The Golden Retriever has its roots in Scotland. In the mid-18th century, bird hunting was very popular among the rich, and a dog that could recover from water and land was needed, because the Scottish terrain is covered by lakes and rivers. The first retrievers crossed with the best water dogs, giving rise to the dog breed that is known as golden retriever.4 The dog was first bred in Scotland at Guisachan near Glen Affric, on the property of Sir Dudley Marjoribanks - later Baron of Tweedmouth - of the Scottish Highlands.
Improvements in firearms, during the 1800s, resulted in a greater number of birds being knocked down during hunting at great distances, and in an increasingly difficult terrain, so that more and more birds or prey They were lost in the field. This generated the need for a specialist collector dog, because the Setter, and other pointer breeds, were ineffective during the training for the recovery of the prey. Thus, work began on the breeding of a dog that played this much-needed role.5
The original cross was between a yellow retriever, Nous, and a Tweed Water Spaniel, Belle.6 The tweed water spaniel breed is extinct, but back then it was common in border areas. In 1868, this cross produced a litter that included four puppies, which became the basis of a breeding program that included the Irish setter, the sand-colored bloodhound, the San Juan or Newfoundland dog, and two Retriever with curly fur of black color. The bloodlines were endogamous and also selected accurately by Marjoribanks attached to his ideal of developing the best hunting dog. His vision included a dog stronger and more powerful than previous retrievers, one that would be gentle and trainable. Russian shepherd dogs are not mentioned in these registers, nor any other breed of working dogs. The descent of the Golden is all hunting dogs, in line with the objectives of Marjoribanks. The Golden Retriever is active and powerful and has a "soft mouth" to retrieve the prey for the duration of the hunt.7
For many years, there was a controversy over which races were originally used to originate the Golden. In 1952, the publication of Marjoribanks breeding records - from 1835 to 1890 - dispelled the relative myth that Tweedmouth had taken its first yellow dogs from the purchase of a group of shepherd dogs in a Russian circus. 8 Records indicated that Tweedmouth acquired its first yellow retriever in Brighton, in 1865, that the dog was named Nous and that it came from a litter where the rest of the animals were retriever completely black with curly fur (Curly-Coated Retriever ).