Some modern Newfoundlands have retrieving instinct and can be taught to do retrieving from water:
It would not take much training to get this dog to retrieve to hand.
This breed and the related St. John’s water dog were used in the foundation of the modern retrievers, although one must remember that they were typically using Greater Newfoundlands that were smaller than average as retrievers.
Many years ago, I helped a guy to train his NewFoundland 1 y.o. male to retrieve for his occasional duck hunting. THe dog was willing to pick up almost anything in his mouth and had a great desire to please. It took a little over a year to give to that dog good basis for retrieve work. Since then, he retrieved many duck and made a difference for that guy by retrieving wounded ducks that would have been waisted otherwise is there were no dog to pick them up !
There are many retrieving Newfoundlands in the history books. They now do water trials where they do something like retriever work, except they do one behavior were they carry a floating buoy to a person “drowning.”
A Newfoundland is a “retriever that became a mastiff.”
A Newfoundland is a “retriever that became a mastiff.”
Like goldens becoming Pyrenees ? (ahahah !)
If you look at where Newfoundlands are on that dog clade map, they are with the retrievers, not the English mastiff.
Yep. It’s pretty similar to goldens becoming Great Pyrenees.