THE WORLD OF

WORKING GUNDOGS

"One of the pleasures of shooting is the company of a well trained gundog.  The choice of the breed of gundog is a matter of both personal taste and the type of shooting one is engaged in.  Different terrain and differing quarry dictate the choice of gundog.  Some will prefer the busy spaniel quartering the scrubland for pheasants or rabbits, others the questing of setters or pointers on the moorland, whilst others enjoy the retrieving breeds when wildfowling or at the driven game shoot." Bill Beckett Irish writer and broadcaster
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Flat Coated Retriever

The flat-coated retriever is one of Britain’s oldest gundog breeds but is sadly in decline as a working gundog.  The breed’s bloodline is obscure but it is considered to be cross between the Labrador retriever and a setting breed, possibly the Gordon setter.  Some suggest that the border collie was introduced into the breeding of the flat coated retriever, giving rise to a ‘wavy’ coat that was further refined by selective breeding into the flat coat of this breed.

The influence of the European, St. Hubert’s hound is also a factor in the establishment of this breed and the dogs capabilities, particularly in retrieving from water and as a marshland retrieving breed seem to bear this out.

It was a popular dog with the Victorians and later with the Edwardians, but, like its cousin the curly coated retriever, it was replaced on the shooting field by the Labrador retriever at the turn of the 20th century.  Although well capable of competing at field trials with the more popular Labradors and golden retrievers, the flat coated retriever are now owned and worked by dedicated retriever handlers with a liking for a slower and more methodical type of retrieving dog.