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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Labrador Retriever

The Labrador retriever is probably the world’s most popular working gundog and has earned the reputation as a strong, hard going dog that possesses drive, ability, endurance, a good nose and a soft mouth.  All one could ask for in a utility gundog.

Its origins date back to the start of the trading routes between the Canadian province of Newfoundland and the port of Poole, in Southern England.  It is said that the Earl of Malmsbury’s game keeper had a daughter who was being wooed by a sailor plying that route and that he brought his prospective father-in-law a gift of a dog that accompanied Portuguese sailors on fishing trips of the Newfoundland and Labrador coasts. 

Researchers believe that the St Hubert’s hound was the taproot for this breed and the fact that it reached England via the Labrador fishing shoals is just an interesting chapter in its history.  What is certain is that it gave rise to the most popular breed of retrieving dog at that time and the Earl of Malmsbury championed its breeding.

The Labrador retriever has not suffered at the hands of the show fraternity to the same extent as some other breeds.  In Ireland its bloodlines are long, proven and extremely effective.

The appearance of the dog is one of a strongly built, short coupled animal.  It is very active, generally broad in the head and deep in the chest and ribs.  Its colour variants are black, yellow and chocolate.