This dog is described in a letter in Country Life Illustrated (19 December 1908):
Sir,
While out ferreting the other day at Parford, on Dartmoor, I took the photograph I enclose of a greyhound retrieving a rabbit, which I thought might be of interest to some of your readers. When this dog was out with us it was quite the exception for a wounded rabbit to get down a burrow; consequently, we were able to ferret the whole length of the hedges without leaving gaps, as is generally the case when one wants to avoid the chance of the ferrets laying up. The dog belongs to a keeper in Chagford, who told me he had great difficulty in training him in the first instance. If a rabbit was missed and bolted away from the hedge it was often caught and retrieved after an exciting course, which greatly added to the day’s sport and relieved monotony. As to the dog’s parents, I was unable to obtain any information, but he had the appearance of being a fairly well-bred dog (pg. 892).
That last line is used make certain that this dog is a greyhound and not a cross between a greyhound and a retriever.
The dog is mostly black, and that might suggest that someone bred a greyhound to a retriever at some point to get both the color and the behavior.
Grantley Berkeley did cross one of his deer greyhounds with a retrieving “Newfoundland.” The resulting puppy– Wolf– was a very sagacious retrieving lurcher.
There are certain greyhounds that will retrieve within the population, and these do not necessarily have retriever blood in them. The only characteristics that this particular dog has that might suggest retriever ancestry are its black color and the retrieving behavior.
But neither of these is necessarily indicative of being a greyhound/retriever cross of any sort.
The retrieving behavior is widely distributed among domestic dog breeds. My grandmother’s miniature dachshund, who ruled me with an iron fist (as would any Prussian autocrat worthy of the name) was an 8-pound retrieving fool.
And there are plenty of actual retrievers that would rather eat than retrieve anything.
Because retrieving is widespread in dogs, it makes sense that virtually all retrievers living in Britain had some level of crossbreeding. They were the performance-bred mongrels of the sporting gentry.
A terrific pic.
Black Greyhounds are not and were not unusual. Prince Albert’s Eos was black.
I don’t think there is any reason to doubt that this dog was a pure greyhound.
Black color and retrieving aren’t just retriever traits, and greyhounds can have both traits.
He looks pure. Interestingly, in the crosses and back-crosses I’ve seen, Greyhound traits tend to be dominant over say, Saluki traits. Even the general outline of the dog. It’s pretty easy to get Greyhound type back after a cross because of that. I have seen an Afghan/Staghound (rough coat Greyhound types) litter that you would never know had an Afghan sire.
ive a greyhound bitch that retrieves rabbits live to hand.its innate i.e she was never trained to do it-shes purebred-grandaughter of the australian dog brett lee.