Northumberland and Durham Labrador Retriever Club
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      • 1971 Championship Show Catalogue
      • 1972 Championship Show Catalogue
      • 1980 Championship Show Catalogue
      • 1981 Championship Show Catalogue
    • Historic Images & Articles
    • Breed Standards
  • About Us
    • Rules, Regulations, AGM's etc.
  • Contacts
  • **NEWS**
  • Membership
  • Showing your Labrador
    • Enter our next Show/EVENT
    • Show Results & JUDGE CRITIQUE
    • PICTURES: Show
    • Useful Links
    • Club Code of Conduct at Shows
  • Working Tests
    • 2025 Working Tests
    • WORKING TEST RESULTS
    • PICTURES: Working Tests
    • Starting out In Working Tests
    • Health and Safety Policy Working Events
  • Field Trials
    • 2024 FIELD TRIALS
    • Field Trial Results
    • PICTURES: Field Trials
    • FT Links
  • Owning a Labrador
  • Puppy Register
    • Dogs on Register
    • Labrador Register: Breeders Questionnaire
    • Labrador Register: Buyers Questionnaire
  • History of the Breed
  • Health Information
    • General Health Topics
    • Health - useful links
  • Breed Standard
  • Activities
  • Labrador Welfare/Rescue
  • Calendar
  • Club Archives
    • Club History
    • **CENTENARY**
    • Year Books from 1971 to 2002
    • 90th Anniversary
    • WORKING ARCHIVE >
      • Archive Running Cards
      • Club History in Field Trials
      • Club Perpetual Trophies
      • Miscellaneous
    • SHOW ARCHIVE >
      • 1946 Championship Show Catalogue
      • 1961 Championship Show Catalogue
      • 1971 Championship Show Catalogue
      • 1972 Championship Show Catalogue
      • 1980 Championship Show Catalogue
      • 1981 Championship Show Catalogue
    • Historic Images & Articles
    • Breed Standards
Northumberland and Durham Labrador Retriever Club
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Click here for a Review of the Labrador for the Kennel Gazette in 1907.  Interesting reading!

history of the Labrador retriever

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Labrador Retrievers were recognised in England as  a Kennel Club breed in  1903 and first registered in the United  States of America in 1917.   Labradors  were originally called    a St. John's Dog or Lesser Newfoundland dog.

The breed  was in  Newfoundland in the 1700's and imported to England beginning the early  1800's.  The Labrador's exact origin is unknown but some speculate the  Greater   Newfoundland dog or the French St. Hubert's    dog is part of the  cross that made the St. John's dog. 

In  1887 the Earl of Malmesbury first coined the name Labrador in a letter  he wrote referring    to them as his Labrador Dogs.  The Territory of Labrador  is  just Northwest of Newfoundland  geographically.   Richard  Wolters in his book the   "Labrador Retriever" writes that the 19th century  Brits lumped that area  together as the same land mass, so it could have  referred to dogs from that  area.  

Newfoundland  was settled by English fisherman as early as 1500's and  the St. John's dogs seemed to develop along with the fishing occupation. The  English fisherman in Newfoundland  used the St. John's dog to retrieve fish that  had fallen off their hooks as well to help haul in    fishing lines through   the water.    The St. John's dogs were considered "workaholics" and   enjoyed the retrieving tasks given in the fishing environment.  This breed was very eager to   please and their retrieving abilities made them  ideal for hunting companions and  sporting dogs.

In today's world,   many see their hunting companion as living for the sport.  He will  break ice to  retrieve birds only to return and wait for the  next one to  come down.  You have to keep an   eye on the dog in warm weather as he  will gladly work beyond his physical abilities and   even overheat if you don't  watch him.  It was said that the dogs would work long hours with   the fisherman in the cold waters, then be brought home to play with the  fisherman's   children. The wonderful temperament of the Labrador  Retriever is documented back to its   early days in England and has made  them ideal family pets as well as  accomplished   sporting dogs.  

The  Labrador has a dense, short coat that repels water and provides great  resistance to the  cold and water. Labradors come in 3 colours; black, yellow and  chocolate.  Black is the  most well known colour and it is dominant  in Labradors.  Black was also the colour  commonly preferred and bred for up until more recent  times.  It should be noted that the   colours chocolate and yellow have been   noted in the original St. John's  dogs from the  Newfoundland.  They are recessive genes and were  referred to as the colour 'liver' or  sometimes 'golden'. 

In 1807 a  ship called Brig Canton
carried some St. John's dogs destined for Poole, England  as likely breeding stock for the Duke of Malmesbury's Labrador Kennel. The Canton    shipwrecked and two dogs, one black and one chocolate, were found  and believed to have    become part of the breeding programme  (along with other  breeds) that created the   Chesapeake   Retriever. So we know that chocolates had  been a colour in the original   St. John's dogs which later became established under the  name Labrador Retriever.     As recessive colours the yellow and  chocolate pups would occasionally  appear in litters   throughout time. 

During the earlier breeding
programmes these 'off colours' were often  'culled' until they  were  finally accepted by the British and the  American Kennel Clubs and  registered. Some people   still favour blacks  saying they are the best Labradors.  We think it is more personal  preference   as long as you have a good well balanced  pedigree and breeding  programme behind your dog.   

Labradors  almost became extinct
a few times and the  St. John's dogs that Labs came from are  now extinct in Newfoundland.  It was only through some events  and efforts of some key   people that we have the wonderful companion we  call the Labrador today.  It was the early 1800's that the first dogs were imported to  England to a few  aristocratic  British sportsmen. 

