A Breed Apart: Nova Scotia's Duck Tolling Retriever

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by Gail MacMillan Nimbus Publishing - 108 pages Hardcover
Cost: $24.95 ISBN 1-55109-231-X

New Softcover Edition - Now Available! ($19.95)

reviewed by Ronnie Scullion

review.breedapart.JPG (16949 bytes) Nova Scotia's Duck Tolling Retriever, also called the Little River Duck Dog, has often been hailed as one of Nova Scotia's "best kept secrets". This small tawny reddish dog has an elusive origin and sketchy breeding history, one which Gail MacMillan meticulously sorts through and documents.

First recognized as a distinct breed by the Canadian Kennel Club in 1945, its exact beginnings are a subject for conjecture and legend. MacMillan has pieced together a plausible historical account through her many interviews with the descendants of toller breeders and Yarmouth county residents, her study of letters and journals that make reference to tolling retrievers, and the lineage documentation contained in current breeding records. To this she has added her own insights about the character and traits of this unique breed of dog.

The use of small dogs for tolling is an old tradition, MacMillan explains. Records indicate that this strategy to lure waterfowl was used in ancient Japan. Hunters in Holland, Belgium and France were known to use tolling dogs as early as the fifteenth century. However what distinguishes the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever from other tolling dogs and animals is that it not only attracts the waterfowl, but it also retrieves them.

Just how this practice first started in Nova Scotia is not exactly known. Some accounts suggest the Little River Duck Dog was specially bred, descending from the mating of retrievers and spaniels with a little Irish Setter thrown into the mix. Others ascribe its origins to a more fanciful theory that it was the resulting progeny of red foxes and dogs.

The first documented account of tolling dogs in Nova Scotia appears in a book (circa 1630) by Nicolas Denys who describes the use of tolling and retrieving dogs by the Acadians. Between Denys' account and the much later twentieth century, legend replaces historical account. Competing family histories credit different people with having originated and developed the breed.

Beginning with Eddie Kenney, a Yarmouth county breeder, who had a penchant for naming dogs "Molly", MacMillan highlights the key breeders and trainers that have played an important role in defining the breed's physical traits and in refining and sharpening the toller's specialised talents.

abreedapart.toller.JPG (11176 bytes) Through time the unique qualities of this small dog have endeared and fascinated many, inspiring breeder James Jeffery to push for declaring the toller retriever as Canada's National Dog. Although this did not come to pass another toller fancier, Argyle MLA Allister Surette, succeeded in having the breed recognised as Nova Scotia's official dog in 1995. In his address to the legislator Surette remarked, "The Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever is a dog breed worthy to be the Provincial Dog of Nova Scotia. It has over three hundred years of existence in our beautiful province. The good-natured little red dog has a distinct Nova Scotian heritage of which all Nova Scotians can be proud."