St. John's Water Dog

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St. John's Water Dog

Nell, a St. John's Water Dog circa 1856.

Country of origin

Traits

Classification & standards
This breed of dog is extinct

The St. John's Water Dog, also called the St. John’s Dog, was a dog breed from Newfoundland. Little is known of the breeds that went into its creation.

This breed is the ancestor of the modern Retrievers; including the Flat Coated Retriever, Golden Retriever, Labrador Retriever, and the Newfoundland. The St. John’s Dog evolved into the large and gentle Newfoundland dog, likely as a result of breeding with mastiffs brought to the island by the generations of Portuguese fishermen who had been fishing offshore since the 1400s.

During the 19th and early 20th century, St. John's Dogs were exported from Newfoundland to England. These dogs were cross-bred with other breeds to create the Retrievers.

Modern-day Lab mixes such as this one from Atlantic Canada, may show their genetic ancestry through the manifestation of the tuxedo coat pattern of the St. John's Dog.

[edit] Appearance

St. John's Dogs were medium sized, strong, and stocky, more closely resembling modern English labs than American style. They had characteristic white patches on the chest, chin, feet, and muzzle. This coloration occasionally manifests in modern labs as a small white chest patch, or a few stray white hairs on the feet. The classic tuxedo markings of the St. John's Dog commonly manifest in lab mixes.

[edit] Extinction

The St. John's dog in its original form was made extinct in its homeland by a combination of two factors. In an attempt to encourage sheep raising, heavy restrictions and taxes were placed on dog ownership during the 1800s. Also their main overseas destination, the UK, imposed rigorous long-term quarantine on all imported animals, especially dogs (1885) as part of the eradication of rabies. However, in both Newfoundland and the Maritime provinces, there are still large black mixed-breed dogs with many characteristics of the original St. John's dog.

The 6th Duke of Buccleuch reportedly managed to import a few St. John's dogs between 1933-1934 and continued to retain as pure a version of the breed as possible (as the Dukes do to this day^[1]), but the breed continued to dwindle. The last two Canadian St. John's dogs were photographed in old age around 1981, having survived in a "very remote area",^[2] but both were male, bringing the breed to an end.

Source and photographs: Labrador Origins and Timeline - Lorken Farms Labradors website.

[edit] References

^ Buccleuch Estates website - "In fact, the Buccleuch Kennel is almost unique in as much as the original pure strain has thus far been strictly maintained since the breed reached these shores in the 1830s. All Buccleuch Labradors can be traced back to those first imported dogs."
^ Photos here, and are also published in Richard Wolters' book "The Labrador Retriever" according to that site.

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Extant	Canadian Eskimo Dog · Labrador Retriever · Landseer · Newfoundland · Nova Scotia Duck-Tolling Retriever · Seppala Siberian Sleddog · Valley Bulldog

Extinct	Tahltan Bear Dog · St. John's Water Dog