At one time, dogs like these could be top show dogs, as well as working dogs. Sadly, those days are long passed.
After World War II, the golden retriever began to make a name for itself in the United States and Canada. Originally, it was primarily owned by people of great wealth, who had the resources to import dogs from Britain. After World War II, the middle class expanded, and the dogs were accessible to the public at large.
One of the most important dogs born in America was CH AmCanOTC Lorelei’s Golden Rip**. This dog was whelped in 1946, and he had Rockhaven, Yelme, Haulstone, and Noranby dogs in his background. His great grandsire was FCh Rip , the first male golden to win a US field championship. This dog was descended largely from Noranby lines, which is why so many of his progeny were of the darker colors.
Golden Rip was a top obedience dog and show dog, but he also was handled in the field. Breeders today try to do the same with their dogs, but it is often a very difficult enterprise. The traits that make a dog a good worker, a spry frame and moderate feathering, also go against the breed standard, which wants a broader head and “good bone.” (I think there’s a difference between good bone and excessive bone, and most show dogs have it in excess.)
Here is a picture of Golden Rip. He would not make it in the show ring today. He’s what we would call a field golden today. He is moderate in coat and bone. He is also very dark. He lacks the “bulbous” and “blocky” look we see too often in show goldens. Everything about him says “What do you want me to retrieve?”
Today, he would be laughed out of the show ring. He would be deemed “too dark.” His build would be called “racy,” while his body type would be called “flat-ribbed.” He would also be marked down for having a noticeable occiuput. We always sought this in our dogs because it is believed to be a sign of trainability. Some even call this the “bump of wisdom” or “bump of knowledge.”
Golden Rip was a widely used sire. He was the ancestor of my first golden, who was a dead ringer for a female version of him, except for her white-tipped tail. His bloodlines appear in many show and ffeld goldens on this continent. However, his show-type descendants don’t look like him in the least.
Even today, Rip is a very common name for a golden retriever. I know of at least four dogs with this name. Dogs of his type are the archetypal golden retriever. If you mention the worlds “golden retriever” to me, this is the image that enters my mind.
If you were to compare him with champion goldens of today, you’d notice how exaggerated these dogs are from the original form. My father once called our dog a “red wolf,” because she was built true to that ancient lupine form that is designed for running long and hard for hours on end. The Russians say “The wolf is kept fed by its feet.” That’s why wolves are built with so much leg and so much endurance. It is through that heritage that the retriever inherited its running and swimming gear, big feet and good legs for tearing through the brush and paddling through the water.
Today, the show golden is bred away from anything resembling the utility of either a wild wolf or a hard- working retriever. It is designed to be a teddy bear with excessive coat and excessive bone. It is a mere shadow of the old dual purpose golden that once existed. The fancy has made it so that they don’t make show dogs like Golden Rip anymore.
If we could get back to a functional breed standard in the golden, I guarantee you that dogs like Rip would exist once again. There would be less division between show and field strains, and our dogs might be considered a viable working breed once again.
How do Goldens fare in the UKC ring? I hear that many showpeople seem to prefer it to the AKC, especially if they’re in working breeds.
In other words, is the ‘heavy type’ that is so popular in the AKC ring nowadays also the common style in UKC shows?
The UKC uses a slightly different standard, but not many goldens are registered with that registry. If they are, they are being used as working retrievers and are being actively trialed. Goldens just aren’t thought of as working dogs, largely because they are slower in the water than Labs and take a little longer to mature. (My experience is that the goldens from working lines tend to be much more intelligent than Labs, even field bred ones. A lot of this has to do with their ancestry with Irish setters–which were once brilliant dogs– and the Tweed water dog or Tweed water spaniel. The old-type solid red Irish setter looked a lot like Golden Rip. American and Canadian field trials for retrievers are water trials, and dog with the coat of an otter is going to do better than one with the coat of a red fox.)
The UKC is the working dog registry. Its top breed in terms of registrations isn’t the Labrador. It is the Treeing Walker Coonhound (It is very similar to an American foxhound because it’s derived from an important line of American foxhounds). What I like about them is their rules on line breeding that require regular outcrosses to unrelated stock. However, it’s hard to find golden people who use this registry. I don’t know why. The fact that they aren’t thought of as working dog could be the reason.
The old golden retriever standard used to penalize excessive feathering (the hair that hangs from the legs, chest, tail, and hindquarters). It also had wording for the color to be “rich lustrous gold” (which means the dark colors). That was all been taken out of the 1982 standard revisions. As soon as those words were taken out of the standard, it virtually guaranteed that the breed would split into two types (which was already happening).
Please do not blame the revised breed standard for changes in what is seen in the show ring. Specifically, the statements on coat and color remain essentially the same; the word “rich” (as in “rich lustrous golden of various shades”) was ADDED in the 1982 revision. Both versions call for “moderate feathering on back of forelegs and heavier feathering on front of neck, back of thighs and underside of tail.”. The revised standard goes on to say that “Excessive length, open coats and limp soft coats are very undesirable.”
And the revision actually lessened the stated range of weights for bitches, from 60-70 pounds to 55-65 pounds.
I could go on. But changes seen in the show ring are in spite of the breed standard, not because of it. There are many reasons for that, human nature being what it is.
There might be some confusion here about titles. Ch. Lorelei’s Golden Rip** was the sire of Ch.- AFC Lorelei’s Golden Rockbottom UD. (AFC is Amateur Field Champion). Rocky was one of only two Goldens to ever achieve the combination of (show) champion, AFC, and UD (Utility Dog, at that time the highest obedience title.) The OTCH (Obedience Trial Champion) title did not come into being until 1977 in the USA.
Rip was a highly Influential sire in spite of his short life. (He was killed in an accident.) More information can be found in the excellent database, k9data.com.