expression chiens d’arret, or stop-dogs, is more likely a corruption of chiens de rets, the French word ‘rets’ meaning a net or a snare. Terms like chien couchant, chien d’oysel and chiens de rets were used for dogs working to the net before the distinct breeds for this task evolved. In his The Master of Game of 1410, Edward, Duke of York, called all bird dogs spaniels but pointed out that some could be trained for the net, referring to them as ‘couchers’.

16th Century Hawking Dog.

In his ground-breaking book Of English Dogs of 1576, the Cambridge scholar Dr Caius was recording:

When he hath found the bird, he keepeth sure and fast silence, he stayeth his steps and will proceed no further; and with a close, covert and watching eye, layeth his belly to the ground, and so creepeth forward like a worm…whereby it is supposed that this kind of dog is called Index, ‘Setter’, being indeed a name most consonant and agreeable to his quality.

Half a century later, Gervase Markham was writing: ‘It is meete that first before I wade further into this discourse, I shew you, what a Setting dogge is: you shall then understand that a Setting Dogge is a certaine lusty land spaniel, taught by nature to hunt the partridges, before, and more than any other chase.’ He also referred to the taking of pheasants by bird-liming bushes, supported by spaniels.

Heron-hawking Party by Henry Alken Snr, 1821 (note larger ‘setting spaniel’).

Spaniels, too, were used with the net and the hawk. The use of names for types and uses of dogs was more than loose in past times. The Irish called the setter the English Spaniel for quite some time, while the poet John Gay referred to the setter as ‘the creeping spaniel’. All longer-or rougher-haired sporting dogs, not used as hounds, were once clubbed together as spaniels. The cocking spaniel was also called the gun spaniel. In his Rural Sports of 1870, Delabere Blaine disputes a Captain Brown’s statement that, ‘The true English-bred spaniel differs but little in figure from the setter, except in size’, writing that, ‘It is evident Captain Brown here thought only of the large sporting spaniel. Both springers and cockers are used in greyhound coursing, and the excellent scenting qualities of each usually enables them to find every hare in their beat.’

Nicholas Cox, in 1677, was stressing the value of the spaniel in hawking, writing: ‘How necessary a thing it [the spaniel] is to falconry I think nobody need question, as well as to spring and retrieve a fowl being flown to the mark, and also in divers and other ways to help and assist falcons and goshawks.’ But was he writing of spaniels or setters or even, before the days of purebreeding, of a blend of the two? The veracity of sources matters too; Dr Caius was a scholar not a sportsman and undoubtedly had his leg pulled by the latter; Cox was a shameless plagiarist who used material on French dogs as though it came from England; Markham was a clever and prolific journalist who often wrote beyond his knowledge.

Netting the Quarry

When real sportsmen write you soon get a marvellous impression of the essence of the sport itself. In an article headed The Setter and Grouse, ‘Nimrod’ in a sporting magazine of 1837, described the practice of an old-fashioned squire in Flintshire, Peter Davies of Broughton Hall:

The old gentleman took the field in good style, being accompanied by a servant to hold his horse when he dismounted, and two mounted keepers in their green plush jackets and gold-laced hats. A leash of highly-bred red and white setters were let loose at a time, and beautifully did they range the fields, quartering the ground in obedience to the voice or whistle. On the game being found, every dog was down, with his belly close on the ground; and the net being unfurled, the keepers advanced on a gentle trot, at a certain distance from each other, and drew it over them and the covey at the same time. Choice was then made of the finest birds, which were carried home alive, and kept in a room till wanted, and occasionally all would be let fly again, on ascertaining their fitness for the spit. Modern sportsmen may consider this tame sport, and so in fact it is, compared with the excitement attending the gun; but still it has its advantages. It was the means of preserving game on an estate, by equalising the number of cock and hen birds – at least to an extent – and killing the old ones; no birds were destroyed but what were fit for eating; and such as were destroyed, were put to death at once, without the chance of lingering from the effects of a wound, which is a circumstance inseparable from shooting.

