Founding Fathers (labrador): An Interesting History:

[sandgrubber]

I came across an interesting bio-pic of Dual CH Banchory Bolo, 1915-1927, one of the most famous Labradors of yore. Found it interesting that a dog so revered in field lines could have such a checkered history . . . and was almost PTS (in those days they said 'destroyed' ) a couple times for behaving badly.

http://www.lorkenfarms.com/banchory_bolo.htm

clipping a few bits from the article . . .

Dual FC-CH Banchory Bolo was the first dog to earn a dual championship by winning both the bench Championship CH as well as becoming a Field Trial Champion in England. Each of his litters produced either a Field Champion or a Show Champion. . . .

Bolo came to Lady Howe in 1918, when he was a bit more than two years old. Heartbroken about the loss of her first Labrador, Scandal of Glynn, she had decided to find the only male pup that Scandal had sired. When finally found, he'd been through several trainers and all had given up on him. (Lady Howe said that in human terms "he had a really bad police record.") She was offered the dog for nothing with the proviso that if she did not want him later on, he should be destroyed. . . .

mishaps follow . . . Bolo is little used at stud . . . but his progeny take all sorts of honors.

[shortstep]

I came across an interesting bio-pic of Dual CH Banchory Bolo, 1915-1927, one of the most famous Labradors of yore.

So is this dog in all the pedigrees of todays labs?

[sandgrubber]

No. There is no single founding Lab. As best as people can figure out there were one to two hundred lesser St John's dogs imported from Canada to England ~ 1850 to 1900. There were many Labrador lines by 1915, some of them much more important than others. Not all were pure bred from the original St Johns dog stock . . . it's likely that many, or even most, were cross breeds who were back crossed. I guess Bolo would be considered the first peripotent sire, and he would probably show up on the pedigrees of many leading labs more than one time . . . if you took the pedigree back 20 generations or so. He carried chocolate, and some think he is ancestral to all chocolate Labs.

I came across an interesting bio-pic of Dual CH Banchory Bolo, 1915-1927, one of the most famous Labradors of yore.

So is this dog in all the pedigrees of todays labs?

[Fatsofatsoman]

random question - what's the best way to trace back the generations of a lab? I wouldn't mind seeing the history of my boy - obviously have about 3 or 4 back that are supplied by the breeder.

Is there a website that documents all in a database?

[dancinbcs]

random question - what's the best way to trace back the generations of a lab? I wouldn't mind seeing the history of my boy - obviously have about 3 or 4 back that are supplied by the breeder.

Is there a website that documents all in a database?

Try this one.

http://www.worldpedigrees.com/

[JackieW]

These names bring back memories. Mum had Countess Howe's book for years but lost it moving house 20+ years ago. It probably ended up at Lifeline... She was always cranky that it'd gone.

Dual FC-CH Banchory Bolo was the first dog to earn a dual championship by winning both the bench Championship CH as well as becoming a Field Trial Champion in England. Each of his litters produced either a Field Champion or a Show Champion. . . .

Bolo came to Lady Howe in 1918, when he was a bit more than two years old. Heartbroken about the loss of her first Labrador, Scandal of Glynn, she had decided to find the only male pup that Scandal had sired. When finally found, he'd been through several trainers and all had given up on him. (Lady Howe said that in human terms "he had a really bad police record.") She was offered the dog for nothing with the proviso that if she did not want him later on, he should be destroyed. . . .