The dog in the foreground is Ft. Ch. Holway Dollar. They are standing “at the line” in a British field trial, which requires dogs to be very well-behaved and patient while waiting to be sent for a retrieve.
She is handled by June Atkinson, her breeder, and the woman who founded the Holway line of working-type golden retriever. Her line is perhaps the most influential in working type goldens in the world. It is very hard to find a field-type golden retriever in the US or Canada that doesn’t trace to Holway Barty.
I found a very good site about June Atkinson and the Holways at this link.
If one looks at the photos on that site of the various Holway dogs living today, one can see they strongly resemble the field line dogs we have always had in he United States and Canada. Part of this is because of Holway Barty, but also because the field line dogs tend to evolve a particular conformation that is a bit distinct from the dogs that tend to do well in conformation shows. It is not that show dogs cannot do field work or regular hunting work. But because the economics and the intense competition in both areas, the lines have had to specialize. Specialization and divergence in type and behavior are very bad things to happen within a closed registry breed, for these issues further Balkanize the gene pool, creating something like two separate breeds within a single registry.
It’s not particularly good thing, and if there were some way to stop it, I’d be very happy. I don’t think a golden retriever club anywhere likes that this divergence has happened. Knowledgeable people tried to stop it when the split started to become obvious, but it could not be stopped.
Unless the culture and economics of field trialling and dog showing change, I don’t see this divergence being reversed.
Doing dual purpose is very tough in this breed, especially when it must contend with very specialized trial lines of Labrador.
One thing about the Holway dogs: They were and are still noted for their very strong noses, which is a great asset in the European retriever culture. It is important in the American retriever culture, but marking is more important than nose here.
Robert Atkinson, June’s son, is still trialling the Holway dogs in the UK. He won the 1982 International Gun Dog League’s Retriever Championship, which his mother also won in 1954. Goldens have not won this trial very often. I believe the last one to do so was in 2006.
This is the same a championship that Don of Gerwn, a liver flat-coated retriever whose sire was a “golden retriever” from the Guisachan kennels, won in 1904.
June Atkinson’s line continues to be influential with working-type goldens throughout the world. Dogs from this line have always been in demand, which feeds some of the popular sire problems in working goldens. So it is very important for the continued welfare of the breed to see new lines developing from relatively unrelated stock.
We should certainly celebrate June and Robert Atkinson’s achievements, but we need to be careful about the long-term viability of the working-type golden.
I’m sure that the Atkinsons would not like to see this breed disappear as working gun dog, which was the main focus of their breeding program.
We have real issues with genetic diversity in the working type golden retriever. This problem is mostly the result of the popular sire effect. Just a few stud dogs have been very influential in producing puppies per generation, and part of this problem, at least in American goldens, can be traced to Holway Barty through his grandson, AFC Yankee’s Smoke’n Red Devil. Nearly half of all MH and All-Age goldens that have been born since 1980 descend from one breeding between that Barty grandson and FC Windbreakers Razzmatazz.
This type of breeding might be good for producing good working retrievers, but it is not so good from a population genetics standpoint.
That’s why breeding between the “show” and “performance” types is something that should be encouraged every now and again.
At the very least, it keeps the gene pools a bit more diverse.
I think the popular sire effect is not the field handler and field breeders fault, rather what happened after the flash and sparkle people started to modify that misguided statement, otherwise known as, “the Standard”.
Once emphasis shifted to size and fluffy coat, working ability and structure were no longer were selling points for breeders selling to the public. Blockhead is a selling point for many advertising in the classified ads of the “doggie” mags and the internet. Why would you use another name for idiot to sell your dog?
I don’t think it’s really anyone’s fault. I don’t think dog breeders, in general, had a very good understanding of population genetics. I don’t think many of them have that understanding now, and it’s now much harder, due to things like economies of scale and how expensive it is to care for, campaign, and purchase dogs, for one or two people to make changes.
I think they were all operating with good intentions but simply didn’t know the long-term consequences of what they were doing.
Now as for “blocky head,” and the big splits in the breed. I think part of the problem is a failure to understand the golden has a British dog. If you look at what the Atkinsons selected for and what Robert Milner selects for, you can see that they both select for something a bit different than the typical working or trial retriever that is normally used in this country.
And because the golden is not understood to be a British dog, it is deemed inferior to our specialized Labradors. However, it’s not inferior. It’s just different. Some people might actually like a dog that has those traits, but the culture is very resistant to them. Nobody wants a swamp collie. They want a swamp hound.
So with that resistance to the working golden within a broad sector of retrieverdom in North America, people began to offer them for something that they are actually well-suited for. They are good family dogs. I’ve known several that prefer children to adults, including the one in the banner of this blog.
So then you wind up with people wanting a particularly cute dog, with the round English eyes, the very long coat, and if it’s the color of a polar bear– even better.
It’s the neotenization of the golden, if you really look at the field dogs and compare them to the typical English show dog. English dog has been neotenized. Many of the field dogs look a bit like dingoes with floppy ears. (An exaggeration but one I make just to make a point.)
You can see the same differences in Labs of the various types, and you can also see it Newfoundlands and St. Bernards. Barry, the famous rescuing St. Bernard, weighed only about 90 pounds and lived to be 14 years old– at the beginning of the nineteenth century! He looked nothing like the St. Bernard of today. He was more like a brown and white Appenzeller. He was stuffed and put on display at the Natural History Museum at Bern, but in 1923, they were forced to remount the specimen. And when they did, they made him look more like a St. Bernard as we know it today.
I’ve already covered Newfoundlands on this blog.
But Saints and Newfoundlands were the golden retrievers of their day. Great family dogs and great working dogs. It was only when people started to get away from breeding the animals as animals that things went sideways very quickly.
I see this happening now in both goldens and Labs, but they still are relatively common as working dogs– at many different things besides retrieving. So they may not follow those breeds after all.
Yes, Don of Gerwn won the IGL trial in 1904, but that was not a championship stake until 1909– hence, Don of Gerwn is not a field trial champion.
The Atkinsons are marvellous trainers, breeders, handlers and have been responsible for many wonderful Goldens throughout the world. And not just in field trial achievements.
Well I just went to a breeding seminar here in New England last weekend. They stressed the importance of outcross breedings. The confirmation people of New England seem to be very open to the idea of breeding a Barty line male back into the gene pool. Of vourse my male has a 15% breeding coefficient. Kodi is quite handsome Red Curly Coating Male of 55 lbs. Speed and intelligence are his foretay. He is also a great therapy dog!!
Every generation in Kodi’s lines is MH or FC. I have to fulfill this by making sure my male has his MH and many other titles. These field golden are the best thing next to sliced bread and butter. They are just “awesome”. No health defects. Please start breeding the working man’s best friend back into the breed!!
great read yet again, thanks