More long-haired St. John’s water dogs

This dog is Billy, and he is mentioned in Stonehenge’s  The Dog in Health and Disease (1859). Stonehenge (John Henry Walsh) believed that his very curly coat showed that he had some setter or spaniel in him, which is possible. He was owned by Bill George, the famous (or infamous) dog dealer, who is best [...]

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When very dark goldens are bred to creams

You can see from this litter of golden puppies with a dark golden mother and cream sire what the inheritance is. These puppies’ ears tell us that most of them will mature fairly dark in color, though probably not as dark as their mother: One of these puppies will likely be a light gold, but [...]

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The Bizarro golden retriever

The Bizarro World in the DC comics universe is a place where everything is the opposite. The planet is cube-shaped, and its official name is “Htrae”– Earth spelled backwards. Everything about it is supposed to be the opposite of the way things are on this planet. A while I ago, I decided to determine the [...]

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Red golden retriever with pheasant

This is the late Mick, who belonged to a reader from Minnesota:

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“Sheep dog” nonsense

The Daily Mail has a wonderful story of zoological ineptitude : Vets say it’s impossible – but to Chinese farmer Liu Naiying his birth is a miracle. For Mr Liu insists one of his sheep has given birth to a dog The ‘puppy’ has wool like a lamb but its mouth, nose, eyes, paws and [...]

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Little red wavy-coat

Here’s a young working-type golden with a very nice wavy coat: (Source for image) To see the advantageous of this coat, please read Rawdon Lee’s comments on utility of the wavy coat for a land-based retriever. The other working coat for a golden retriever is flat, but it should be dense and hard to provide [...]

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Mother yearns for empty nest

(Source for image)

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Nineteenth century account of a Šarplaninac or an Illyrian shepherd

I am not wading into that Balkan war that is fought over the identity of these dogs, so please leave that discussion off this blog. I gives me terrible headaches. But Stonehenge makes mention of this dog in The Dogs Of Great Britain, America, And Other Countries (circa 1880): The Albanian dog is said to stand [...]

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Rabbit beagles

I grew up in rural West Virginia, where archaic English phrasessometimes persist in the vernacular. When I was a kid, I never heard anyone ever say the word “beagle” by itself. It was always “rabbit beagle.” As I got older, I decided the name was redundant.  Beagles were used to hunt only rabbits and, at [...]

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Lawsuit on four legs

The Fila Brasileiro: Source. See my post on the ojeriza temperament for exactly what I’m talking about. This temperament makes sense in parts of Brazil, where the crime rate is insane. In America, it’s a lawsuit on four legs. Very few people think it’s such a great idea to breed for super aggression, even breeders [...]

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