Archive for September, 2008

Here’s some shameless (I mean shameless) politics. I know I’ll lose some conservatives out there, but oh well.

This video is of Friday’s debate between McCain and Obama with video evidence to back up Obama’s assertions.  This was my grandfather’s favorite part of the debate.


Here’s a humorous clip of how Obama may have prepared for the debate:

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In the 1860′s, two dogs became part of San Francisco’s lore.  “Bummer” was a Newfoundland dog with an overshot lower jaw who found a home at the saloon of Frederick Martin. He took to killing rats and earned his keep. He was known for his gentle manner and was well-liked among the various journalists who chronicled local interest stories in the saloons of Sand Francisco.  He fed himself by wandering the streets, gently begging for food. He received his name from this habit.

True to his Newfoundland form, Bummer intervened in a dog fight in 1861. He rescued a mongrel dog from the jaws of his aggressor and then helped nurse the poor beaten dog back to health. The mongrel was believed to be near death, but with the help and support of Bummer, the dog managed to return to vigor. This dog was named “Lazarus,” after the man who Jesus raised from the dead.

Both of these dogs had the run of the streets. And the San Francisco journalistic community began to write about the pair, often coming up with the most bizarrely antrhopomorphic stories about them. The dogs quickly became an institution in San Francisco.

So much was this true  that when the dog catcher detained Lazarus, the public rallied to his defense. This outcry forced the city council to pass a resolution that exempted Bummer and Lazarus the licensing laws and gave them carte blanche to wander the streets.

Life for street dogs is often short, and Lazarus met his end in a tragic way. Lazarus was known for being a surly dog, and he is believed to have bitten a child. Because no animal control person would touch this dog, it is believed that he was poisoned as a reprisal. Some contemporary accounts say that he was kicked by a fire engine horse. However, it is generally accepted that he was poisoned, and a $50 award was issued for information leading to his poisoner.

A major funeral was held, but Lazarus was not interred to a grave. Instead, he was taxidermied and displayed at Frederick Martin’s saloon.

Here’s cartoon of the funeral (Bummer is in attendance):

As the years progressed, the stories about Bummer waned. MarK Twain reported that Bummer had found a small black puppy to be his companion, but very little else was written about him.

A drunk man kicked Bummer in 1865.  The kick was so severe that it caused great distress to his body, and he soon died. When this man was interned at the local lock-up, his cellmate beat him after he bragged about kicking Bummer.

What I find interesting about Bummer is that he’s not a giant dog. He’s a big dog. But in all depictions, he’s not the giant Newfoundland we know today. He’s also not marked in the way that Landseers are supposed to be. In fact, he looks like Landseer that has been crossed with a black Newf. He looks very similar to Custer’s Newfoundland. It’s amazing how much breeds change over the centuries.

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Here’s footage of a Clumber hunting. Compare it with the working cockers in the earlier post. These dogs operate in very different manner. I’ve never seen a flushing dog operate with such sedation!

I have always wondered about this breed. Most of the gun dog breeds are similar in temperament. The Chesapeake Bay Retriever is an outlier, because it’s far more protective than any of the other breeds in the gourp. The Clumber is also an outlier in that it apparently always worked game in this slow fashion. Now that it’s no longer being bred for that purpose, my guess is that it is even more sedate.

All sorts of theories exist about its origins. One is that a breed called an Alpine Spaniel, which I’ve never heard of and there’s no record of, was the ancestor of the breed. I wonder if this isn’t a cross between a St. Bernard and spaniel. The Clumber is almost exactly like a St. Bernard in behavior, just it has a spanielness to it. May there’s a touch of basset in the dog, too.

Whatever it is, my guess is most modern gun dog fanciers will go with springers. This dog is a museum piece. It has a wonderful history, but in utility, it’s certainly lacking.

BTW, flews have little to do with soft mouth, as I’m sure all the retriever people who saw this video screamed when they heard that part. If this were true, all the retrievers would have heavier lips than any mastiff. I have actually never seen a Clumber retrieve shot game, but maybe they do. I’ve only actually seen one Clumber in my entire life, but it didn’t act anything like what I expected a gun dog to act like.

