This painting was done for Currier and Ives, and if you want to see romantic portrayals of America from the nineteenth century, look up Currier and Ives prints.
The dogs are the traditional American retriever– the retrieving setter. I know American water spaniels and Chesapeake Bay retrievers are technically American retrievers, but they were regional dogs. And Chesapeakes were often just called “Newfoundland dogs.”
The ducks are a species called a redhead, but I think are better called “American pochard.” They are very closely related to the pochard duck of Europe.
The British often complained that American setters weren’t as staunch to a point as their dogs were, and they blamed it on the dual purpose function of our setters.
In fact, it has been claimed that the popularity of the retriever in Britain largely resulted in the desire to have setters and pointers hold their position. They could breed and train for a dog to hold the point very tightly, while another dog did all the retrieving.
But Americans used our setters just as the Europeans used their HPR’s, and this is why outside of those two regional breeds, retrievers did not exist in significant numbers in the US until after the Second World War.
I also notice that in his pedigree there are no North American working goldens within the most recent generations.
I’ve noticed that on many working golden retrievers in Europe, many do have blood from Canada or the United States, where golden retrievers are the second most commonly used “wildfowling” and “rough shooting” retrievers. In Britain, the Labrador is by far the most common, and the vast majority of golden retrievers in Europe of the “polar bear” type, which are not commonly used at all. (The exception being in Germany, where I saw tons of working goldens walking off-leash. And trust me, I can tell a golden retriever from a Hovawart!)
Europeans always wanted their retrieving dogs to do more than just retrieve feathered game. In America, these dogs were used almost exclusively on waterfowl until people figured out they could also do a springer spaniel’s job.
But almost no one uses them on furred game. Not rabbits. Not hares or jackrabbits*.
And certainly not on foxes, which we consider a fur-bearing species and not a type of vermin. Foxes are taken here in the depth of winter when their coats are quite prime. Most are not shot. They are trapped. But if you shot a fox, you could make use of a good game-finding retriever to bring it back to you. At least in theory. I don’t know of anyone in the US or Canada who would do such thing.
Europeans have always used their HPR’s to fetch foxes, just as Americans always once expected our British-derived setters and pointers to retrieve. The British have always demanded specialist dogs, and the golden retriever is specialist retriever for the grousing moors and the driven shoots.
But its ancestors where the hardy water curs of Newfoundland and the salmon-netting dogs of the River Tweed.
Those water curs(“St. John’s water dogs” or “Cape Shore water dogs”) were used to hunt polar bears and seals, as well as retrieve shot ducks and sea birds.
This is such an intelligent, biddable breed that I think you could teach one to do just about anything.
People have even trained them in bite-work and sheep-herding.
The continental Europeans and North Americans don’t have much use for a truly specialized dog, and this breed– and all the retriever breeds– are not so hyper specialized that they cannot be taught to do other things.
Some people are commenting that because the border collie is faster in its retrieval, it therefore must be the more intelligent animal.
But look what’s going on here.
The golden retriever is being very judicious and deliberate. It’s that same sort of behavior that would allow a golden retriever to bring in a wounded pheasant or duck without giving it further damage.
Border collies are great Frisbee dogs. Golden retrievers almost always suck at it. They just aren’t as nutty about jumping up and grabbing things.
Border collies have been bred to move things and make things move. If a border collie needs to use its teeth on stock, it is allowed to– though this is faulted in the border collie NASCAR events. Border collies are a very much a sporting dog that have been bred for almost neurotic behavior. Everyone knows that border collies are smart, but they have another side to them, which actually makes them almost entirely unsuitable for general family pets.
I think one of the byproducts of breeding for a soft mouth is that you get a dog that is deliberate in how it relates to the world. This is why golden retrievers, even those from working lines that have a lot more energy than most family dogs, still make very good pets as well as working dogs. This is why both Labrador and golden retrievers and the crosses between them have proven to be the ultimate assistance dogs. They are biddable and intelligent, but they are deliberate and gentle as the work.
Border collies are geniuses, but they have not been bred with the same sort of “nous” or “sagacity” as a retriever.
And I should note here that as much as I complain about how breeding for a particular conformation in bulldogs has essentially ruined them, breeding for extreme behavior in border collies has had almost the same effect.
The border collie is just too much dog for the typical dog owner– and it’s also why I don’t think the solution to the dog fancy’s problems is to adopt the solution that working border collie people have embraced.
A trial that rewards extreme behavior and popular sire selection is just going to produce a dog that is just as genetically compromised as the show dogs and is going to have behavioral problems that are just as questionable as the bulldog’s health problems.
Now, if border collies were bred more like English shepherds, things might be very different. English shepherds are a real farm dog landrace– not a sporting dog at all. They vary in temperament, but many of them are sort of golden retrieverish in temperament. Others are are more like Chesapeake Bay dogs that are docile and intelligent, but they are good guards.
But they are not trial dogs. A better term for an English shepherd would be “generalist collie.” Because they were always used to do a lot of different things on the farm, they were intentionally bred for sagacity.
And border collies might be canine geniuses, but in some ways they are very limited in their utility.
They have almost gone down the bulldog path, but they have gone along a side road.
This is the over-selection for an extreme temperament in order to win a particular kind of sheep dog trial.
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