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History of the Labrador Retriever breed
Labradors at work: dogs for the disabled
The Dogslife Study so far...
Prize winners!
History of the Labrador Retriever breed
The Labrador Retriever is the most popular pedigree dog breed in the UK and USA. The breed was derived from dogs called St John’s dogs or St John’s waterdogs, imported in the early nineteenth century from Newfoundland. St John’s dogs are now extinct, but their genes live on in the Labrador Retriever.
St John’s dogs seem to have been selected by fishermen in Newfoundland for their ability to work alongside their owners in the fishing industry. They retrieved fish and helped drag in fishing lines. With their dense short waterproof coat and fat, beaver-like tail, they were ideally suited for swimming and working in cold water. Labradors today still love the water and will cheerfully retrieve from a pond or river. In the UK, St John’s dogs were probably crossed with other sporting dogs to improve their retrieving abilities, resulting in the Labrador Retriever we know today.
Although the Labrador breed originated from working dogs, Labradors have since been associated with a number of noble families, in particular the Earls of Malmesbury, the Dukes of Buccleuch and the Dukes of Home. These aristocrats imported St John’s dogs into the UK for use in shooting sports. In the 1880s, when the original imported lines had died out, the current heads of these families met at a shooting party and Malmesbury provided two dogs to interbreed with the Buccleuch lines. These dogs are said to be the ancestors of all modern Labrador Retrievers.
During the development of the breed, the early Labradors often had a white muzzle and feet, like the St John’s waterdogs. A photograph of Buccleuch Avon, one of the Malmesbury dogs given to the Buccleuchs, shows a white muzzle but black coat including feet. Currently the breed standard specifies that there should be no white in the coat. The St John’s dogs were usually black, although occasionally yellow and chocolate dogs appeared in a litter. The first recorded yellow Labrador was Ben of Hyde, born in 1899. Brown-coloured descendents of Buccleuch Avon appeared around the same time, although chocolate animals only appeared in numbers in the 1930s. Currently about half the 45,000 dogs registered by the Kennel Club each year are black, with about one third yellow and the remainder chocolate.
The breed became increasingly popular because of its gentle nature combined with skills as a working dog. The breed was first registered with the UK Kennel Club in 1903. In the twentieth century, Labrador Retrievers were sent all over the world, and they are found in countries as distant as China, India, the USA, Australia and Canada, the home of their Newfoundland ancestors.
Labradors are susceptible to a number of medical problems, like hip dysplasia, cardiovascular and eye disorders. By taking part in Dogslife, and telling us about your dog’s life, you and your dog are giving us important information which will enhance the health of all Labradors and ultimately all dogs.
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Labradors at work: dogs for the disabled
Dogs for the Disabled train dogs to carry out a range of practical tasks to assist children and adults with disabilities. Most of the dogs used are Labradors or Labrador crosses. The Labrador breed makes for an excellent assistance dog due to their temperament, natural ability (e.g. retrieving dropped items) and their willingness to work.
Dogs for the Disabled began in 1986 after Frances Hay, who was disabled herself, was inspired to set up a charity by her own pet dog. Frances was determined not to let disability get in the way of life so set about teaching her dog to do tasks for her. Dogs for the Disabled grew from here and have since trained over 400 partnerships and currently have over 250 dogs working in England and Wales. Sadly, Frances died in 1990. In recognition of her work, the national training centre in Oxfordshire was named The Frances Hay Centre.
Dogs for the Disabled train dogs to help children and adults with physical disabilities and children with autism. An assistance dog for a person with physical disabilities not only offers practical help in tasks that many of us take for granted, but they also act as great icebreakers and ultimately become a best friend and helper rolled into one giving a sense of freedom and confidence often not previously experienced by the children and adults the charity helps. Families with a child with autism are assisted as the dog becomes a calming focus for the child and by working as a team the child is given a feeling of security helping them cope with unfamiliar surroundings. This means families can enjoy greater access to environments which may have been impossible before.