Now this breed does well at conformation shows. One won Westminster a few years back. He’s depicted in that video, as is the one that won Cruft’s.

Now, as a pet, my guess is that such a sedate dog would be a better choice than a golden retriever or a springer spaniel, which are far more active dogs. It’s likely that this breed will be pet rather than a hunting dog, especially when it lacks the biddability and speed of all the other spaniels used for flushing.

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This is an American Cocker Spaniel, which used to be the same breed as the English Cocker. The English cocker is split into working and show forms, but the American cocker has no working form. I’ve heard rumors of a few breeders who are trying to recreate it, but it’s an uphill battle. I’ve seen a program where a woman was using less feathered American cockers to hunt. My grandfather gunned over an American cocker in the 1950′s. If breeders want to return this breed to a working dog, some good advice is to reduce feathering if at all possible. Trainability can be a problem, because I’ve run into a more than a few American cockers that were thick.

Why would anyone who wants to use a flushing spaniel want a dog with that much coat on it? I think the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel is built more effectively for work than this breed. And that breed is a genetic wreck.

BTW, I don’t do this nonsense that the registries do in calling an English cocker a “cocker spaniel” in Europe and the rest of the world and call the American cocker the “cocker spaniel” in the United States.  The English cocker is similar to the original form. It’s just a small flushing spaniel, closely related to the Field Spaniel and the English springer. In a litter, the big ones would be springers, the mid-sized ones would be fields, and the little ones would be cockers.

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A common complaint from European dog fanciers is that North American forms of certain breeds are a distortion of their original form. Irish setters bred in the US have much more feathering than their European counterparts, while Labradors bred in the United States are much larger than those bred in the rest of the world.  These criticisms, though, are a bit short-sited. It is true that dogs bred for pets and for the show ring in North America tend to develop along certain lines. If it’s big and furry in Europe, it will be bigger and furrier in the United States. However, what is often ignored is that the New World has preserved many working breeds of dog that no longer exist in their native countries. Early settlers to these regions brought these dogs over, and they often maintain the original form and function.

Here is just a short list.

