Here, I explain something that often gets dog historians in trouble. In historical texts, the ancestor of the retrievers is described as Newfoundland. This confuses most people, because they assume that this is exactly the same breed that we call Newfoundland today. The breed they are talking about is the St. John’s Water dog, which more like a retriever and not like the modern breed at all. The big Newfoundland might have never existed on Newfoundland at all, and may actually descend from that dog crossed with mastiffs in Europe. This has long been a debate among people who are interested in the Newfoundland dog’s history. It has started more than one or two fights.
However, it is misleading to say the Flat-coat descends from the Newfoundland. It is the St. John’s Water dog from which it descends.
It is also misleading to say that the golden retriever derived from the flat-coat. In reality, both derived from the wavy-coated retriever. The golden was a strain of wavy-coat bred for yellow or reddish color. The flat-coat derived from wavy-coats that had the wave bred out of their coat. This tendancy to breed out the wave also affected the golden retriever. In fact, when the two breeds separated, the only real difference between the two in conformation was the color. High quality show champion goldens were much rangier and lightly built,with far less coat. Flat-coats were a little stockier with a bit more coat. The heads of both types were moderate. Blocky heads were not favored in golden retrievers, and very narrow heads were also not favored in flat-coats. Many flat-coats carry golden retriever genes, because one flat-coat sire, who was influential in the breed, Don of Gerwn, was actually of Tweedmouth’s yellow wavy/flat-coat strain. He was black, and, there for a flat-coat, but he carried the genes for yellow or reddish coat. The golden has both wavy and flat-coat types in its genome, while it’s not unusual to see a little wave in the flat-coated retriever breed even today.
It is impossible to write the history of the golden or the flat-coat alone, because the two have very similar histories. To ignore Tweedmouth’s strain in both breeds is short-sighted. 1st Baron Tweedmouth did not start the golden retriever, as is common claimed. He started a line of yellow wavy-coats.
It was only through the efforts of a few yellow flat-coat fanciers that the golden retriever was separated from the flat-coat. Incidentally, goldens, flat-coats, and Labs were all interbred. All Labrador experts recognize that the flat-coat was an important outcross in their breed. Even wavy-coats were crossed in the nineteenth century. What is ignored is that flat-coats at this time also meant goldens, so the three breeds’ history and ancestry is quite interwoven.
This Flat-coat is more moderate in frame than the very lightly built dogs we often see in the breed today. Goldens have the exact opposite problem-- too cobby to be of any use. This dog could pass for a working-bred golden, if it were gold in color. Both breeds descend from the Wavy-coated retriever.
The dog above is a Flat-coat that has some waviness to its coat. It looks somewhat like a working-type golden, except for color.
Natural History 