Origin and story
Golden retrievers find their origins in Scotland, near Glen Affric, in the mid-18th century. The father of this breed was lord Twithmount, who selected for hunting necessities a dog able to recover objects both on land and in water, because the ground was full of rivers and ponds and the preys shot by guns often fell in inaccessible places, moreover training setters had not given good results.
For many years, debates arose as to which breeds had effectively been crossed. In 1952, the finding of Lady Aberdeen’s diaries on the breedings done by Majoribanks (Lord Tweedmouth) between 1835 and 1890 cleared the air on the purchase of an entire troup of Russian sheep dogs by a visiting circus.
The original crossing was of a yellow-colored Labrador called Nous( or if you prefer a yellow dog with a wavy coat) with Belle, a female Tweed Water Spaniel (now extinct). Majoribanks had bought the only yellow retriever Nous in 1865 from a non-registered litter of black retrievers with wavy fur. In.1868, this crossing produced a litter of 4 puppies, that became the basis of a breeding program that included irish setters, a sand-colored bloodhound and a water dog of Saint Jon from Terranova. The bloodline is also akin.
Lord Twithmount’s dream was to have a more vigourous and powerful dog than the precedent retrievers, one easily trained, with a gentle disposition and likeable to children.
In the United kingdom the first golden retrievers were accepted for.the official registration only in 1903, under the English name Flat Coats or simply Golden. They were shown to the public for the first time in 1908, but their current name was decided only 3 years later, in 1911, with the variations: Golden Retriever and Yellow Retriever. During the first world war the diffusion was stopped. However excellent breeding farms emerged in north Europe that to.this day still retain similar standards to the original ones.
United states
In the united states the golden retriever were recognized only in 1925 by the American Kennel Club and the first associations dedicated to this breed started to spread from 1938 onwards.
Thanks to Lady Aberdeen’s daughter who initially spread the breed in canada, taking a golden retriever there in 1881, registering it under the name of “Lady” in 1894 at the American Kennel Club. These are the first registers of a Golden breed in North America. In 1927 the Golden Retriever Club of Ontario was founded.
but the breed was only definitively recognized in 1960.
Today, the Golden Retriever is a multi-purpose dog, employed with excellent results by law enforcement agencies for the detection of drugs and explosives, by the civil protection as a rescue unit in case of rubble and avalanches, as a guide dog for blind people, pet therapy and especially as a company dog, although it prefers a family rather than solitary persons. This domain is where this dog is obtaining a lot of success even though many countries prefer the similar Labrador. In Europe, and especially in Italy, the number of golden retrievers is significantly increasing.
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