  • The American Bulldog (the Original Bulldog)– In the seventeenth century, England exploded in a Civil War that pitted Royalist against Parliamentarian. When the parliamentarians won, many royalists living in the North of England, the Midlands, and the West Country fled to the American South. They brought with them bulldogs, which were used to control livestock and guard farms. In the South, these dogs were used to catch free-roaming swine, herd cattle, guard farms, and (unfortunately) to maul slaves. They were also used in bull-baiting and bear-baiting in the colonies. However, the breed’s greatest utility came in catching feral swine that became common in South. It is because of these large herds of feral swine that this form of bulldog was preserved in the Southern United States
  • The English Shepherd and the Farm Collie: These are two separate breeds, but they both respresent the old collie dog that once existed throughout the British Isles. The English shepherd is quite common in the United States, especially in rural areas. It descends from collie type dogs that were brought over during the colonial period. Some of the breed resemble border collies, but unlike border collies, the English shepherd has a “loose eye” when it herds, similar to the few rough collies that still herd. Most collies were loose eyed dogs until the nineteenth century, when setters and pointes were crossed in to increase stalking behavior. The English shepherd is used as multi-purpose farm dog, and it can also be used as hunting do. The farm collie is dog that descends from more recent imports of Scottish collies. Like the English shepherd, it is a loose-eyed dog, but it generally resembles the rough and smooth collies a bit more. It lacks the narrow muzzle of the modern rough and smooth collies. The first dog I ever had was a dog of this type, which is sometimes called the “mongrel collie.” He was bred to a English shepherd, which is a common practice, even in the now standardizing Nova Scotia Old Farm Collie. That’s why I think it’s a good idea to think of these dogs as a similar type.  The English shepherd resembles the collie of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, while the farm collie resemblies the nineteenth century collie.
  • The Spanish War Mastiff is preserved in the Fila Brasileiro and the Puerto Rican Mastiff– The Spanish War Mastiff was a weapon of mass destruction in the age of the Conquistadors. Hundreds, if not thousands of Native people, were killed by dogs during this time period. Often the natives thought of these dogs a type of jaguar, rather than having anything in common with dogs living in their villages.  While both of these breeds are a bit removed from the Spanish war mastiff, with the Fila having scent hound and Spanish Mastin characteristics and the Puerto Rican Mastiff having English mastiff  characteristics, they still have a bit more dominant temperaments. The filas have much more aggressive temperaments than other mastiffs, which makes sense, considering that the fila was bred as a slave-catching dog (unfortunately).
  • The Grand Bleu de Gascogne and the Hanoverian Schweisshund– The Grand Bleu de Gascogne was a wolf-hunting scent hound from France, which was imported to the United States, perhaps in colonial Louisiana. It would later be developed as the bluetick coonhound, which is a common dog in rural parts of the United States, especially the South. Some lines of bluetick are being developed that still possess Grand Bleu de Gascogne chararcteristics, which obviously popped up in a few lines of this coonhound. This dog is far more common than the French ancestor,  and if the lines of the French hound become too inbred, it is likely that American hounds of this type would be used to augment the lines (at least, if they are intelligent about it). The Hanoverian Schweisshund is a German forester’s hound. It is somewhat more common than the Grand Blue Gascogne. German immigrants brought this hound to the US, but only one line of this breed was ever developed as a line of hound. The Plott family came from Lower Saxony to the mountains of Tennessee (then part of North Carolina). Their original name was Platz, but it was Anglicized to Plott. With them came the brindle hounds of Hanoverian Schweisshund type, but these dogs were more lightly built than the modern breed. These would later become the bear hunting Plott Hound and were largely uncrossed with other American hound breeds. It is the only American hound with German ancestry.
  • And of couse, the darker colors in the golden retriever. The dark colored dogs were imported to North America early on. Samuel Magoffin imported some of the first new stock to North America in the 1930′s, and all of these dogs were very dark in color.  Several accounts of his dogs remark on how similar to Irish setters they were.

If you can think of any others, I’ll do another post on this topic. The feists (old type terriers) and curs (multi-purpose hounds) are always interesting dogs to explore. I’ll certainly do a post on them at some point in the future.

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From messybeast.com, two old enclycopedia entries.

1909  and 1923.

Note how the “retriever” entry shows a dog that we would now call a flat-coated retriever. From 1900 to the First World War, the flat-coat was in its halcyon days. At this time, the golden was part of the flat-coat breed, referred to as “Tweedmouth’s strain,” although Colonel Le Poer Trench’s golden dogs were registered and promoted as Russian retrievers.

Note how the 1923 entry of depiction of a retriever appears to have some wave to its coat. Fanciers had decided to breed out the wave in the wavy-coat. In flat coats, the wave has nearly been bred out, but the golden retriever, which was separated from the flat-coat before this waviness disappeared, still can come in a wavy coat.

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Don of Gerwn pictured above a black flat-coat. 




The picture of Don of Gerwn comes from here – The Complete English Shot. He is not a “Liver-coloured” dog as described here, at least as how liver is described in the flat-coated retriever. His nose and eyes are clearly dark, not liver as we mean in the flat-coat. He is juxtaposed with a true black flat-coat here. He is clearly a dark red retriever (“sandy liver”), which makes sense considering he was from Tweedmouth lines. He actually reminds me of Mrs. Charlesworth’s Noranby Diana, an early show champion golden that also placed in a few trials. Black and white pictures are hard to discern, but I think it is clear that his liver color is different from liver flat-coats. His coloration could carry the pale yellow of his grandsire, Lucifer. This would also be true even if he were a true liver. 

Don was born in the earl 1900′s or late 1890′s, placing in trials 1904.

