This was a top American show golden in the late 40’s.
He lived only three years, but in those three years, he wound up siring many well-known dogs.
His sire was Dual Ch. Stilrovin Rip’s Pride, the first American Dual Ch. golden retriever.
I particularly like this type of golden retriever.
There was no difference between show and performance lines in those days.
All the dogs could perform and be shown, because the only dogs around were used for performance, whether they were shown or not.
Field trials and dog shows weren’t as competitive, for there were fewer dogs and fewer entries in all of these events.
The trial hadn’t become so specialized that it requires much more training to compete at the highest levels, and with rarer breeds, which goldens were at the time, dog shows didn’t have as many entries. One could more easily finish a championship in those days.
So one could have dual use dogs.
It’s now much tougher.
Show people have often lost a sense of what a golden retriever ought to be.
And working retriever people aren’t necessarily producing a dog that does well in the ring.
This Balkanizes the breed’s gene pool, which is still fairly diverse, but in certain lines, there are real problems with genetic diversity as the result of the popular sire effect.
“Show people have often lost a sense of what a golden retriever ought to be.” — I think that’s true of every breed the AKC gets its hands on.
I have to laugh when I hear the commentators for some of the televised dog shows, going on and on about why this breed or that has this or that feature because they were bred to (fill in the blank). Most of those dogs are far removed from their breed’s original conformation & are bred for one thing: to walk or run around a ring.
The goldie’s not so golden anymore.
It’s sad that reds are gone and creams are in. It’s sad that there are more and more Barbie-dogs, and fewer that are worth a hoot in the field. But the thing that most pisses me off about GR breeding is emergence of aggressive strains. In my boarding kennel days, we looked after a few GR’s with unstable temperament, in some cases dog aggressive, in others, not reliable with people. Totally unacceptable in a gun dog. Should be culled from the breeding pool faster than severe HD. Even if the dog’s useless as a hunting dog, it should be a good companion. Not sure that’s popular sire or even show breeding. May just be indiscriminate breeding to produce cute puppies with no attention to temperament. (Google aggression, golden retriever for lots of stories).
There are still some good ones. Djanick Michaud has some: http://redgolden.com/
I’ve written about aggression in some strains. It’s very often possessiveness.
I remember seeing one of this dog’s offspring at the GRCA National Specialty in 1963: Ch Lorelei’s Marshgrass Rebel was nearly 16, and still in good shape. One of Rebel’s sons, Lorelei’s Golden Robber, completed his championship title at something like 9 years of age. Rip’s early death was due to an accident, not lack of longevity. .
What a beautiful photo! …that’s what I’m talking about!!
http://www.k9data.com/pedigree.asp?ID=1186
grandson of Ch. Lorelei’s Golden Rip… Note: he has legs!!
http://www.k9data.com/pedigree.asp?ID=19435
great grandson has legs, no “potato chip” ear here… These dogs had ears! No big fat teddy bear head and no heavy bones!
http://www.k9data.com/pedigree.asp?ID=455
offspring in the 1960’s… still has legs, still has a build that looks like the dog can move, still has ears and no blocky head and no heavy bones!
http://www.k9data.com/pedigree.asp?ID=1955
Hard to believe that this dog is related to Ch. Lorelei’s Golden Rip… Westminster JAM winner (of course many dogs were bred in to produce this well furred big boy)
It’s amazing what selective breeding can do to change dog phenotype.
In this breed, it’s not as extreme as it has been in bulldogs.
I’ll take the 60’s and older versions, please…
it’s just as hard in most of the “coated” breeds in herding. And unfortunately, unlike hunting, most of those who have herding breeds are dealing with decades of nonselection for the original function. What has saved many of the dogs is that there has been a smattering of those who were still selecting using obedience and other perfomance criteria. dogs like “Dark Angel of Ebon Tide” http://pawvillage.com/pedigree/dynprofile.asp?ID=EBGU4YT055 — who preserved characteristics I found critical in my attempts at doing herding with Belgians. Sadly, so many don’t find it important to preserve working characteristics in a breed, or figure that if “someone else” does it, they don’t need to.