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No matter how or where you hunt waterfowl, you can find a retriever to meet your needs. These dogs, and others, are all part of the retriever riddle. And poodles, which predate firearms, likely influenced curly-coated breeds. Setters, it has been written, were at one time natural retrievers. Hounds and spaniels were incorporated for their scenting skills. The Newfoundland provided swimming prowess. John's water dog and the Tweed water spaniel-figure prominently in the backgrounds of some duck dogs. While retriever origins remain relatively obscure, at least a couple of now-extinct breeds-the St. Each breed has its own strengths, weaknesses, defining characteristics, and steadfast supporters. Overall, however, these pioneer dog breeders did a wonderful job of providing a wide variety of capable retrievers. Breed standards recognized today were for the most part nonexistent more than a century ago. The goal was to create dogs with certain physical traits that would make them better suited to retrieving waterfowl. Theirs was often a mix-and-match breeding exercise that included canines ranging from collies to bloodhounds. What is known is that our hunting forefathers tried mightily to develop dogs that best fit their personal sporting needs. But the fact of the matter is, with only a few exceptions, no one can be sure of specific retriever ancestry. And many plausible theories and timelines explaining breed evolution have been provided. When, how, and where, exactly, did today's duck dogs first arrive on the waterfowling scene? Scholars have spent years researching the origins of just about every sporting breed in existence. Of all the unanswered questions about the history of waterfowl hunting, the most intriguing mystery involves retrievers.