Say hello to Finn!

Your dog is part of your world, but to a dog, you are their whole world…

As I write this on Christmas day, there’s warmth at my feet radiating from an 8-week-old male chocolate lab out of Peak Performance Labradors, snoozing the morning away. “Finn” came into this world on October 29th, one of 10 labrador retriever puppies, a mix of 5 black males, 3 chocolate females, and 2 chocolate males. We had the pick of the two chocolate males and chose “green (collar)” over “brown (collar).” “Green” was second biggest of the litter; his paws show it and at 8 weeks old he is weighing in at over 12 pounds. It’s likely he will be a big boy. His name is a play on his future.

Finn is the product of a fine pedigree – both his father, “Tommy” (Grampian’s Pin Ball Wizard, S H) and his mother, “Jade” (Peak’s Stone in Love, JH), have hunting titles, and excellent health credentials, the most important for a lab being their OFA Hip rating, in their case, both being rated excellent.

The breed has a history of hip dysplasia which responsible breeders try to breed out by identifying dogs that have poor hip ratings and not breeding them.

Bringing Finn into the family comes on the heels of losing our Maddie last November, who we had to put down at 12 years of age due to bad arthritis. Maddie’s beginnings were worlds apart from Finn’s. We adopted Maddie from Every Dog’s Dream in Greene, NY, where she was fostered after arriving from a high-kill shelter in Darlington, SC. The shelter reached out to Every Dog’s Dream trying to place Maddie and her three brothers, and Every Dog’s Dream responded by taking all 4 puppies.

Maddie’s breeding was a unique majority blend of a treeing walker coonhound and lab, with a bunch of other minor “contributors” including Beagle, German shepherd, pit bull, and Dalmatian according to genetic testing we had done. We suspect Maddie and her 3 brothers may have been culled out of a litter destined for some sort of hunting, though she had very high prey drive in my opinion, so I’ll never be sure what disqualified her. She loved to chase squirrels, chipmunks and rabbits.

Maddie was a true joy to own – extremely friendly to her humans, loyal, protective, and never an accident in our home. Having spent most of my life with dogs made it very hard not to fill the void left after Maddie’s passing. Now that void’s been filled with a beautiful lab puppy, bubbling with love and boundless energy.

Finn will love it here on the shores of Lake Ontario. Just 30 feet out the back of our house is that Great Lake, while in front, across the street, is the outlet from Long Pond into the lake.

In addition to Long Pond, just up and down the road along the lake shore are Buck Pond, Cranberry Pond, Round Pond and Braddock Bay.

The Braddock Bay WMA is over 2,000 acres of rich and diverse marshland, ponds and shoreline habitat and is on the Atlantic Flyway and therefore the home of year-round avian residents as well as a resting spot for migrating birds, waterfowl in particular.

Ducks of every kind abound here, including:

1. Dabblers (shallow-water feeders): Mallards, Black Ducks, Gadwalls, Northern Pintail, American Wigeon, Blue-winged Teal, Green-winged Teal, Northern Shoveler, and Wood Duck.
2. Diving ducks (open water and deeper bays): Greater and Lesser Scaup. Goldeneye, Bufflehead, Redhead, Canvasback, Ring-necked Duck, Ruddy Duck, Hooded, Common, and Red-breasted Merganser.
3. Sea ducks (Lake Ontario proper): Long-tailed Duck (Old Squaw), White-winged Scoter, Surf Scoter and Black Scoter.

The parks in the area are ringed with miles of trails that skirt the vast marshland. These will be well worn by Finn and me in the coming years.

As his name implies, Finn will be a future fly-fishing companion, wading local inland streams, rivers, and Great Lakes tributaries, as well as accompanying me in a boat fishing the ponds and lake shoreline. And that role is fitting, given the origins of the Labrador Retriever.

Labrador retrievers are descendants of the St John’s Water Dog, an extinct landrace of domestic dog from Newfoundland. Little is known of the types that went into its genetic makeup, although it was probably a random-bred mix of old English, Irish and Portuguese working dogs. These were favorite dogs of fishermen due to their good temperament, cold weather ruggedness, and high work drive.

The St. John’s breed was called “water dog” because of their love for water. They were medium-sized, strong, and stocky, with a highly water-resistant coat and more closely resembled modern Show Labradors (English) than Field Labradors (American).

Our Finn is an American or field labrador as are all the dogs out of Peak Performance Labrador’s line.

Writings as early as the 17th century mention hardy medium-sized black dogs (the original color) that accompanied Newfoundland fishermen in their boats, and retrieved distant lines, nets of fish and even escaped fish, hauling them back to the boat.

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, St. John’s water dogs were exported from Newfoundland to England where they were crossbred with other dogs to create the modern retrievers, including the Labrador Retriever.

Beyond fishing duty for Finn, there’s always the lure of taking up bird hunting – either upland birds or waterfowl – as Labradors are adept at both types, as well as the possibility of therapy dog work.

But most of all, Finn will surely follow in the pawprints of his predecessor, Maddie, being as good a companion as any human could ask for…