Where Did The Flatcoats Go?

Jeremy Hunt finds out why the flat coat, at one time Britain’s most popular gundog, is now a very rare sight in the shooting field

- Jeremy Hunt

Every once in a while, often at a country house owned by people who don’t much like throwing things away, one comes across old copies of Shooting Times. It is always reassuring to note the extent to which our sport is still the same but, of course, things do change with time.

One very striking difference is that in copies from the 1930s and 1940s, almost every picture of a day’s shooting has a flat coat in it. Nowadays, however, seeing one on a peg or in a picking-up team would certainly make you look twice.

The flatcoated retriever emerged in the mid-19th century from crosses between Labradors and setters — probably English and Gordon — with the aim of combining the best of these breeds. The breed is now overseen by the Flatcoated Retriever Society which has an active working section, as do the other regional breed clubs that encourage members to maintain an interest in working abilities.

Champion status

As I type, I can see a book on my shelves that I bought almost 40 years ago. It includes a photograph of Lady Amelia Jessel with FTCh Werrion Redwing of Collyers, a dog that is one of only seven flat-coated retrievers to have achieved field trial champion status. Since Jessel’s day, the breed has slipped into obscurity and is now very much second fiddle to the Labrador.

Last year the Kennel Club registered roughly 1,100 flatcoats compared with more than 35,000 Labradors.

Talking to those who have trained flatcoats is most revealing when it comes to working out why so few are seen. The breed is not a quick fix when it comes to training and in a world where ticking boxes in record time is the norm, no matter what you are trying to achieve, the flatcoat does need more time and its trainer needs plenty of patience.