This is Lassie, one of the last two St. John’s water dogs. He was living at Grand Bruit, Newfoundland, when Richard Wolters took this photo. At the time, he was 13 years old, and the only other St. John’s water dog running about was his brother, who was 15. In theory, they could have been bred to modern Labrador retrievers and then selected for St. John’s water dog traits, but in the end, the modern Labrador absorbed the original strain. With the end of the outport system in Newfoundland, the dog lots their native habitat and use. Today, there are dogs that have some of this ancestry in Newfoundland, but they are mostly modern Labrador in ancestry.
This photo appears in The Labrador Retriever: The History…the People…Revisited (1981).
My friend Joyce has a dog that looks just like this. His name is Truman, he weighs 140 lbs. He lives on Long Island.
Our old dog blacky was exactly like this and even had a slight brownish tinge to his neck fur. Mowats dogs were not the last of the breed. many people of canada had this breed of dog and it was well dispersed through out ontario also. We use to call them black labs. Our old dog died in the early eighties.The first purbred labs i seen as a kid in the 80s were smaller dogs by far and we never seen a chocolate lab tillin the 90s. i believe the labrador retriever is a new breed from scotland like they say and the st johns dog is its genetic ancester but the st johns dog just didnt die out in newfoundland but slowly through out canada. There is no record stating that the breed or old cur didnt leave the east coast. I know for a fact they were everywhere and did go extinct but how could they not? No one recognized them as a separae breed till it was too late. The new english and american labrador was recognized and faded the old cur out, no one new the difference. In most of canada and the east coast in those times , people were not interested in preserving anything let alone a common breed of dog.
I’ve revised some of my thinking.
A lot of what I came across in my research was very biased toward the modern Scottish Labrador retriever, but the St. John’s breed continues to exist, though in a modified form. There are still black Labrador-type dogs in Newfoundland and Eastern Canada that have some indigenous St. John’s ancestry, but they are mostly derived from the Scottish Labrador.
Here’s a good post you might like:
https://retrieverman.wordpress.com/2012/04/20/teasing-apart-the-history-of-the-newfoundland-dog-the-st-johns-water-dog-and-the-retrievers/
I have noticed that from time to time labrador breeders have pups in some litters that will have a white patch on the chest and feet. I think the st johns waterdog could be brought back. If they bred the labrador of scotish or american variety that posessed the tuxedo markings with mixtures of cheasepeakes and any posible dogs out there that have some indigenous genes.They ve rebuilt the irish wolfhound in the same manor, it could be possible as long as they breed the black variety more then the chocolate or yellow .
Interesting. We adopted a young stray female dog about ten years ago that we were told was a Lab/Collie cross. That mix never made a lot of sense to me, she doesn’t share many collie physical or personality traits.
After seeing Lassie’s photo I was taken aback, he is the spitting image of our Molly. ‘Tuxedo’ chest, small white patches on her feet, muzzle hair that’s turning increasingly white in old age, ears, brow, coat. Skinny (but muscular legs) and hindquarters are also very similar.
We live on a river in Winnipeg, and it is basically impossible to keep her out of the water, especially if there’s something to retrieve. She’s extremely intelligent, confident, and very physically strong.
I suppose we never know when these old genetic traits are going to strongly reveal themselves.
Does anyone have a picture of the “diving dogs of Grand Bruit?
I don’t.
Does anyone have a picture of the ” diving dogs of grand bruit?