Remember, I don’t know this breed very well.
The curly was standardized in 1858 and was fully recognized as a distinct strain by 1860, along with wavy-coated retriever, which we know as the ancestral strain that gave us both the flat-coat and the golden and was an important outcross for developing the modern Labrador retriever.
I know that this breed fell out of favor among trial enthusiasts in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. From my reading of Hugh Dalziel’s account of the breed, it became rather large and coarse in its build, and they had a bad reputation for hard mouth.
However, from my reading of this breed, the drop in popularity allowed the breed’s fanciers to really work on improving their working conformation. As you can see from this dock dog, they are now nicely built animals.
I think this story can be a good example for other retrievers that are currently suffering the ill effects of fad breeding. What we need is a little drop in popularity, and the grown-ups can work on making them more sound.
