MINNEAPOLIS _ Decades before retrievers were the most popular canines in America, they were Minnesota's top dogs. Labradors have long been No. 1 in this state, rated by American Kennel Club registrations, with golden retrievers, Chesapeake Bay retrievers and flat-coated retrievers commonplace here, as well.
A stroll through Game Fair, which runs through Aug. 20, confirms statistics compiled by the AKC that Minnesota is retriever country.
On a given day at the fair, hundreds and sometimes a thousand or more Labs and other retrievers stroll through the festival's 80 acres. Along with their owners, the dogs are eager to join a game or competition.
The popularity of these dogs in Minnesota didn't occur by happenstance.
Beginning in the middle part of the last century, and even before, Minnesota hunters bred, trained and competed with retrievers not just because they made great family pets. Retrievers also performed valuable functions in autumn while retrieving their owners' downed ducks, and while flushing pheasants and grouse ahead of the gun.
This was in the '40s, '50s and '60s, and Minnesota had wild fowl aplenty, especially ducks.
Thus retrievers grew popular here not by quirk of fate but in large part out of necessity. As they did, some of Minnesota's first trainers, handlers, owners and breeders developed and refined skills that gained them national acclaim. Among these were Dr. Leslie Evans, Louis Fritz, Tony Berger and "Lorney" Martens.
Minnesota retrieving dogs also would gain national fame at this time, including 1944 NFC (National Field Champion) Shelter Cove Beauty, the first female retriever of any breed to win this title. Additionally, NFC FC-AFC (Field Champion-Amateur Field Champion) CFC (Canadian Field Champion) Cork of Oakwood Lane was trained and handled by Berger to the 1955 National Retriever Championship. ("Cork" won his first blue ribbon at an informal trial at Armstrong Ranch, site of Game Fair, in 1953.) And Martens bred NFC Marten's Little Smoky, winner of the 1965 National Field Championship.
