The Functional Curly-Coated Retriever

Figure 1

By Kathy Kail, Charter Member of The Curly-Coated Retriever Club of America

As a breed we are still trying to keep dual purpose, there are many factors about Curlies that a judge can’t see or feel but functionally, those things are far more important than what is visible in the show ring. These are characteristics like the drive to find birds and retrieve, trainability, courage and great noses. But there are qualities that are important in a working retriever’s job that a judge can, and should, assess in the ring.

Figure 2

The two most important of those qualities are soundness and balance. The goal is to have a retriever that can work in the field well into middle age, if not old age, and an unbalanced and/or unsound cannot do that. Since soundness is something that any licensed judge should be able to pick out, I’ll just say that it is extremely important and should be considered over the details of type. Balance can be a bit more difficult, due to the way our standard is written calling for a dog with “body proportions that are slightly off square” and going on to state that “the dog is slightly longer from prosternum to buttocks as he is from withers to ground”.

I believe that this is a mistake and that the body should be measured from the withers to the hip bones, because there are many ways that a dog will look long bodied when it isn’t, due to placement of shoulders, width of thigh, the way it is stacked or even tall grass! For example, the dog in figure 1 appears to be very long bodied, yet when a line is drawn from approximately the prosternum to the buttocks, and another line from the withers to approximately the ground, as in figure 2, the dog is merely a little long in body.

If the upper arm was better angulated, setting his front legs under his withers, his body would not look overly long. Adding in the effect of grass, and the dog appears to have less leg than he does, making his body look even longer.

Figure 3

Figures 3 & 4 are of a bitch that is square, which is incorrect; shorter backed dogs may be faster but will lack endurance and will not swim as well as the somewhat longer bodied dog. No retriever should look like a pointing breed with regards to body proportions – a Curly must not be “with a short back, but standing over plenty of ground”.  (German Shorthaired Pointer standard).  It is always better to have a dog that is a little longer in body than one who is square, so that the dog can easily do its work retrieving waterfowl, as well as serve as an upland hunter.

Figure 4

Another feature of balance is leg length as compared to depth of body. In a balanced Curly these will be equal; the distance from the withers to the elbow should be the same as from the elbow to the ground. This is a deep chested breed with a moderate tuck up, and the length of leg should balance that depth of body. Figure 5 is of a dog that lacks depth of chest, leaving him out of balance. This sort of dog will lack endurance in the field.

Size is another area where balance needs to be considered first. Curlies are the tallest of the retriever breeds, but this doesn’t translate into a dog that towers over all other retrievers. The top end of size in the standard is 27″ for males, and though it also states that “a clearly superior Curly falling outside of this range should not be penalized because of size”, it would be almost impossible for a dog bigger than the top end of the size range to be superior to a smaller dog, since the more size a dog has, the more energy it has to expend to do the same work as a smaller dog. Bigger is definitely not better when it comes to working retrievers!

Figure 5

Judges should consider soundness and balance first when considering an entry. If a dog obviously looks like a Curly, and it would be very rare to see one in the ring that doesn’t, then it has enough type. The first cut should be made on soundness and balance and after that details of type should be considered. Even then, the judge must keep in mind why the standard calls for a certain type, which is to help the dog do its job as both an upland hunter and a waterfowl retriever. Beginning with the head the longer than wide wedge should not be exaggerated into an extremely long head as there needs to be some width in the muzzle so the jaws don’t turn into scissors when carrying a bird. Also, the skull should be in balance with the muzzle and have decent width, to help in carrying large birds, to provide plenty of surface for muscle attachment and room for brains.

Moving to the topline, it should be level and strong with only a slight slope to the tail set. How the tail is carried is immaterial to a working dog. The underline should rise gradually from the chest which reaches the elbow, to a moderate tuck up, never wasp-waisted.

Finally, the coat: the ideal coat will have tiny curls, but for a working retriever it is far more important that the coat have the correct crisp texture, that it be dense and somewhat oily and that the coat be complete. Patterning is a serious fault in a working dog in that it exposes the dog’s skin to damage and cold. No Curly with a patch (or patches) in its coat that are bare to the skin should be considered for an award, except in such obvious wear areas as the elbows or hocks. The most common areas for patterning will be on the front of the throat or on the tail, as are normal for Irish Water Spaniels, plus down the back of the thighs or under the ears and down the neck.

The amount of coat a dog will have depends on where it lives and of course if it has just gotten through shedding. Curlies have no undercoat, so when they shed there is a major difference in the amount of coat the dog will have. However, at no time should it be possible to see the skin through the coat as this would indicate a lack of the needed denseness. Another common coat fault is a soft texture, which will pick up trash in the field and not protect the dog from water and cold.

A dual purpose Curly is important to the fancy and we hope this brief explanation and illustrations will help judges understand what we are seeking when we ask a judge’s opinion of our breed. We’re looking for Curlies who not only look like Curlies but are capable of performing a full day’s work in the field.

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Posted by chesliepickett on Jan 22 2014. Filed under Featured, The Buzz. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.