If you’re aren’t familiar with the writer named, “Stonehenge,” you’re not a dog nerd yet, (but there’s still hope).

His real name was John Henry Walsh, and he was a 19th century sports writer born in London who wrote under the pseudonym, “Stonehenge.” He was deeply involved with early dog shows, field trials, was on the committee of the Kennel Club (the British AKC). He was – and is – famous for writing about all things dog.

In 1887, he wrote about “Wavy Coated Retrievers,” a term that was in common use until the end of the 19th century. In time, it was replaced with the “Flat Coated Retriever,”  and experts speculate that it was through the efforts of S.E. Shirley, founder of England’s Kennel Club and its president for 25 years, that the Wavy-Coated Retriever morphed into the Flat-Coated Retriever. Shirley’s father had both Curly and Wavy Coated Retrievers in his kennels, so he had a lot with which to work. Did Shirley change the head of the Wavy-Coats to what we now accept as a Flat-Coat’s head? We rely on breed experts to weigh on on that, but he is credited with the development of the modern day Flat Coated Retriever. It was also Shirley’s idea, some sources suggest, to use Labrador Retrievers to broaden the Flat Coat’s gene pool and increase its numbers to a safer level after the war had so depleted the breed.

What is reported, at least by Richard A. Wolters, is that the Wavy-Coated Retriever replaced the Curly Coated Retriever in popularity as evidenced by a letter to the editor in an 1880 issue of Kennel Gazette. The writer opined that of the two breeds, he found “the Wavy Retriever to be the better tempered of the two.” There is little to explain why the popularity of one of the most fashionable retrievers in the late 1800s, the Curly Coated Retriever, evaporated. Thank goodness, this wonderful breed did survive, as did the modern Flat Coat. The same can’t be said of the original Wavy-Coated Retriever.

 Flat Coated Retriever by Nicole Zeug is available as a print, poster, and many other formats here