About “Shuttle,” the Golden Retriever in the Header
“Shuttle” is owned by Diane Glassmeyer. The photo is by A. Latta.
Here’s the full photo:
"Shuttle"-- everything that a golden retriever can be.
Photo taken from a creative commons license from Xan’s photostream.
A video of Shuttle doing what she’s supposed to:
You can see more of her here.
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- Cute “white” puppies and the coarse, lazy dogs they mature into « Retrieverman’s Weblog
- Another look at performance-bred golden puppies « Retrieverman’s Weblog
- Some good news and some bad news « Retrieverman’s Weblog
I know Shuttle! And I know Xan (A. Latta).
Good choice of images.
I have had the pleasure of seeing Shuttle work. She’s amazing!
Hey Retrieverman . . . Glad to see you using this photo of Shuttle, and thanks for the attribution as well! I love seeing the Creative Commons at work. I finally got a chance to read through some of your articles today and am hooked. Noticing you have done a lot of research on coat colors, I’m curious if you’ve investigated coat texture at all? My friend recently had a litter of goldens (mostly field-bred) and a couple have very curly coats. I’ve seen a lot of wavy coats, but never a curly coat. Any insight?
One important ancestor of the golden is the Tweed water spaniel or Tweed water dog. It had a very curly coat. It was actually more of a retriever than a water spaniel, because it was derived from the St. John’s water dog, which the ancestral landrace of all retrievers from Newfoundland. It looked like a reddish, cream, or liver curly-coated retriever, although some had more spaniel or houndish ears. These dogs were common among fishermen in the River Tweed region, which is in the Borders region of Scotland and England. The 1st Baron Tweedmouth, the golden retriever’s founder, was from that area, although on the Scottish side of the border. He was later an MP for the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, where the Tweed flows into the North Sea. He obviously knew of this breed’s high trainability and swimming power, as well as its tawny coat color. This, sadly, is the only picture we have of one, and this one isn’t really much like the dogs I’ve read about. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tweed_Water_Spaniel.jpg
The first litter of golden wavy-coats bred by the 1st Baron Tweedmouth was out of a reddish gold wavy-coat named Nous and a Tweed water dog named Belle that was of a lighter color than typical of the breed. Four bitch puppies were kept, and it’s from them that all goldens descend.
The Tweed water dog was also smaller than the typical golden, so if any of these dogs are little 40 pounders with curly hair, they are throwbacks to that water spaniel or water dog. I actually think Shuttle is of this type or at least partially so.
The curled coats were prefered in early water spaniels and retrievers, becauase the coats could shed water faster than the setter or collie type coats that were in existences. The curls provide a surface for the water to run down away from the skin, thereby preventing the coat from becoming too water-logged.
I’m glad you like the blog.
hi im desperately trying to find a dog like shuttle,im in the uk, and am finding it a challenge,any ideas as i keep finding the lighters ones if anyone can help please do, i think the darker the better,they are stunning,thanks
This fellow is Lancashire. http://www.nordenlights.co.uk/
And you can also contact this trainer, who has a dark golden stud dog: http://www.fallowfen.com/dogblog/
Before you get one, please read this. They are a lot smarter and a lot more active than the polar bear type, which is why people like the polar bear type:
http://www.bredekaer.dk/golden_retrievergb.htm
This breeder is in Denmark but deals with UK working golden kennels.
The other reason why they are so hard to find anywhere but North America is because the KC standard doesn’t allow this color. The other European countries use this standard, because the main multinational registry that affects most European countries, including Ireland, is the FCI. And the FCI uses the standard of the country of origin. So if you have in the KC standard a phrase that says “gold or cream, but neither red nor mahogany,” breeders in Europe are going to breed away from that, even if that’s the color preferred in the field and was the original color. It’s kind of silly, like the Border Collie standard announcing that they can no longer come in black and white.
Hi, when I saw the photo of Shuttle I thought it was my young bitch!! Here in NZ the show peopld say she is way too dark but she loves to work and is really fast and I wouldn’t swap her for anything. The field people love her.
Christine
This very dark color is indicative of field breeding. The old lines in North America that make up our working dogs were imported first to Canada and then the US when the preferred color was very dark and the preferred type was closer to a flat-coat. If you can imagine a flat-coat with red fur, then you can see what these goldens looked like.
The second dog from the right was a full show champion that also did well in trials (Ch. Noranby Diana): http://retrieverman.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/noranby-diana.jpg
The Noranbys are one of the three foundational lines of golden retriever. The other two were Culham and Ingestre, and they were heavily interbred with black flat-coats, which is one reason why you get yellow flat-coats even today.
The real reason is that this dog, Don of Gerwn, was a top trial liver flat-coat that won the International Gundog League’s Retriever Trial in 1904. He was bred many times to good working flat-coats. His sire was one of the Tweedmouth dogs, what we would now call a golden retriever. That’s one reason why liver flat-coats are known for producing light yellow puppies every once in a while.
