by Scottie Westfall

Created on: July 16, 2008

Easily trained and possessed of an amicable disposition, Newfoundland makes a good family pet for those who can handle a large that sheds copious amounts of hair, eats plenty of food, slobbers a bit, and loves getting wet and dirty. The breed's name is pronounced New-fun-land, with the last syllable pronounce with a "hard a." It was among the first working breeds of dog to be developed as a family pet, reaching the halcyon days of its popularity in the early to mid-nineteenth century in both Europe and North America. Today, the breed's popularity has waned, but to those who have devoted themselves to the breed, it is truly a treasure.

Appearance

Today's Newfoundland is a large dog that superficially resembles a St. Bernard that is solid black, brown, gray, or black and white in color. However, its origin is quite different from the St. Bernard. The Newfoundland is actually a water dog from the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It was used to haul nets and heavy loads for the early settlers of that province who lived on the island of Newfoundland. There is some debate as to what this breed looked like in its original form. The original Newfs were sometimes called St. John's Water Dogs. This name was also used to describe the dogs that played a role in the development of all of the retriever breeds as well. Many authorities think that there were two types of St. John's Water Dogs/Newfoundlands: a greater and a lesser. The greater had more of a mastiff ancestry and became the modern Newfoundland dog. The lesser was used in the development of the retriever breeds.

A Popular Family Pet in the Nineteenth Century

Whatever their original appearance, the Newfoundlands that existed in much of the nineteenth century were large dogs. Many were black and white in color, and this variety was immortalized in the paintings of Sir Edwin Landseer. It is because of his love of this color, that black and white Newfs are called Landseers. These dogs have also been immortalized in literature, with J. M. Barrie including a Newfoundland dog named "Nana" as the baby sitter for the Darling children in Peter Pan. This dog was based on Barrie's own Newf. Lord Byron also was smitten with the Newfoundland, and he wrote perhaps the most famous epitaph ever written for a dog when his dog, Boatswain, died in a fit of rabies:

When some proud son of man returns to earth,
Unknown to glory, but upheld by birth,
The sculptor's art exhausts the pomp of woe
And storied urns record who rest

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