Is this a photo of Nous and Belle?

I have seen this particular photograph many times in golden retriever history publications and website. It is always pointed out that the yellow retriever on the far left is Nous, the foundational sire of the yellow wavy-coated retriever strain at Guisachan. He looks almost exactly like a golden retriever of today, and at the time, [...]

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Ice-fishing American water spaniel

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Captain O’Grady’s Irish water spaniel

This Irish water spaniel appears in Stonehenge’s The Dogs of the British Islands, Being a Series of Articles and Letters by Various Contributors, Reprinted from the “Field” Newspaper (1872). In the text, this particular dog is said to have been a superior specimen. His coat is less profuse and more tightly curled than one might expect [...]

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Functional-looking Scottish terriers

These come from Harry Woodworth Huntington’s My Dog and I (1897). The black dog is Bellingham Bailiff and the rather dark wheaten (?) is Bonny C. from the Newcastle Kennels in Brookline, Massachusetts. These dogs have much longer legs and less exaggerated heads than the modern show dogs. They don’t  have Groundskeeper Willie faces either. [...]

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Freckled Dalmatian

This Dalmatian’s name was Perry, and he belonged to someone named J. Dickman Brown.  He was featured in the entry for his breed in Harry Woodworth Huntington’s My Dog and I (1897). This Dalmatian’s ticking is quite different from the classic type, but we still don’t know the exact genetics of how it differs from classical [...]

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Talented Curly

Source. This is Balto, and his owner is talented young trainer in Denmark. This dog is an absolute ham. Check out his owner’s channel on youtube. If this dog were on television, he could put curly-coated retrievers on the map. And then we’d have to go through the whole “unselling of the dogs” spiel that [...]

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Grey spotted hound, 1738

This painting is by John Wootton, an English painter who painted many sporting scenes. I don’t agree that this dog is a hound for several reasons.  The most of obvious signal that this dog is not a hound is the grey partridge (“Hungarian partridge”) displayed in front of the dog. This suggests that the dog [...]

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UCLA Dog and Human Co-Evolution Symposium

Videos of the symposium can be found at this link. Very interesting stuff. It includes presentations from Mark Derr, Robert Wayne, Karen Allen, Eduardo Kohn, and Adam Miklosi.

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Large red decoy retriever on the Norfolk Broads

From Chambers’s Journal in an article called “Norfolk Broads and Rivers” : On some of the broads there is still to be seen an industry fast falling into decay—decoys with decoy ducks and dogs. These require to be worked with the utmost silence and caution. One winter-night in 1881 Mr Davies inspected in company with the keeper [...]

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The retriever of the 12th Lancers

From a Windsor Magazine article entitled “Animals That Are Soldiers” (Vol. 14): “Jack,” the retriever dog of the 12th Lancers, also accompanied that regiment into active service. Jack is a thorough Lancer; he delights in the very sight of a lance, and barks joyously when he sees the regiment ready for the march, and promptly [...]

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