This Irish water spaniel appears in Stonehenge’s The Dogs of the British Islands, Being a Series of Articles and Letters by Various Contributors, Reprinted from the “Field” Newspaper (1872).
In the text, this particular dog is said to have been a superior specimen. His coat is less profuse and more tightly curled than one might expect from a modern example of his breed, and his topknot looks somewhat like a glorified Mohawk.
Irish water spaniels of this type were very commonly used as retrievers throughout the British Isles, and they were even quite popular in the United States for a time. The 1870’s and 1880’s were the zenith of their popularity, which also corresponds to the rise of the institutionalized fancy. The dogs now have largely been replaced by the St. John’s water dog-derived retrievers, and the English springer is now the main working breed of land spaniel– which can also moonlight as a water retriever.
But at one time, the Irish water spaniel was greatly sought after for its retrieving prowess.
It’s just a very different dog from the typical Labrador retriever!
Hey Retrieverman,
When you look at the GRC UK website, they have posted some very early dogs. Take a look at the coats: http://www.thegoldenretrieverclub.co.uk/histdogspast.html . Looks like Belle’s influence was stronger back then to me.
Sh Ch CAMROSE MATILDA
Ch STYAL STEPHANIE OF CAMROSE
Ch Dorcas Glorious of Slat
Ch. Alresford Advertiser
Ch. Camrose Nicholas of Westley
(Not that Belle was an IRISH water spaniel but she was a water spaniel with curls from what we know)
Belle was a “Tweed water spaniel.”
They were not from Ireland at all.
They were from the border region between Scotland and England.
Again, a bit of difference in interpretation: what is “curly” and what is “wavy”…
Belle and other TWSs may have had curls, but those Goldens aren’t at all the same sort of curl; they have coats very typical of the original wavy-coats. See the photos of Nous, who have a very wavy coat but not the ringlets of a curly dog. The Golden Retriever standard still allows a wavy coat, and wavy coats are almost always of correct texture and quality.
oops– I meant to say that the Goldens’ coats were “not at all the same sort of curl *as the Irish Water Spaniel*”.
That patterning (long vertical patch of shorter coat) on the front of the front legs in the illustration is not desirable in IWS these days, at least in the US. My IWS girl, Tooey, has smaller patches of patterning on the front of her front legs, but shorter than shown in this picture — maybe about the size of tuna can lid.
The older breed standards mention that patterning, so its lack of desirability is somewhat recent (I don’t know how recent, though).
Tooey is an English import, so she looks quite a lot different than most of the US-bred IWS. She has a thick, chocolate wavy-curly coat that sun bleaches, patterning on the front legs, a topknot that stops high on the forehead, a strongly-build muzzle, huge webbed feet, and big bones. Cooper has a tightly curled, very dark brown coat with less undercoat, no patterning on the legs, a topknot that comes down low between his eyes, a finely build muzzle, smaller webbed feet, and fine bones.
I also notice the lack of the tuft of fur at the base of the tail on that illustration. Could be that the owner trimmed it badly, as he/she did that poor topknot…