Medieval Hawking with Hounds (in Germany) from an 1860 drawing.

Sounds like ethically acceptable sport to me, awaiting a comeback.

The Fowler’s Dog

A number of old books on sporting dogs describe the setter as the fowler’s dog and link the pointer breeds only with the introduction of firearms. In the seventeenth century on the continent and in the early eighteenth century in England, the braques and pointing griffons were developed, probably benefiting from the blood of the hounds, like the bracke and the scenthound griffons (or Gayffons as Markham misnamed them in 1630) in central Europe. In England, the setter breeds and the Pointer developed separate loyal bands of devotees, with the Rev Simons writing in 1776:

The setter cannot be degraded into a pointer; but the pointer may be elevated to a setter, though but a second class. The setter is only of service where there is room to run a net, so must be hunted accordingly. Whole coveys are the just attention of the setter… The pointer as has been the setter, is broke from chasing we well suppose, to which the sight of the game had hitherto been the stimulus. Now, although he will hear the whirl and departure of the birds it is more than probable the report of the gun will agitate him into the forgetfulness of duty and the urge to pursue.

A Spaniel (a setter then described as a spaniel).

The gundog had arrived.

One may be sure that the soldier, or more often the sailor, returned from adventures overseas, having seen the deadly effects of a ‘handgonne’ on the enemy, was not slow to try it on the rafts of wildfowl in the marshes, or even on the king’s deer in the forests, although a slow match and a stand was necessary. Such a man who had possibly travelled half way round the known world was not likely to submit tamely to having his liberty curbed on his return home.

Michael Brander, Hunting and Shooting (1971)

Prototypal English Setters, from 18th century tableaux, English School.

The Itinerant Poulterer by J-C Bonnefond 1818, depicting a French Epagneul.

Shooting on the Wing, etched by S Gribelin for Blome in 1686.

Duck Shooting by Richard Ansdell, 1853, for The Field Magazine.

On the Wing by W. T. Ranney, 1850.

Pheasant Retrieving by James Ward, 1812.

The Sportsman by George Maile, 1824.

Shooters outside a Cottage by Seffrien (John) Alken, c.1825.

The Water Dogs

THE ROUGH WATER DOG. This is a most intelligent and valuable animal. It is robustly made, and covered throughout with deep curly hair. It exceeds the water spaniel in size and strength. It is much used as a retriever by shooters of water-fowl. No dog is more easily taught to fetch and carry than this; and its memory is surprising. This variety is the Barbet, of the French, and is often called the German or French Poodle. Some are of a snowy white, others black, and others black and white.

Those few words, in Cassell’s Popular Natural History, published towards the end of the nineteenth century, will have little meaning for today’s sportsmen. They know a great deal about the gundog breeds of today but not a great deal about the ones that went before. Yet without the water dogs, we would not have the retrieving breeds of today. Stubbs once portrayed ‘A Rough Dog’ and it is forever described by art historians inaccurately; it is a fine depiction of a rough water dog. This type of dog gave service to man the hunter long before the invention of firearms; here was the foundation stock. Their value has been overlooked in the passing of time; in The Sportsman’s Cabinet of 1803, there are nine pages devoted to them, but few books on sporting dogs today even mention them.

Stubb’s A Rough Dog, depicting a Large Water Dog of that time, c.1790.

European Variants

In the ancient world anyone found guilty of killing a water dog was subject to a most severe penalty. The first written account of a Portuguese Water Dog is a monk’s description in 1297 of a dying sailor being brought out of the sea by a dog with a black coat of rough long hair, cut to the first rib and with a tuft on the tip of the tail, the classic water-dog clip. Water dogs came in two types of coat: long and harsh-haired or short and curly-haired. The French Barbet displays the former, the Wetterhoun of Holland and our Curly the latter; the Portuguese Cao de Agua or Water Dog features both.

