From an article in Chambers’s Journal (9 August 1884) about seal hunting in the Shetland Isles, called “Seals and Seal Hunting in Shetland”:
A good dog is a useful auxiliary to a sealhunter ; but he requires a good deal of training to learn his work. Very soon he acquires the art of stalking; but most dogs at first are apparently afraid to lay hold of a dead seal floating in the water, and very commonly, when sent off to fetch him ashore, simply attempt to mount on him, and in consequence do harm rather than good by helping to sink him. But generally—not always, for some dogs we never could train to do the right thing—we succeeded in teaching them to retrieve. When we had brought a seal home, we used to throw it over the jetty or out of a boat with a stout cord attached, and encourage the dog to fetch him. Great praise was bestowed when he learned to lay hold of a flipper and tow the selkie shoreward ; in this way, with a little patience and perseverance, the dog soon came to learn what was required ; and many a seal was secured by his help, which without it might inevitably have been lost, for a seal shot in the water from the shore, which they often were, was very generally on the opposite side of an island or long promontory, where a landing had been effected ; and it took many minutes before the boat could be got round ; and by that time, but for the dog, the seal might have sunk.
We tried many breeds of dogs—Newfoundland, Retriever, St Bernard, Rough water-dog, and Collie; but after all, the best seal retriever of the lot was a Collie. When he comprehended what was wanted and how to do it, he did it neatly and thoroughly. I well remember the first seal I shot I had landed on the weather-side of a small island. A cautious reconnoitring discovered a good-sized seal ‘lying up’ on a detached rock. Then I commenced the stalking, closely followed by my dog. But ere I could approach within range, one of those seal-sentinels and provoking tormentors of the seal-hunter, a herring gull, set up his wild warning scream.
The seal perfectly understood what it meant, at once took the alarm, plunged into the water, and disappeared. I sprang to my feet, rushed down along a little promontory, and then crouched behind a big boulder, in hopes that selkie would show his head above water and give me a chance at him. And he did. Raising his head and neck, he took a good look shoreward ; but seeing nothing to account for the gull’s persistent screaming, he turned round, and raised his head preparatory to a dive. I had him well and steadily covered ; now was my chance. I pulled the trigger; no splash followed, which would have meant a miss; but the lioom—that is, the smoothing of the water by the flow of the oil—told that my bullet had taken effect ‘ Fetch him, old dog ! fetch him !’ I cried. In an instant he plunged into the sea and swam to the seal, which I could see was floating. Neatly he dipped his head under water, seized a hind flipper, turned it over his neck, and towed him towards the shore. Passing the rock on which I stood in his way I to the beach, he turned his eyes upwards for the praise and encouragement I was not, it may well be believed, backward to lavish on him. Such a look it was! I shall never forget it, instinct with the brightest intelligence, joy, pride, triumph. Indeed, I don’t know whether he or his master was proudest and happiest that day. Alas, that our noble ‘humble friends’ should be so short-lived! (pg. 508).
American retrievers will never be sent after seals for a very simple reason: The Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. Canadians might still have their commercial seal hunt, but such thing doesn’t exist in US waters. Exceptions exist for aboriginal harvest, such as the aboriginal whaling that is permitted near Barrow, Alaska.
But the typical American can’t take a gun out and go shooting seals just for the hell of it.
I think it would be very hard to teach a dog to retrieve a shot seal. Not only is a seal much larger than any dog, it has teeth. My guess is that many dogs would be injured rather severely if they tried to grabble with a wounded seal in its element. No water dog is the equal of the seal in the water.
Further, because both seals and dogs are Caniformia, they do share diseases, so I would be worried about dogs catching diseases from seals. However, all of the accounts I’ve read of dogs and seals transmitting disease has been from dog to pinniped, not the other way around.
It is of interest that the collie proved to be the better seal retriever than the Newfoundland, “the retriever,” or the rough water dog. Collies and their kin have often been celebrated as retrievers and were relatively common outcross to retriever bloodlines.
But this is the first I’ve heard of a collie fetching seals.
It is little wonder why so many dogs were trepidatious about diving into the swells after a seal.
To a dog, a seal could have been like the worst sea monster imaginable. (Let’s not tell them about great white sharks!) A seal isn’t a duck. It isn’t pheasant or a partridge. It certainly is not a hare or rabbit.
It’s more like a nearly fully aquatic bear.
However, not all dogs were afraid of the seal.
I don’t know how to take that description of the dogs mounting the seal. “Mounting” could mean that the dogs just climbed on top of the seal, perhaps looking for a good place to grab the creature to haul it in. Or it could mean that the dogs tried to copulate with the seal corpses in the water, which sounds very strange, at least to me. I’ve never heard of dogs engaging in this behavior in the water, so one must assume that it is the former description.
I imagine that many dogs were lost sealing, but I could be wrong. It just sounds like an infinitely more hazardous shooting scenario for the dog than when a retriever is sent for waterfowl.
Shooting seals was never major sporting past-time of the sporting gentry. Records of these sorts of seal hunts are difficult to find. Seals were very marketable animals for hundreds of years. The blubber from seals can be boiled down to train oil, and those species that had thicker hides were often used to produce very thick leather. The Inuit and other arctic peoples in North America used seal hides to make their kayaks, and the people of Scotland’s Northern Isles and Ireland also made hide boats. We don’t often think of seal hides as being all that useful, but at one time, they were a vital part of the North Atlantic economy.
Because these seals were killed for reasons of economic expediency, one does not often encounter tales of some sportsman shooting seal for fun. The same goes for whaling; there are very few accounts of gentlemen whalers doing it for sport.
So the record of seal retrieving dogs can only be compiled from little oblique stories such as this one or the account of a St. John’s water dog diving for seals in Newfoundland that I posted earlier.
I can’t imagine that many dog owners would like to risk their dogs to retrieve such game, even if it were legal to hunt them. I doubt that any Canadians who hunt “horseheads” use dogs for their quarry. I don’t think a dog would be able to haul out a grey seal anyway, but even if they were of some use, I just don’t think anyone would want to risk a losing a dog in this manner.
But I could be wrong.
Border Collie fans will come in groves to brag about their superior canine intelligence in… 3… 2… 1.
Shetland isn’t on the border…
And Newfoundland is quite a distance away from Shetland.
Parodying breed historians aside, I still find it amazing the dogs even find the strength to haul these massive seals in, especially if the swells are not in their favour.
There is a reference to retrieving seals in St John’s book as well.
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