Flat-Coated Retriever

The breed was put together in England in the middle of the nineteenth century, when driven shooting created demand for a dog that could mark a fall, find it and bring it back over land and water. Breeders combined the imported St John's water dog from Newfoundland with setter, Newfoundland and collie blood. Early examples appeared around 1860 under the name wavy-coated retriever, and within about two decades the flatter, more setter-like coat and head had become the recognised type.

S. E. Shirley, who founded The Kennel Club in 1873 and served as its chairman, was the central figure in fixing the breed, and his dogs stand behind almost all modern lines. From roughly 1880 until the First World War the Flat-Coat was the most widely used retriever on British estates, and it was the gamekeeper's dog in particular, valued for its nose, its biddability and its stamina in cover.

The two wars devastated the breed, and afterwards the Labrador and the Golden Retriever took its place in both the shooting field and the home. Numbers fell to a point where recovery was uncertain, and the Flat-Coat was rebuilt from a small number of surviving lines in the 1960s. It has never become a mass-market breed, which has spared it much of the split between working and show types. The American Kennel Club recognised it in 1915 and it remains uncommon in the United States.

A Flat-Coated Retriever is a racy, upstanding dog with more length of leg and less bulk than a Labrador. Dogs stand about twenty-three to twenty-five inches at the withers and weigh roughly sixty to eighty pounds; bitches are about twenty-two to twenty-four inches and fifty-five to seventy-five pounds. The head is the breed's signature: long, clean and moulded in one piece, with a barely perceptible stop, giving a smooth profile unlike any other retriever. The eyes are dark and almond-shaped with an intelligent, kindly expression.

The coat is moderately long, dense and as flat as possible, lying close to the body, with good feathering on the legs, chest, underside and tail. It is weatherproof rather than heavy. Only two colours are recognised in the show ring, solid black and solid liver; yellow occurs but is a disqualification in conformation, although such dogs may compete in field and performance events. Small amounts of white are not desired. The tail is carried level with the back and is in near-constant motion.

This is one of the friendliest of all gundogs. A well-bred Flat-Coat is confident, cheerful and demonstrative with everybody, including strangers, and the standard itself calls for an optimistic, kindly temperament. It will bark at the door and then escort the visitor in. Anyone wanting a protective dog should look elsewhere, because the breed's opinion is that all people are potential friends.

Maturity comes slowly. Flat-Coats stay boisterous and puppyish well past the age at which other retrievers settle, and many are still adolescent in behaviour at three years old. That is charming in a household prepared for it and exhausting in one that is not: a bored young Flat-Coat is a large, fast, enthusiastic dog with a strong urge to carry things, and it will find something to carry whether you provide it or not.

The breed is sensitive despite its exuberance. It takes correction to heart, works far better for encouragement than pressure, and hates being excluded from the family. It is generally excellent with children, though a young dog's sheer momentum can knock over a toddler, and it usually gets on well with other dogs and with cats it knows. It does not cope well with being left alone for long working days.

The Flat-Coat was bred to retrieve shot game from land and water, and it still does it. It has a fine nose, marks well, is persistent in cover and takes readily to water, and its willingness to work at a distance from the handler suits picking-up on driven shoots. A good number of modern Flat-Coats hold both show awards and working gundog qualifications, one of the few retriever breeds where that dual capability is still normal.

Away from shooting, the breed's nose and enthusiasm make it excellent at scentwork and tracking, and it competes in obedience, rally, agility and dock diving. Individuals work as search and rescue dogs and as detection dogs, and the breed's uncomplicated friendliness suits it to therapy visiting. Whatever the outlet, this is a dog that needs a job; it does not do well as a purely ornamental pet.