In Dr Caius’ Of English Dogs of 1576, he described the Aquaticus, a dog for the duck, but blurs the water dog with the spaniel. He does, however, in 1569 provide his naturalist friend Gesner with an illustration of a Scottish Water Dog, retriever-like but with pendant ears. Writing in 1621, Gervase Markham recorded: ‘First, for the colour of the Water Dogge, all be it some which are curious in all things will ascribe more excellency to one colour than to another as the blacks to be the best and the hardier; the lyver hues swiftest in swimming … and his hairs in generall would be long and curled…’ In 1591, Erasmus of Valvasone wrote a poem on hunting, which will appeal to Lagotto fanciers, referring to ‘a rough and curly-haired breed that does not fear sun, ice, water … its head and hair resemble that of the ram, and it brings the bird back to the hunter merrily.’

Function Decided Type

Gundog breeds today are rightly revered and their sporting prowess as well as their breed type, which originated in function, perpetually prized. Sportsmen in early medieval times, however, knew the value of setting dogs and water dogs, the original retrievers, more than any of their successors. The invention of firearms did away with the need to recover arrows or bolts, as well as increasing the range at which game could be engaged. The setting dogs adapted from the net to the gun and survived, but the water dogs of Europe lost their value and many became ornamental dogs, like the Poodle.

Some water dogs survive as breeds, with the Irish Water ‘Spaniel’ still causing discussion over whether it is a spaniel or a retriever. This type of dog, quite often black, liver or parti-coloured, had one physical feature which set it apart from most others – the texture of its coat. It is so easy when looking at a Standard Poodle in show clip to overlook their distinguished and ancient sporting history. And how many breeds recognized as gundogs can match their disease-free genotype? Anyone looking for a water retriever with instinctive skills, inherited prowess, a truly waterproof coat and freedom from faulty genes should look at the Standard Poodle, but stand by for ignorant comments from one-generation sportsmen, unaware of its heritage.

Sir John Maxwell of Pollock, a mezzotint by Charles Turner after James Howe, depicting a hawking party with small spaniels, a pointer and a water dog.

The Standard Poodle is a living example of the ancient waterdog whose blood is behind so many contemporary breeds: the Curly-coated Retriever, Wetterhoun of Holland, Portuguese and Spanish Water Dogs, Lagotto Romagnolo, Pudelpointer, Barbet, Irish and American Water Spaniels and the Boykin Spaniel. I suspect that the Hungarian breeds, the Puli and the Pumi, used as pastoral dogs, may, judging by their coat texture, have water dog ancestry, as may the French breed, the Epagneul de Pont-Audemer. The Tweed Water Spaniel was behind our hugely popular Golden Retriever. The old English Water Spaniel’s coat sometimes emerges in purebred English Springers.

Although our breeds of retriever were not developed until comparatively recently, the use of dogs as retrievers by sportsmen is over a thousand years old.

Traine him to fetch whatsoever you shall throw from you…anything whatsoever that is portable; then you shall use him to fetch round cogell stones, and flints, which are troublesome in a Dogges mouth, and lastly Iron, Steele, Money, and all kindes of metall, which being colde in his teeth, slippery and ill to take up, a Dogge will be loth to fetch, but you must not desist or let him taste food till he will as familiarly bring and carry them as anything else whatsoever.

So advised Gervase Markham early in the seventeenth century on the subject of training a ‘Water Dogge’ to retrieve.

Half a century earlier, the much quoted Dr Caius identified the curly-coated Water Dogge as ‘bringing our Boultes and Arrowes out of the Water, which otherwise we could hardly recover, and often they restore to us our Shaftes which we thought never to see, touch or handle again.’ Such water dogs were utilized on the continent too; in The Sketch Book of Jean de Tournes, published in France in 1556, we see illustrated ‘The Great Water Dogge’, a big, black, shaggy-headed dog swimming out to retrieve a duck from a lake. This sketch could so easily have been of the contemporary Barbet, still available in France (and now here), acknowledged as an ancient type, and used to infuse many sporting breeds with desirable water-dog characteristics. The dog depicted could also represent the modern Cao de Agua, the Portuguese Water Dog. These European water dogs are the root stock of so many modern breeds.

