9781422279373

In the early 1800s, Colonel Peter Hawker, an Englishman who was one of the foremost wildfowl hunting enthusiasts of the time, owned a trading schooner. It sailed back and forth across the Atlan- tic between Poole, on the south coast of Britain, and Newfoundland. He observed and wrote about the two types of dogs that inhabited Newfoundland. In 1814 in his book, Instructions to Young Sportsmen , he described the Newfoundland Dog as “a very large dog, strong of limb, with rough hair and carrying his tail high.” These dogs were the ancestors of today’s Newfoundlands. The other type of dog, the Lesser New- foundland Dog or St. John’s Dog, the forebear of our Labs, Hawker described as “by far the best for any kind of shooting dog. He is gen- erally black and no bigger than a Pointer, very fine in legs, with short, smooth hair and does not carry his tail so much curled as the other, (Newfoundland); he is extremely quick, running, swimming . . . his sense of smell is hardly to be credited. In finding wounded game there is not a living equal in the canine race. He is chiefly used on the native coast by fishermen.” The perfect working retriever The St. John’s Dog’s short, thick, waterproof coat, which repelled ice (unlike that of his larger, hairier cousin, the Newfoundland), his swimming ability, coupledwith his strength, trainability, andpure en- thusiasm for life, made these dogs excellent workers and an import- ant part of the fishing trade. Being tough, hardy, and medium-size, they happily toiled alongside the fishermen in cramped boats and the chilly climate. Swimming in the freezing cold waters, they re- trieved cod that had escaped from the fishing hooks or nets. They rescued crew members who had fallen overboard and they fetched objects that had slipped into the water. They hauled in the fishing nets, and, at the end of the day, towed the fishing boats ashore, up the shelved beaches, to be moored safely for the night. There are tales of foggy days when, to avoid collision, a St. John’s

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