Canis lupus hominis

(Source for image)

This dog is closer to our concept of a modern flat-coated retriever. Judging from the size of the hare, the dog is fairly close to the modern dogs of this breed in terms of size.

I am reminded of Rawdon Lee’s quote about the original debate on the size of the retriever. In the early days of wavy/flat-coated retrievers, many people wanted a very large dog, but they later changed their minds:

The first introduction of the flat-coated retriever to the show bench was at Cremorne in 1873, but in the first volume of the Kennel Club Stud Book, printed in 1874, the two varieties are classed together. He was a much bigger and coarser dog than he is now. Some of the early specimens were pure and simple little Newfoundlands, and it has taken a few years’ careful work to bring the wavy retriever to what it is at the present time. Not too big but just big enough. Our grandfathers said, “Oh! we want a big retriever, a strong ‘un; one that can jump a gate with an 8lb. hare in its mouth, and gallop with one at full speed.” This is not so now. A comparatively small dog is well able to carry a hare, and shooting is so precise that puss does not run as far as she did, when properly hit. Dogs are not made to assist bad shooters to fill a bag; and a man who cannot, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, stop a hare before she has run seventy yards, ought not to fire at another. And you do not require to have a special dog for that one chance in a hundred (pg. 189).

The relatively smaller retriever could handle the hare nicely. It was also more agile, and because we now know that smaller dogs can get rid of heat more efficiently than larger ones, it would better able to run long and hard on land for a longer period of time without overheating.

One may not think that would be a problem with the British marine climate, but anyone who has ever owned a relatively large dog that has some coat length knows that it doesn’t have to be very warm for a dog to have issues cooling itself. That’s also why golden retrievers seem to celebrate every cold day and every snowfall.

It’s just more comfortable for them.

With retrievers, bigger is not always better.