From Havshexan (a very good channel).
These dogs are an Irish red and white setter, which is the original Irish setter that descends from the ancient red and white spaniels that were kept by the Celts in Gaul, and the lagotto Romagnolo, an Italian dog derived from the ancient European water dogs of the poodle type. This breed is better-known as a truffle hunter.
This particular dog really strongly resembles the rough water dogs of England, which George Stubbs painted as water spaniels.
Dogs of both types would contribute genes to the dogs that became the water spaniels and retrievers. Eventually, the water spaniels were absorbed into retrievers, except for the Irish water spaniel known around the River Shannon. That breed still exists as the Irish water spaniel. (The American water spaniel did not get absorbed either, but it was largely replaced by the retrievers after the Second World War.)
So these two dogs are cousins to the retrievers, even though they have rather different behavior from them. The setter can get birdy, while the water dog will enter water to retrieve with great enthusiasm. The setter gave some retrievers a tendency to point birds, which was further augmented in the Labrador through cross-breeding with pointers. The water dog gave the curlies their unique coats, brought in a bit of a tighter wave in the wavy-coats, and still pops up in some flat-coats, correctly appears in about half of the golden retrievers, and still appears on Labradors, especially when they are of an advanced age.
