Graves Labrador

THE BACKGROUND BREEDING of the Labrador Retriever may never be established, but it is safe to assume that the breed’s ancestors were taken to Newfoundland by explorers, fishermen, and settlers from England, Europe, and Norway. Thus the dogs, which subsequently were thought to be native to Labrador and Newfoundland, were in all probability the descendants of dogs left there in early years. They adapted to their environment, and by natural selection had evolved into two distinct types: one was the large heavy-coated dog which became known as the Newfoundland and the other, the smaller shorter-coated, was called the “black Water Dog,” the “lesser Newfoundland,” and later the “St. John’s dog.”

In the early 1800s several keen sportsmen and members of the English nobility acquired a few of the smaller-type dogs that fishermen were bringing back to England. These were found to be excellent retrievers of fish and game. For many years the breed was kept pure, but difficulty arose in obtaining fresh breeding stock, so Labradors were crossed with other sporting breeds, in particular the Flat-Coated Retriever, the Tweed Water Spaniel, and the Curly-Coated Retriever. The Labrador, as we know it today, was thus a British development.

As a sporting dog the Labrador soon took over from the Flat-Coated Retriever as Britain’s most popular gun dog, a position the breed has held up to the present time. In addition, the Lab has earned world-wide respect as a war dog, police dog and as a guide dog for the blind.