The British type show golden is interesting in that it is just now becoming popular over here.
And they are very different from these red dogs.
My current dog is a mixture of red field dogs and “white” English dogs. She has very poor retrieving instinct, which really is a shame (I am philosophically opposed to FFing).
hello everyone where can i buy male puppy in red same color as shuttle please let me know!!
I have no idea where to find one right now. They are very much in demand, and the really good ones are bred by breeders who have waiting lists.
I like your site. I must tell you that I owned a field dog that was red haired and had a very wavy coat. The hair was not silky at all but was almost coarse. He was long legged and about 65 lbs. This was one awesome worker. We hunted pheasant, ducks, grouse, brant, and woodcock. I’m hoping my next puppy will be the same. Most other goldens seem lethargic next to this type of dog.
I had a bitch that was about the same size, and she was an excellent upland game dog. She was tawny with a straight coat. If she’d been black, she would’ve made a nice flat-coat. She was very biddable with an excellent nose and very birdy.
I think got one of those “other” goldens. I thought there was something wrong with her. She wouldn’t retrieve anything and liked to lie around all day. No thyroid problems. No serious hip problems. Just a very a lazy dog.
I don’t live in waterfowl country, so I really didn’t have any use for a duck dog. However, I could use her just like a springer– although much easier to control than the average springer. Great dog for all 13 years I had her.
It’s so hard to find good goldens these days. You have to hunt for them just like if you went out looking for a flat-coat or a Braque du Bourbonnais (well, maybe not as bad as Braque du Bourbonnais).
I just gave away our Golden Retriever, Bella. She has a dark golden wavy coat. She lives to run and retrieve. Bella is in no way lazy. Although we didn’t use her as a hunting dog, she nevertheless, found rabbits and other small rodents. She had no fear of the bears that came around our home last month either. The funniest was the time she decided she wanted us to throw the stick she retrieved. The stick was a tree branch about 15 feet or more in length. Unfortunately in the last year she started fighting with our other female dog and we had to rehome her because it became bloody. We do miss her, but she is very happy in her new home we are glad to report. I would like to get another golden, but this time, I would get a male. My sister’s friend has a male puppy available, but my husband is still pining for his Bella. Any suggestions?
I’d be interested in understanding Belle’s breeding, I’ve seen this temperament in very few Goldens, although I can say it appears to run in a particular line I’ve seen. I’d hate to see where this blog miss leads folks to believe field Goldens are aggressive because by no means are they.
They usually aren’t. Usually, they are far better with other dogs, because they have to be.
Bella is not a field golden. She does not come from a quality line of dogs. It is sad that in this country (USA) puppy mills produce poor quality dogs. Bella, I am sure came from a puppy mill. I got her from my brother whose wife purchased her through a store. I do not want to mislead anyone here on this blog. You write about good dogs with good qualities. Bella had a few good qualities. She was a natural retriever, but she was dog aggressive which is not good and dangerous.
I would like to get a better dog the next time around. I took Bella because my brother didn’t want her. I have never met an aggressive golden before her, but as of late I have heard that due to over breeding and poor breeding practices in puppy mills there are more instances of this and health issues. There is also cases of this and just bad breeding when people just breed their pets and have no idea what they are doing. So it’s good to know that there are people like yourself that understand the breed and know what to look for when selecting a dog, or even breeding their dog because they want to keep the standard high. I thank you for your comments and suggestions. I’ve learned quite a bit of good information here.
Puppy mill dogs– okay, that’s different.
Aggression is the least of their problems.
Usually, they get parvo and die before they are six months.
Sadly, that was her only problem. She is a fast learner. Great with commands, verbal, and hand. When she attacked, nothing would stop her. She learned how to unclip the other dog’s Pet Safe collar. It is a good thing our other dog is not a runner and would bring the collar to me to put back on.
I truly believe Puppy Mills should be illegal in the USA. There is not one that is good.
I work with a rescue and the amount of castaways is unbelievable.
This is an awesome and the coolest website I have ever seen.
Shuttle is an accomplished Master Hunter that has also landed her mark in Field Trials. She has hunted Waterfowl as well as Upland birds. Her exceptional ability to learn and extreme quickness (goes from 0-60 as quick as a red Porsche) coupled with very good air scenting abilities allows Shuttle to be the ideal companion both in the blind and rapidly moving about cover to flush a feathered friend. At home she rest peacefully waiting for the next activity to begin, her pace has been accelerated from day one, frequently leaving her novice handler grasping for the new knowledge to take her to the next level.
Diane, Shuttle looks like a really fine dog. I checked out some of your photos of her. It’s nice to see goldens doing some hunting.
I just got a new golden retriever puppy. I traveled 1o hours to get a pup from a person who breeds working goldens. The pup should look like her mother, that is dark red. This pup is already displaying the attributes of what I like to see.
I read your comment elsewhere about a golden’s nose. I worked at a hunt test where it was very apparent that the average golden’s nose was better than that of the other retrievers.
