Source for image.

What I am about to explain here might be offensive to curly-coated retriever owners. It is not intended to be.

I am merely quoting what Harding Cox, a retrieverman of the late nineteenth centuries and early twentieth centuries, thought of the breed. The breed has definitely changed since then, because it is no longer a “fancy” breed. It is now bred for sound working conformation and ability by its dedicated breeders.

Cox wrote the section on retrievers in W.D. Drury’s British Dogs: Their Points, Selection and Show Preparation (1903), and to be fair, Cox was a flat-coated retriever enthusiast.

He begins his section on retrievers with this somewhat Spencerian  prediction:

That the Curly-coated Retriever is doomed to practical extinction is a notable and an undeniable fact, which must be put down to the inevitable law of the survival of the fittest…For every Curly-coated dog (speaking of the recognised show type) used in the field, or exhibited on the bench, there are now a score, at least, of Flat-coats. (333).

Whoa.

Cox explains that reason why the curly lost favor in the British gun dog circles did not have much to do with their lack of tractability or their supposed reputation for hardmouth.

Cox contends that the real reason why the curly was not favored at time is that it was thought of as a show dog, not a working dog:

There seems to be a prevailing impression that the average disposition of the Curly-coated Retriever…is not as sweet and benevolent as that of the more popular dog [the flat-coat], and that he is less tractable. The writer’s only experience of these animals is in the show-ring, and he confesses that he has always found the exhibits mild and friendly enough. Probably the real reason of their unpopularity lies in the fact that they are more or less a “fancy” breed (345).

In this analysis, the real reason why the curly lost favor in Britain is because it was a dog bred solely for the show ring.

After all, this breed does have an unusual feature that is difficult to breed. Their coats do not withstand any crossbreeding. If you breed a curly to Labrador, you will have a dog with short hair and some wave to it. At this time, though, crossbreeding different strains of retriever was a common practice, and thus, the curly missed out on some of the experimental breeding that goldens, Labradors, and flat-coats experienced.

If you’re breeding for that feature, you’re not breeding for working ability. You’re breeding for the coat and for the rosettes that this coat will win you.

And that’s a recipe for disaster for a working dog.

If all the competitor breeds are being cross-bred and selectively bred for work, and you are breeding for a peculiar physical feature, your dog will not be able to keep up with them.

And the curly nearly went into extinction as Harding Cox suggested.

Of course, the flat-coat didn’t remain top dog in the trial circuit. After the First World War, the Labrador, which had been developed from breeding recently imported St. John’s water dogs with flat-coats, Chesapeakes, and all sorts of other dogs (including pointers and foxhounds), began to come into its own. The flat-coat developed a bad reputation for being hard to handle and for having possible borzoi ancestry (sight hounds are known for being terrible retrievers.) The yellow version of flat-coat became a separate breed, and it became the secondary retriever to the Labrador.

Nearly becoming extinct actually proved to be a blessing for the curly, for now the only people who were breeding them were truly interested in producing the best possible dog. The modern curly is now a dog with good working conformation and retrieving instinct, but most people don’t know about it. If the average person sees one, I guarantee you that the first question will be “Is that a Labradoodle?”

Losing popularity isn’t such a bad thing.

***

Today, the top working retriever is the Labrador. Most waterfowl hunters in North America go for Labradors.

In fact, the Labrador is now even more popular than its flat-coat predecessor. It is now the most common dog breed in the world.

The golden is the secondary dog. It is the curly of today.

However, this breed still remains common enough, although its popularity in Europe has started to drop off. In the US and Canada, it is still a very popular breed.

Most golden retrievers are rather like the curlies of the nineteenth century. They have been bred for their novel appearance alone.  Working ability has been secondary.

And many working retriever people pass the golden over.

It is just a matter of time until the golden begins to really lose its status in our society.

When I first heard of them, they were touted as being very easily trained and very good natured.

A few years ago, they were touted as being very good natured and much calmer than Labradors. (This isn’t necessarily a good thing, because extremely calm dogs are on their way to losing their working ability.)

Now, their temperaments have become far less reliable than they once were.

As things have progressed, the golden is not thought of as a working retriever. It’s thought of as a fancy breed for yuppies to own.

All of these factors set the golden up for meeting a very similar fate that befell the curly in the early twentieth century.

Is this a bad thing?

Well, as I said before, losing a lot of popularity was a blessing for the curly. It allowed only the most dedicated people to breed them.

And with all the problems that the golden is facing, the only way to solve them is for the breed to lose some it of its popularity. Too many stupid people are breeding them.

If the demand for cute little golden retriever puppies would just drop, dedicated golden retriever people would be able to breed good dogs once again.

***

It amazes me how many comments I get whenever I offer even a tepid criticism of a breed. I usually don’t attack individual dogs, but I do attack breeding practices. However, these criticisms are viewed as affronts against an individual dog, which may be sound, smart, and healthy.

I have nothing against the curly-coated retriever.

In fact, if you read this post and didn’t know any better, I bet you’d think I hate golden retrievers.

The truth is that I can offer a criticism of a breeding practice or trend within a gene pool and still respect the individual dog.

Every dog breed and every bloodline within a breed or strain has its virtues and vices. We need to be honest about them.

It’s only then that we can have real discussions about improving our dogs through selective breeding.

But because this candor eludes too many people who consider themselves dog people, we can’t have that conversation.

But for the sake of the dogs, we need to have that conversation.

It’s time to detach our egos from our dogs.

Classic scene from Frasier. David Hyde Pierce is at the top of his game here. So is Moose:

Source.

Of all the sitcoms from the 90’s that are still shown syndication, this is about the only one I still find funny.