That the Curly Coated Retriever is an English native is a settled topic, but beyond that, there is still debate over its early origins. Was the breed developed from the sixteenth-century English Water Spaniel and retrieving setters, or was its primary progenitor the Irish Water Spaniel? Is it, as some claim, the product of several breeds such as the English Water Spaniel, the St. John’s Newfoundland, the Retrieving Setter, maybe the Tweed Water Spaniel or even the Poodle?  Or is the opposite true, and the Curly Coated Retriever is actually the progenitor of those other breeds?  It’s possible. The first references to a curly-coated water spaniel said to have had outstanding retrieving abilities were made in the mid-15th century.

Sadly, we may never know with certainty. The earliest hunters and breeders rarely documented their breeding practices, let alone maintain a studbook.  That said, there is strong historical evidence that the Curly was the first dog selectively bred to be used as a specialist retriever in England, if not the first to be officially recognized as a retriever.

In a historical context, what is a “specialist retriever?”  The answer may lie in the Curly-Coat’s reputation of being a “meat dog,” a dog that could put food on the table, and a canine generally owned by a gamekeeper (or even a poacher) instead of a peer of the realm in England. A natural for basic upland and waterfowl hunting, the early gamekeeper’s Curly was developed to find and retrieve birds that had been passed by other dogs following a driven hunt.

The breed has changed very little since it was first shown in England in 1860. It still approaches field work a bit differently than other breeds, in part because it doesn’t have a ‘wiper blade’ hunting pattern seen with field-bred springers.

The first Curly came to the US in 1907, but it took another 17 years for the AKC to recognize the breed in 1924. They became popular gundogs in the 1920s and 1930s, but by the 1950s, too many hunting kennels began breeding faster-maturing and flashier retrievers, and Curlies owners found they were unable to find breeders who could replace their old hunting companions.

Today’s Curly population worldwide is estimated to be around 5,000.

Image of Curly Coated Retriever from a 1937 book of sketches by Lucy Dawson. As of this post, a print is available here.