The training to become an assistance dog with Dogs for the Disabled starts when a puppy is eight weeks old. Puppies go and live with a puppy socialiser where they are toilet trained, taught how to interact with other people and animals and familiarised with the places they will go in later life for example, supermarkets, cafes, schools, travelling on public transport etc. After a year, puppies go to The Frances Hay Centre where they are trained for 6 - 8 months with the skills they will need to help a person with disabilities. A dog can help in many different ways, from helping a person get dressed and undressed, to opening doors, raising the alarm in an emergency and picking up dropped items from the floor such as keys, a purse or a mobile phone. An assistance dog for a child with autism acts as a continuous focus enabling a child to remain calm in places they may have previously found too challenging. A dog can also be trained to interrupt repetitive behaviours and combat ‘bolting’ behaviour common in some children with autism.
The tasks that assistance dogs at Dogs for the Disabled are trained to do can offer independence and life-changing support for those affected with a disability. To find out more please visit www.dogsforthedisabled.org
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The Dogslife Study so far…
At the time this Newsletter was compiled, we have over 400 Labrador Retriever owners registered with Dogslife, providing regular updates about the health of their dogs. Thanks to all of you contributing to the study. Over 2,500 people have visited the Dogslife website, from as far away as Mongolia, Ethiopia and Argentina, just to find out more about the health of Labrador Retrievers.
The distribution of coat colours of Labrador Retrievers registered with Dogslife is nearly the same as all of the Labrador Retrievers registered with The Kennel Club since January 2010; the most common colour being Black (52%), followed by Chocolate (29%), then Yellow (19%). So we know that the dogs registered are representative of those in the general population, in their coat colour at least! Below you can see the distribution of coat colours and gender of members’ dogs across the UK.
Dogslife members so far most commonly own their Labrador primarily as a pet (84%), rather than for breeding or showing (5%), or working (11%).
The most popular name of Labrador Retrievers registered with Dogslife so far is Bailey, closely followed by Ruby, Poppy, Millie, Charlie, Merlin and Skye. With over 280 different names registered so far, it is clear that Dogslife members certainly don’t lack imagination. If you look at the picture below you might be able to spot your own dog’s name!
At the moment we can only provide snippets of information as we do not want to bias the study. For example, if we report the “average” weight of Labrador Retrievers at 5 months of age, owners whose dogs are heavier or lighter may feel inclined to decrease or increase their puppy's feeding accordingly. Clearly this would be wrong, as puppies grow at different rates, just like children, so variation from the “average” is completely normal (indeed most of us are not “average” in our height, weight, food intake or exercise). As the study progresses we hope to release more of this information for your interest, but anything which we can demonstrate to have an affect on health, we will tell you about as soon as we find it. That is of course, the whole purpose of Dogslife.
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Prize winners!
….and finally congratulations go to the first winners of the Dogslife prize draw!
The first prize, £100 of Pets at Home vouchers, has been won by Miss W from Perthshire. The second prize winners, each receiving £50 of Pets at Home vouchers, are Miss R from Ayrshire and Ms K from Greater Manchester. Mr W from Midlothian, Mrs S from Cleveland, Ms A from Mid Glamorgan, Ms Y from North Yorkshire, Ms A from Avon, Mr J from North Yorkshire, Miss B from Dorset, Ms W from Surrey, Mrs B from Lincolnshire and Mrs B from West Lothian have each won £10 of Pets at Home vouchers.
Don’t forget, for each month in which you update your dog’s health record you are automatically entered in to the prize draw. So keeping your dog record up to date increases your chance of winning! The next draw will take place in January.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our members for their commitment and support with the Dogslife project. Everyone’s contribution is much appreciated and is important to help us find out what keeps dogs healthy.
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Don't forget to come back to Dogslife each month to update your puppy's record www.dogslife.ac.uk
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