From William Nelson Hutchinson’s Dog Breaking (1869) :
When recently salmon-fishing on the upper part of the Tweed, I occasionally met on its banks a totally blind man, and who, in spite of this great disqualification, continued a keen and successful trout-angler. He had been for some years entirely sightless, and was led about by a large brown Tweed-side spaniel, of whose intelligence wonderful stories are told. M—r travelled much round the country ; and it is certain, for he would frequently do so to show off the dog’s obedience, that on his saying (the cord being perfectly slack), ” Hie off to the Holmes,” [Holms Water] or, ” Hie off to Melrose,” &c., &c., the animal would start off in the right direction without an instant’s hesitation. Now, this Tweed spaniel was not born with more brains than other Tweed spaniels, but he was M—r’s constant companion, and had, in consequence, acquired a singular facility of comprehending his orders, and doubtless from great affection was very solicitous to please (225).
This was the regional working-type retriever that was native to the Scottish Borders and Northumberland. It was a mixture of St. John’s water dog and some regional water spaniel type and was quite commonly used in hunting waterfowl and helping fishermen set and retrieve nets and lines.
This dog was also an ancestor of the golden retriever, which is currently used as a guide dog for the blind, and is quited noted for being eager to please.
So it was probably a wise choice for the 1st Baron Tweedmouth to use this breed to help found his strain of yellow wavy-coated retrievers that would be at the root of the modern golden retriever breed.