If you look at the reddish tinge that appears in many liver flat-coats and compare the darkest red golden retrievers, you can see how similar the colors are. No wonder things got so confusing at the separation.

Incidentally, I like this type of golden.  It’s a shame that we’ve decided that the Newfoundlandy type retriever excoriated in Teasdale-Buckell’s book is the only type promoted in conformation.

The most interesting thing in this book is how widely the retrievers vary in appearance. The dog called “Devil” is so different from anything I’ve seen in a retriever. He is sandy colored with “whiskers [bearding] like an otterhound.” I don’t know what the hell he was. Could someone have crossed an otterhound with a retriever or an airedale terrier (a descendant of the otterhound) with a retriever? Maybe it’s an early goldendoodle.

When you read this book closely, the golden is considered part of the flat-coated breed when the book was written. The curly is deemed ruined for working purposes. Only the Labrador and the flat-coat (including Tweedmouth’s strain of golden flat-coats) are used for hunting, because flat-coated breeders have done their best to breed out the lumber and cobbiness that plagued the breed in the 1890′s. In the book, he claims that Americans don’t use retrievers, because Americans make their pointers and setters retrieve. Perhaps true in the early twentieht century. He also describes a breed that fascinates me– the Norfolk retriever. It sounds kind of like a Chesapeake bay retriever, only smaller. He points out that Labs and flat-coats (including what became the golden retriever) were interbred.  This book is certainly a great historical document. I’m definitely going to purchase it. This is an account in which the Labrador was consider secondary to the flat-coat (including the golden) in working ability. And look at the working conformation!

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This dog was captured by George Armstrong Custer during the Peninsula Campaign in 1862. This dog is a Newfoundland. It looks more like a retriever than the modern breed called the Newfoundland. Black and white (Landseer) Newfs were much more common than solid black dogs during the nineteenth century.

This breed was very popular from the mid-eighteenth century to the late nineteenth century. Samuel Adams owned one in Boston in the early days of rebellion against the crown. Lord Byron would keep one named “Boatswain,” which died of rabies. The dog was buried at Newstead Abbey with a famous epitaph. Lewis and Clark took a Newfoundland named “Seaman,” all the way across North America to the Oregon Country. The dog was purchased at Pittsburgh, where they took boats down the Ohio at the start of their journy. Seaman proved useful in catching and retrieving squirrels that were crossing the river from Ohio to Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia). Napoleon was recued by a Newfoundland when he fell overboard on his return from Elba, showing that the breed was common Europe by the early nineteenth century. John James Audubon took a dog named “Plato” into Florida to retrieve shot birds. The retrieving abilities of these dogs so impressed Audubon, who saw one in Newfoundland retrieve a shot seal that sank down into rough seas.  Thus, it made sense that he would take one into Florida.

British sportsmen used the St. John’s Water dog as an early cross to create the early retrievers. It is the “Ur dog” from which all the retrievers derive. However, it is also ancestral to the Newfoundland dog, which was taken from dogs of this type that were offered for sale as pets. When the St. John’s breed began to disappear, the other Newfoundland lines were used in the retrievers.

One cannot imagine how popular the pet Newfoundland was during this time period. It was as popular as the Labrador is today. It had become legendary as a rescuer of people who fell in the ocean, as a net-hauler, and an easily trained working dog. The Newfoundland’s popularity was celebrated by Landseer, who painted big black and white Newfs. Today, we call black and white Newfs Landseers, which are recognized as a separate breed in Europe. 

The popularity of this breed was fueled by the democratization that appeared in the wake of the American and French Revolutions, some of which appeared during the Concert of Europe period in which the conservative nations tried to hold off the potential of another bloody French Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution. Both of these forces led to the development of a growing middle class in Europe. Disposable incomes meant that the average person could buy a fad dog with no real purpose. Romanticism was also growing at this time, and a rugged working breed like a Newfoundland would have wonderful back story for a fad dog. In fact, I will go as far as to say that the Newfoundland was the first fad dog. It was mass produced as a pet by all sorts of people, some of whom crossed them with big mastiff dogs to make them larger. It took nearly a hundred years, but the breed began to change its form and function. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the Newfoundland fell from favor. By the First World War, its popularity dropped. In fact, the breed nearly disappeared entirely following the Second World War. It was rare in most of Canada and the US and nearly gone from Europe. It was saved when Swiss Newfs were found and added to the gene pool. Most of these dogs were big, hairy, and black. The large but moderate Newfoundland was replaced by the big hairy dog.

