History
Originating in the mid-19th century in England, the Flat-Coated Retriever gained popularity as a gamekeeper’s dog. Part of its ancestry is thought to have come from stock imported from North America from the now extinct St. John's Water Dog, however this is unverifiable. It is thought that Canadian seafarers brought Newfoundlands to British ports and that they factored into the ancestry of the Flat-coat. It is thought that Collie-type dogs were added to increase the breed's trainability along with the Newfoundland for strength and Setter blood for enhanced scenting ability. The first examples of the breed were introduced around 1860, but the final type was only established twenty years later.
After its introduction into the U.S., the Flat-coat began to quickly gain in popularity as a gundog, and from 1873 when the breed became a "stable type" according to the American Kennel Club until 1915 when it was officially recognised as a breed, the number of Flat-coats grew rapidly. However, soon after, the popularity of the Flat-coat began to decrease, eclipsed by the Golden Retriever, which was actually bred in part from the Flat-coat, along with other breeds. By the end of World War II, there were so few Flat-coats that the breed's survival was uncertain. However, beginning in the 1960s, careful breeding brought the population back and the breed gained in popularity again, for both the sport of conformation showing, and as a companion pet. Today, the Flat-coat enjoys a modest popularity and is moving ahead as a breed through attentive breeding for the conformation, health, multi-purpose talent and exceptional temperament that are its hallmarks. It has yet to return in substantial numbers to field competition.
In 2011, Sh Ch. Vbos The Kentuckian (aka Jet), a 9.5 year old Flat-coat from South Queensferry, near Edinburgh, Scotland, won Best in Show at Crufts. Almanza Far and Flyg (a.k.a. Simon), from Oslo, Norway, won the Gundog Group at Crufts in 2007. Before that in 2003 a Swedish Flat-coat "Inkwells Named Shadow" had also won the Gundog Group. The last UK Flatcoat to win the Gundog Group at Crufts was "Sh Ch Gayplume Dream-maker" in 2002. The only other Flatcoat to win Best in Show at Crufts was Ch. Shargleam Blackcap in 1980. These wins have contributed to the breed's popularity in Europe and the United Kingdom.
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