This is a golden retriever that I’m sure you’ve all seen on the news. The dog’s name is “Annie,” and she belongs to a resident near the Red River of the North in Fargo, North Dakota.
Fargo is expecting a record flood this time, which is why they’ve sandbagged. This is a pretty bad natural disaster by anyone’s imagination.
However, look at the dog for minute. This is the type of golden that is still common in the Upper Midwest, dark -colored and, in the case of this one, rather wavy-coated. This dog’s coat is really quite similar to what I imagine the Tweed water dog or Tweed water spaniel’s coat looked like.
These dogs largely descend from earlier imports from Canada, which were all meant to be working dogs. These dogs were first imported to Canada by Colonel Samuel Magoffin. These dogs were kept at his home in Vancouver and were well-used as working dogs. These dogs were registered under the kennel name of Rockhaven. There were also dogs of a similar type imported by Bart Armstrong of Winnipeg, Manitoba, for his Gilnockie kennels.
The original goldens in North America would be what we would call “field-line” or “working-type” today. However, many of these dogs made up the original show population of this country.
Indeed, they were the nominate type of the breed in Britain until the late 1950’s or early 1960’s. That’s when the distinct “blocky” British type evolved.
Let’s hope that the floods in Noth Dakota aren’t that bad, and that whatever damage they experience can be mitigated. Floods are terrible things.
But that picture of that golden is certainly instructive.
Natural History 
Annie looks like she’s watching geese on the water.
She’s beautiful. I don’t know why anyone thinks a golden should look any different.
Gorgeous dog.
I have a friend with a very wavy-coated golden youngster:
I bet she’ll look like the dog in the photo when her coat grows out. A couple litter-mates share her coat, but most are straight-coated.
That dog right there has the real Tweed water dog/water spaniel influence. Some of the ones I’ve seen with that coat have had really short coats, just slightly longer than a curly-coated retriever’s.
The dog in that photo really has the TWS or Tweed water dog look to it. This is one of the first golden retrievers out of Nous and Belle, who was a TWS/TWD,: http://www.grca.org/images/historybreed/origin2.jpg
Annie might also have, in addition to wet-weather frizzies, what they call “spay coat.” Just a guess.
But her rather exaggerated natural wave may be as much related to hormones as DNA?
It’s in the DNA. Goldens have always produced really wavy/curly puppies. And these dogs curl whether they are spayed or not.
One of the dogs in their background was a yellow or reddish curly-coated retriever-type dog called the Tweed water spaniel or Tweed water dog. It was also derived from the St. John’s water dog, so it was basically a regional variety of retriever.
“On the Northumbrian coast he saw a tawny colored “Water-dog owned by a fishermen netting salmon, and when asked about the dog they told him that it was a Tweed Water-Spaniel and came from Berwick. He said that the dog was ‘Retrieverish’ and not at all like a Spaniel. In the 1920’s Mr. O’Neill made enquiries about these Tweed Water-Spaniels and was told by Berwick people that they were practically the same as the east coast Water-dogs, but in those bred on the Border the browns and yellows predominated. ”
http://www.darkstarretrievers.com/golden_history.htm
Northumberland is where Berwick-upon-Tweed is. This was, at one time, hotly disputed land between the kingdoms of England and Scotland. The 1st Baron Tweedmouth represented Berwick-upon-Tweed as an MP, even though he was born on the nearby Scottish county of Berwickshire (which no longer exists and for which Berwick-upon-Tweed was the shire town until it became part of Northumberland, which is England.) He developed his strain of retrievers, though, in the Highlands.
Well, then, good for the DNA, and I hope it hangs in there for the next century, as I can’t imagine anything prettier.
I’d have an old-fashioned golden in a heartbeat. But two retrievers–who are at this very moment destroying another perfectly fine sock, and I’m letting them–seem to be more than enough, for all practical purposes.
Looking at pictures will have to suffice–thanks for the links.