The Golden Retriever and the Labrador are probably the undisputed breeds in water retrieval but there is one dog that is unpopular but undisputed nonetheless in both water and land retrievals. This breed, a gundog originating from United Kingdom in the middle of 1800s, is the Flat Coated Retriever. This breed was introduced to North America in 1860 but only gained stability as a breed 20 years after.

The Flat Coated Retriever was developed to be a versatile hunting dog by means of retrieving shot games both on land and water and other tasks expected of a working dog. From then till now, this breed enjoys a steady stream of fanciers as it is not only an excellent companion in hunting but as a family pet and animal friend as well. Whence outdoors it has a terrific nose for game, inside the house it is a loving and devoted companion to the family that owns it.

The Flat Coated Retriever is more excellent compared to the Golden Retriever and Labrador as it can retrieve games in land and water, however, comparing to the two in terms of trainability, the Flat Coated Retriever falls short. It additionally gets bored easily at training sessions that are repetitive and slow. The solution then is that during lessons, the owner must make sure that it is interesting, short and varied.

The owner of this breed must exert an effort to be kind and patient in teaching this breed because it does not receive harsh criticisms and hard handling very well. Moreover, this breed is extremely welcoming to all kinds of creatures no matter if they are humans or animals and because of this, the breed does make a poor watchdog. Animals such as cats, squirrels and other dog breeds are befriended by the Flat Coated sincerely.

The Flat Coated Retriever is a sure positive force to have because it always wears a sunny disposition untiringly. It is one of the best companion dogs because it is active, extremely sociable, kind-hearted, playful and devoted. It also loves being playmates with children but remember to only allow older children as little ones are easily knocked over by this dog’s exuberantly happy behavior.

The good things about this breed just keep coming because it is fondly tagged by experts as the “Peter Pan of Dogs” due to its endless playfulness and energy from its puppy years until adulthood. This dog also loves kissing as a form of greeting. In fact, it likes to lick the face of humans as a form of showing affection and between it and another dog, they love to lick each others’ mouths and people call this as the “flat-coated kiss”.

For a dog as active as the Flat Coated Retriever, a constant stream of activities and exercise are needed in order to maintain and stimulate its mental and physical health. Inside the house, it might be dormant or less active but once outside the house, it displays its natural restless and playful self. Even though this breed is an excellent gundog, it nearly entered extinction during World War I due to its fading popularity in comparison to the Labrador and Golden Retriever but luckily, some fervent believers revived this breed and until now, careful breeding is still being done in order to keep its existence afloat.

People say that the stability of the Flat Coated was contributed by several dog breeds namely: the Collie-types for higher trainability, Newfoundland for more strength, and the Setter for a stronger scenting instinct. The Flat Coated was named as such due to its flat yet single-coated, fair-length, dense and lustrous coat. The standard colors of the Flat Coated Retriever are solid black and solid liver but there are some that appears in color cream and yellow, however, the breed standard considers these two colors as disqualifications.

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