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Irish Red and White Setters are a rare breed of setter that closely resembles the old Irish setter. Originally, Irish setters were red and white, but those in different regions in Ireland having different amounts of red and white. Those that were predominantly red became popular among British sportsmen in other parts of the Isles.

The working strain of Irish setter developed in the US as the Red Setter includes dogs that have broader heads and white markings. These dogs are also lighter red in color. Some resemble small golden retrievers from a distance. However, white markings were not preferred in the show form of Irish setter, and Western European and Soviet/Russian lines of hunting Irish setter became solid red and very dark in color. Because of this selection for solid red in all of these lines of Irish setter, the “parti-coloured” setter nearly disappeared.

In Northern Ireland, a presbyterian minister named Noble Huston found some red and white setters in County Down. These would provide the foundation stock for this breed of setter. Some people mistake them for Brittanys (especially those from European lines or “French” Brittanys as they are called in the US, which can have black skin pigment) or Welsh Springers.  The only thing those breeds have is a common ancestry with the European land spaniels, which were common in France and Britan during the Middle Ages. The French developed spaniels that would freeze for game, while the British developed spaniels as flushing dogs. The French “setting spaniels” (the Brittany is only one of the several breeds of French setting spaniel) would later appear in the British Isles (becoming the setter breeds) and in Germany (creating the German longhair, the Large and small Munsterlanders, and the long-haired variety of Weimaraner).

The exact origin of the setters and land spaniels is up to conjecture. There is an old theory that spaniels are derived from Spanish stock. The word spaniel is a corruption of the word for Spain (Espanol) which appears in French as “Epagneul.” I don’t know whether this is true or not, but several references in history appear calling spaniels “Spanish dogs.” However, I don’t know a single breed from Spain that is a spaniel. I know of a spanish water dog that can be used as retriever. There is also the Spanish pointer, which is a heavy pointer,  similar to the Bracco Italiano and Spinone Italiano, that was crossed with foxhounds and setting spaniels to create the English pointers and perhaps the other pointers of Northern, Western, and Central Europe. But there are no Spanish spaniels.

My guess is that spaniels, setting spaniels, and setters descend from crosses between herding dogs and scent hounds or pointers. Herding dogs are easily handled, and often exhibit a modified stalking behavior, which is what setting or pointing behavior actually is. Hounds and pointers have good noses, and this mix would work to create this type of dog.

The truth is these breeds are actually quite old. Some sources take them back to the later days of the Roman Empire. It is impossible to know what created these breeds of gun dog, but we do know that their original purpose was to aid in falconry and greyhound coursing, which were big sports among the nobles in the Middle Ages. A flushing spaniel could send game birds into the air or send rabbits into the open to be dispatched by the falcon or greyhound. The French called them Oysel dogs. Later, when stocking game birds became a necessity on hunting preserves, a pointer or a setter/setting spaniel could be used to point out birds that could then be captured by throwing a net over them.

My guess is that that spaniels, setting spaniels, and setters have their origins in France. The Spanish dog in their ancestry that gave them their name could only be the Spanish pointer. A cross between a flushing spaniel and this pointer could produce some stock that could be at the base of setting spaniels and setters. However, the original setters and setting spaniels crouched in their pointing position (hence the name “setter,” a corruption of the word sitter). The only other breeds that crouch in a stalking behavior are herding dogs. Pointers stand erect when indicating and always have. Modern setters assume this position when “setting.” Thus, it is likely that herding breeds had some role in the development of the setters from the British isles (and this is widely known in the Gordon setter breed).

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