What we do know is that British fishermen brought back some of these black dogs, landing at Poole harbour, on the south coast of Britain, in the early 1800’s. It was from there that the Earl of Malmesbury,
and then a small number of Scottish and northern landowners saw these dogs and bought a number of them.
They realised that here was a dog who was capable in retrieving shot and wounded ‘game’, both on land and from water. From working in the south, retrieving duck and geese from water and marshland, the breed then progressed to more land-work, now working on ‘game’ birds, and ground game.
For this a slightly lighter built dog was preferred. A dog without an excess of bone, a decent length of leg.
It is thought that the 2nd Earl of Malmesbury was the first to see the true potential in them.
He called them the ‘Little Newfoundlanders’, but it was the 3rd Earl of Malmesbury who re-named them ‘Labradors’.
From these first dogs the breed began as we know it.
Some early dogs went to the Duke of Buccleuch, in Scotland, whose family have carried the line on through many generations, right up to the present day.
In 1867 a photograph was taken of the Earl of Howe’s ‘Nell’ (aged about 11 years), who apart from white feet appears to be a very typical Labrador.
Other well known breeders at the time were The Hon. Aurthur Holland-Hibbert, later 3rd Viscount Knutsford (Munden), and of course the famous, Lorna, Countess Howe (Banchory).