Portuguese Water Dog of 1908.

Barbet of 1904.

Ships’ Dogs

Not surprisingly such dogs were favoured by the seagoing fraternity – fishermen, sailors and traders. The dogs were trained to retrieve lines lost overboard and used as couriers between ships, in the Spanish Armada for example. In time, such dogs featured in the settlements established along the eastern seaboard of the New World by British, Portuguese, Dutch and French traders. Water dogs exist today in those countries: the Barbet in France, the Wetterhoun in Holland, the Curly-coated Retriever and the Irish Water ‘Spaniel’ here and the Portuguese Water Dog there. The latter, still favoured by fishermen in the Algarve, has either a long, harsh, oily coat or a tighter curly coat. The Barbet has the long woolly coat, the Wetterhoun the curly coat.

Of these three, the most distinctive is the Cao de Agua, now gaining strength in this country. An ancient Portuguese breed that can be traced back to very remote times, it has great similarity with the Spanish Water Dog, now being restored to that country’s list of native breeds, and the Italian Water Dog, the Lagotto Romagnolo, also being resurrected. Overseas kennel clubs do, unlike ours, try to conserve their national canine heritage. There is evidence that such breeds were regarded as sacred in pre-Christian times, any person killing a water dog being subject to severe penalty.

The highly individual water-dog clip led to the Romans referring to such dogs as ‘lion dogs’, This clip, with the bare midriff and hindquarters but featuring a plumed tail, does give a leonine appearance. The modern toy breed, the Lowchen (meaning little lion dog) displays this clip and is a member of the small Barbet or Barbichon (nowadays shortened to Bichon) group of dogs, embracing the Bolognese, the Havanese, the Maltese, the Bichon a poil frise and the Coton du Tulear.

Fishing Dogs

Important historical information on ships’ dogs used as fishing dogs in the south of England can be found in the words of the 6th Earl of Malmesbury, contributing to the Labrador Retriever Club’s booklet A Celebration of 75 Years, published by the club in 1991. He wrote:

My great-great-grandfather needed a good retrieving water dog, and a companion in the home. He found both qualities in the little Newfoundlander (later to be renamed the Labrador, which was a less cumbersome name). How did these dogs develop their retrieving instinct? It was customary for the fishing boats in Newfoundland to carry dogs. These dogs developed their retrieving instinct in two distinct ways. Fish hooks were not as well made as they are today. A large fish, when brought to the surface, might free itself from the hook. A dog with a special harness would be lowered from the deck – grab the fish – and be hauled back on board with, hopefully, the fish still in its mouth… I know from my own experience that many of these dogs have still inherited this retrieving of fish.

Fishing Dog from Hutchinson’s Dog Breaking of 1909.

Preserved in the Natural History Museum outpost at Tring is a ‘Trawler Spaniel’, a parti-coloured dog, just under a foot high, resembling the small sporting spaniels found here and on the Continent, often included by artists in family portraits.

The Earl went on to point out that when his ancestor was importing dogs from the Newfoundland Fishing Fleet unloading in Poole Harbour, the fishing industry in Christchurch and Bournemouth harbours was intensive and the need for dogs extensive. Further north, the great retriever authority, Stanley O’Neill, recorded that his father was Superintendent of Grimsby Fish Docks, and he went with him to visit every port where fish was landed in England and Scotland, writing:

I saw hundreds of water dogs around Grimsby and Yarmouth which were ships dogs, and it was well known that a cross with them to improve retrieving from water had been the origin of the curly-coats. In 1903, at Alnmouth, he saw men netting for salmon with a dog with a wavy or curly coat and of a tawny colour.

Trawler Spaniel, preserved at the Natural History Museum, Tring.

When he asked about the dog he was told it was a Tweed Water Spaniel. Such a dog was behind many of our emerging land retrievers, with what became the Golden Retriever gaining from this type and coat colour. In his The Complete Farrier