The golden retriever was developed as a strain of wavy-coated retriever in Inverness-shire Scotland at 1st Baron Tweedmouth's estate, Guisachan ("place of the firs" in Gaelic). Baron Tweedmouth, whose given name was Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks, was a Liberal Scottish MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed. He purchased the estate in Inverness-shire to improve domestic stock, including Aberdeen-Angus cattle and to produce a strain of retriever that had was biddable in temperament and yellow in color. His desire to produce a yellow retriever was a real change in convention among British sportsmen, who generally preferred to breed black retrievers. Black retrievers were believed to be hardier and more easily trained than the other colors. However, Marjoribanks had a plan to start a yellow line of retrievers that could work as well as the black ones.
Key in his breeding program was the decision to use a regional breed in his cross. The Tweed water spaniel was known in Scotland an excellent retriever. It was known for its excellent nose and ease of training. It was also known for its unusual coat and appearance. Unlike the Irish and English breeds of water spaniel, the Tweed water spaniel had a short, wavy coat. It had pendulous ears, but the ears were not as long as those of the other water spaniels. It also came in a wide range of colors, from a creamy yellow color to tawny red as well as liver brown. In the vernacular of the day, all of these dogs were called "liver," which makes things somewhat confusing. Today, "liver" is always a brown color with brown skin pigment on skin around the eyes, lips, and nose, usually accompanied with yellow or amber eyes. In Labradors, this color is called chocolate. In flat-coats, this color is called liver. In those days, all Tweed water spaniels were liver, even if they were yellow or tawny in coat color.
Baron Tweedmouth found a yellow wavy coated dog at Brighton that belonged to a cobbler. A cobbler had no real use for a retriever dog, because it was not common for people of more modest means to have access to estates to hunt game birds. The dog, named "Nous," Greek for "mind or intellect" used in English to denote "common sense," was the only yellow out of an all black litter of wavy-coated retrievers. Wavy-coats were an early breed of retriever derived from the St. John's water dog of Newfoundland, some variety of setter, and possibly collies and water spaniels. The breed is considered ancestral to both the golden retriever and the flat-coat, which shared a common stud book well into the twentieth century. It was also an outcross to the Labrador retriever, which was also derived from the St. John's water dog but selected for a shorter coat. Nous was the only yellow in a litter of black puppies, which explains why the cobbler got him. Most yellows were culled from retriever litter, because it was believed that yellows were more difficult to train than blacks. Most were killed, but a few were given to commoners.
Nous was bred to a Tweed water spaniel bitch named "Belle," and it is likely that she was light yellow in color. A photograph exists of Nous as an old dog. He very closely resembles a modern golden retriever with a dark, rather wavy coat. The offspring of Nous and Belle were the foundation stock of Tweedmouth's strain of wavy-coat. These dogs were bred with red setters, perhaps an Irish setters or a red Gordon setter, which still occur today, even if they are not according to breed standard. Other Tweed water spaniel was used, as were several black wavy-coated retrievers. The golden retriever technically did not exist as a breed, but as a variety and an important strain of wavy-coat.
It is from the wavy-coat that the modern flat-coated retriever was bred. Wavy-coated retrievers sometimes had pups that had straight, flat coats with feathering. These began to predominate in the later years of the nineteenth and the early-twentieth century. Eventually, all the waviness in the coat was bred out of the flat-coated retriever. While this was going on, the golden was still part of the bloodline. Goldens underwent these changes that the flat-coats saw, except that the waviness was never bred out to the extent that the flat-coat experienced it. The golden still occurs in a wavy-coated form. Some are really wavy. The golden was listed as a variety of flat-coat in 1908. In 1913, it was separated from the flat-coat in Britain. It was not until 1925 that it was separated in the United States.
The golden exact heritage is well-known now. In fact, it is unusual in that its exact heritage is listed in the kennel records at Guisachan. However, before these records were found, there was a fanciful story that the golden retriever actually descended from Russian circus dogs. These dogs were used in the Caucasus as livestock guardian dogs and were called "Russian trackers." At least one owner of Tweedmouth's strain of flat or wavy coat showed his dogs as Russian retrievers against other Tweedmouth's strain dogs registered as yellow flat-coats. However, when a breed historian, Elma Stonex, was given these records, it became obvious that there was nothing Russian about this Scottish strain of wavy-coated retriever.
Even though we know so much about the heritage of golden retrievers, it is amazing that such an unusual story would last so long. It is not unusual to hear this story about the supposed Russian origins However, when a breed historian, Elma Stonex, was given these records, it became obvious that there was nothing Russian about this Scottish strain of wavy-coated retrievers.
Even though we know so much about the heritage of golden retrievers, it is amazing that such an unusual story would last so long. It is not unusual to hear this story about supposed Russian origins even today. Stonex was also told that bloodhound was used in the make-up of golden retrievers, but there is no conformation of this in the kennel records. The bloodhound is often mentioned in official breed histories, but because the record does not show this, this author will leave it out, simply because it has not been confirmed in the Guisachan kennel records, which are so complete.
It should be noted here that Tweedmouth's strain of yellow wavy-coats is older than the oldest registered yellow Labrador retriever, Ben of Hyde, who was born in 1899. Nous was whelped in 1864 and died in 1872. It is also interesting to note that as these three retriever breeds were developed, all were interbred. At one time, all three breeds cold be born in the same litter and were registered based upon color and coat length.
The golden retriever's history is unusually well-documented for any breed of dog. Other breeds have secret histories, and many of their ancestries are based solely on speculation and lore. The Dalmatian supposedly comes from Croatia, even though there's little evidence to suggest this fact, and the dachshund is given a history that stretches back to Ancient Egypt! Because the golden was such a new breed and because Marjoribanks wanted detailed record of his breeding program, we know exactly where the golden comes from.