By the way, a field trialer told me that the nose of labrador retrievers is being bred out of them because use of the nose conflicts with what judges like to see at a field trial. They want to see a dog run straight to a marked fall with no ground sniffing.
I must add that you are right when you say that the golden can quarter like a spaniel. Goldens are great at upland work!
A lot of trial and test breeders say that goldens have to be trained around their noses.
The goldens evolved in a British trial system where the dogs have to find every bird. In North America, we want a dog that is handled to the bird. Pheasants, patridges, and hares are their main game. The dogs are trained to retrieve that which has blood on it. The pups are trained to fetch pigeons that are plucked so they bleed a little. Then these bleeding pigeons are released with a bunch of game animals, living and dead, and the dogs are sent to fetch the bleeding pheasant.
Now goldens are easily trained but they do have this “old-fashioned” hunting behavior that some people aren’t prepared for.
Sounds like you know exactly what I’m talking about. I must add that I recently went to a field trial. I managed to talk to maybe half a a dozen people who were judges and handlers. Only two hunted and I think that says a lot as to what is driving the breeding programs. I’m going out on a limb here but I think that a lot of these people wouldn’t recognize a good hunting dog if they saw one. On the other hand I must say that a field trial retriever is really something to see. I only hate to see the the nose bred out of any hunting breed.
PS I saw similar lack of nose at a recent pointing breeds hunt test and must say that similar problems exist there.
George, CONGRATULATIONS on your new hopeful.
Thank you Diane. My dog will be entered in hunt tests and I hope to do well with her. She looks great right now. She will also be hunted hard when I decide she is ready for it. And if she proves herself to be a credit to her breed, she will possibly be bred. I would love to see this type 0f golden become more common.
this is really nice site..i love your dog and the color is pretty unique..i really love dog, i do have one and its a shitzu dog..for me is really difficult to train. can give me some points on how will i train a shitzu dog..only basic command..
OMG– for a pet dog, check out Dr. Ian Dunbar. His methods are very easy to use, and most dogs respond really well to them. You’ll be shocked at how quickly a dog picks up on the methods.
http://www.siriuspup.com/about_founder.html
eally nice puppy, the golden retriever, very friendly, the best friend to man. need better care and better trainings:www.trainingagoldenretriever.com
Golden Retrievers are good hunters.
Shuttle and I are planning a Goose hunt up in Vanderhoff, BC this October. Should be an absolutely great time! We’ll be staying in a cabin along the lake. What else could one ask for — a great dog, Geese flying over head, and trout jumping. We’ll start Pheasant hunting in September as the season opens and of course we’re both getting antsy about now.
That’s such great news. I bet she’s looking forward to it!
Sounds like great fun with a great dog–nice to read this. A friend and I just spent this morning planning for the various seasons, as well!
Great reading articles like this more fact information about Golden Retrievers.
Love your blog! Lots of superb info on Golden Retrievers, thanks for sharing your knowledge on these sweet, loving dogs.
I have a golden retriever named Zoey, she’s a redhead with the most coarse hair I’ve seen in a golden! In fact, it’s similar to a Cairn Terrier, almost an SOS Pad-coarse (though not quite ‘that’ bad). Almost all my Golden clients have soft, silky hair, so it strikes me as quite unusual.
She lives for running for the ball/frisbee, and she won’t come out of the field or forest until she finds it. She’s quite the hunter/workaholic!
Great site and thanks for the link!
That coarse hair is a throwback to their Tweed water spaniel ancestry, and I’ve seen it in working line goldens before. It just cuts through the water, and water can’t stick to it or bog down the dog. It just runs down the coat.
I recently lost my golden and I am interested in the possibility of getting a nova scotia tolling retriever. It appears that this dog has many of the good qualities of field goldens in a smaller package. Does anyone have any experience with this breed?
thanks
bwm
They are a little bit different. Kind of like a sheltie crossed with a golden.
Hey George
I am one of those non-hunting “hunt test” persons. But when my Flat Coat finishes his JH title (hopefully on Sunday) my son will be hunting waterfowl over him. I think he will be awesome. My understanding is that when they have been on a real hunt the dogs get even better – maybe because they realize why they are doing all this training.
My experience with tests and with training with my retriever club is that they encourage the dog to hunt, ie. use his nose. On one of my first training days my dog crossed a waterway to an island – on a straight line to his mark. But when he hit the island he immediately turned left and headed in the wrong direction. I was a little embarrassed, but my fellow handlers corrected me. Evidently they had left a blind retrieve on the other end of the island and when my dog hit the shore his nose picked it up and headed right for it. They were very impressed with his nose!
It’s almost a mantra – “let them hunt.” I’ve heard it from people advising me as well as judges. And we’ve benefited from judges allowing them to work in the most realistic situations they can.
Anyway, that’s the way it is in my neck of the woods. My son, who is definitely not a retriever type person, can’t wait to use him. He may even come to the test this weekend because he sees how beautiful it is to see a retriever do what they were bred to do – and loving it!