Earl of Malmesbury
at Heron Court had used his St. John's dog for the shooting  sports in   England as early as 1809.  The second Earl of Malmesbury was born in 1778 and was the    most  influential person in keeping the Labrador breed alive.  He started the  first kennel of  Labradors. He kept his kennel well stocked until his death in 1841.     
       
The  5th Duke of Buccleuch
(1806-1884) started his kennel in Scotland about 1835   independently from Malmesbury.  The dog was first documented  under the  name Labrador in 1839. The Duke's brother, Lord John Scott  also started  importing the St. John's dogs  from Newfoundland. A number of the  dogs that  the brothers imported were named Jock,  Nell (1843) and Brandy. 

Brandy  earned his name when he was being transported across  the Atlantic ocean.  He went overboard into rough water to fetch the cap of one of  the crew.    It took them 2 hours before they could pick up the dog  and he  was so exhausted they revived  him with Brandy.

The earliest photograph of a  Labrador Retriever was of the Duke's dog  named Nell.  She was about  12  years old when this photo below was taken in 1856. 
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Wolters indicated in his book that this is the  earliest photograph of a Labrador and taken in 1867. (This would seem to contradict  the  DOB shown above for Nell of 1843).         

This (St. John's) dog was part of the breeding stock for  the  Labrador and had white feet   and a white muzzle.  This trait was  noted  in some other Labradors being bred in the 1800's in England.   Today  the breed standard prefers no white in the coat colour.  
        
Sometimes as  the present day Labrador ages you will notice that areas that  grey tend to be   
the paws and muzzle. Perhaps a left over of the St. John's  Dog?   Nell is 12 years old here   and was owned  by the Earl of Home (1799-1881).  
 
The Labrador has so many excellent qualities that it had been used to breed into   other "Retrievers".  In the late 18th and early 19th Century  (before any  Kennel Club    registration) some breeders tried to interbreed the hunting  abilities of different retrieving  dogs that met their  liking. Other retrievers of the time included curly coats, flat coats and   a now extinct  Norfolk Retriever.  It was said that often the St.  John's  genes  were dominant   and the crosses tended to still carry the  looks and  personality. Eventually the separate breeds  became fixed and  separated in the  Kennel Club registration. 

By the 1880's nearly all the true Labrador (St. John's dog) lines had  died out in England.    A fortuitous meeting of the third  Earl of Malmesbury (at age 75) with the sixth Duke of    Buccleuch (1831-1914)  and twelfth Duke of Home (1834-1918) saved Labs from extinction.

Buccleuch and Home were  visiting a sick Aunt and decided to participate in a  waterfowl   shoot on the  South Coast. There the two men were impressed by what Malmesbury's dogs   were capable of doing.  These were the same bloodlines  as their father's kennels.  Malmesbury  reported that he had kept the  blood lines pure as he could with  the imported dogs from   Newfoundland.    Malmesbury gave them some of  his dogs to carry on  the breeding program.  
       
The dogs were Ned (born 1882) and Avon (born 1885).  Many say that these two dogs are the
  ancestor of all British  Labs. Buccleuch Avon is said to have sired 'liver-coloured' pups. This    would be the ancestor of  most American Field Champion chocolate line or chocolate gene  carrier line.
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Buccleuch Avon born 1885
In  1892 two 'liver colour' Labradors were born at Buccleuch's kennel. In 1899 the first recorded  yellow Labrador was born at the kennel of  Major C.J.  Radclyffe and named Ben of Hyde.

In  Newfoundland the St. John's dog eventually became extinct.  This seems to be political.     In 1780 the Governor wanted to encourage sheep  raising and to stop any menace to sheep    he ordered that there could be no   more than one dog for a family.  The St. John's dog were    native to  Newfoundland and so all but the ones that had been exported to  England were     vulnerable to this order. This action had a great impact on St. John's dogs  since they were not    wide spread and now their numbers were being  discouraged  in their homeland.  Later, in    1885 another measure was taken by the  legislature to encourage sheep breeding.  A heavy    license was imposed on dogs.  There was a higher tax rate on females than males  which led     to many female pups being destroyed at birth.  Couple this  with the English passing the 
        British Quarantine Act and it made importation next to impossible.  The Quarantine Act on  1895 prohibited dogs from entering  Great Britain without a license and without first     undergoing a  strict  six-month quarantine. Britain did not have the disease of Rabies  native   to  their land and they did not want to have it introduced. By the 1930's the  St. John's dog   was rare in Newfoundland.  The 6th Duke of  Buccleuch was  finally able to import a few more   dogs between 1933-1934 to continue the  line. Interestingly enough, sheep raising never
         became a  mainstay of  Newfoundland but the extinction of the St. John's dog did come to  pass. 

 In 1903 the Labrador  Retriever was popular enough to be recognized by the Kennel Club in England.  1916 the Labrador Club was formed in England with support from  Lord  Knutsford    (Munden Kennel line) and Lady Lorna, Countess Howe (Banchory  Labradors). Some   chocolate labs are said to trace back to FC Banchory  Night Light from the Banchory Kennel. He was a black dog born in 1932 in England. Night Light  comes from the line of Dual  Ch. Banchory Bolo  (1915) who appears to be a carrier of the chocolate gene from  Buccleuch   Avon.   Banchory Bolo was also known for  carrying a trait of white hairs  under   the feet (Bolo pads).  
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English CH Banchory Bolo 1915-1927 -
With Thanks to Richard Wolters and his book; The Labrador Retriever Dutton 1992
Our grateful thanks to the talented photographers who have provided the images for this website.