The St. John's breed is also at the base of th...

2011-11-30T14:57:28.625-05:00

The St. John's breed is also at the base of the wavy-coated retriever and the curly-coated retriever, which means that it's also the ancestor of the golden and flat-coated retrievers. The big Newfoundland is actually a giant retriever.

I'm a bit skeptical about Mowat on this score. Most authorities on the Beothuk claim that they had no dogs. My guess is the source he refers to is someone who saw some wandering Mi'kmaq on the Newfoundland Coast. The Mi'maq had black dogs with prick ears that would retrieve geese, ducks, and sea birds for them. They might be an ancestor of the St. John's water dog.

I know many strains of Mountain Cur that are said to be part "Indian dog." My guess is that if any of these dogs have that ancestry, it's pretty low, but it still could be there. I know that Chihuahuas and Xoloitzcuinltis (Mexican hairless dogs) are now almost entirely European dogs. The Xolo's hairless trait first appeared in Mexico 4,000 years ago, but because it's a dominant trait, it is very easily passed onto dog stock that may have very little indigenous ancestry.

Mowat later expounded on his theories about Newfoundland and created a pseudo history of Newfoundland in which it was settled by a pre-Indo-European people from Scotland's Northern Isles during the Middle Ages. He implies that the black water dogs are derived from their stock. His book is very much pseudo-history. His biggest problem is the assumption that the Picts were pre-Indo-European, but we now know they were probably Brythonic or Gallic Celts, definite Indo-Europeans.

The natives along the Peruvian coast had dogs that worked very much like St. John's water dogs. They would help their human companions set nets. This idea of using dogs for this purpose may have been widespread across the America. It certainly was in Europe.

Chesapeakes probably resemble the original St. John's water dogs in temperament more so than any of the other descendants. Col. Peter Hawker was one of the first people to mention this breed in England, which he used as a working retriever.

In addition to the dogs being described as great retrievers from the land and water, he describes them as being fierce fighters and great guard dogs. Labradors, goldens, and flat-coats are terrible guard dogs, because they have been selected to be social to lots of people and other dogs. You had to have that to be able to attend shoots that include many people and strange dogs. Curly-coated retrievers were the first of the British retrievers derived from the St. John's dogs, and their temperaments are very similar to Chesapeakes. Which is interesting. The curly-coated retriever may have never played a role in the development of the Chessie, because the breed has never been common in the United States. It was considered too aggressive to be a good trial dog in England, so it was largely ignored over here. But the fact that the two breeds have retained this protective and very independent streak, I think suggests that they are closer to the dogs Col. Hawker knew.

BTW, I am not saying that Chessies or curlies are super aggressive compared to all dogs. They just are much more protective and independent than the average Labrador, golden, or flat-coat.

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The St. John's breed is also at the base of th...