Ch. Charwin Tracer SH ("Flint"), Mary Veitch's curly-coat, at the working test at the 2003 Curly-coated Retriever Club of America's national specialty.

Sue Shaw emphasized that this is a breed that is very strong-willed and independent. "But at the same time, I also want to emphasize that they can be quite soft. In my opinion, it takes a bit more training, and training sessions have to be carefully thought out with regard to what you want to accomplish in each session. You really can't hit a curly with too much at one time. You have to find that fine line between training them or boring them and wasting an entire session without accomplishing anything."

There are some drawbacks to owning a rare breed, particularly if you not only hunt with the dogs but also like to keep them sharp in the off-season by running in hunt tests. "One of the major problems I've encountered running the curly-coats in hunt tests, particularly AKC hunt tests, is that the judges have never seen a curly and have no idea how the breed hunts and works," said Crosby.

"As a consequence, in the senior and master divisions, I've had dogs that have run perfectly good tests with high marks in four of the five scoring categories that wound up being disqualified for 'style.' When I pressed the judges for an explanation, it turned out that they dumped the dogs because they didn't run the tests like Labradors. Well, folks, they're not supposed to run the tests like Labradors. They're supposed to run the tests like curly-coats."

Finding The Rare Curly-Coat
Finding a good hunting dog is always a challenge. But the challenge increases exponentially when the breed you are seeking had only 171 individual registrations in 2004. As is the case with all sporting breeds, when you do find a likely litter, it is very important to inquire about the health clearances of the parents. Curly-coats have the same health problems as the other retriever breeds--hip and elbow dysplasia, the common eye problems such as progressive retinal atrophy and less serious problems like entropion and ectropion.

International Champion, Ch. HR Elflock-Ranah's Rising Son CD JH CGC WCQ ("Sam"), one of Jim and Paula Crosby's curly-coats, waits for incoming ducks.

But peculiar to this breed is the problem of patterned baldness. This is often misdiagnosed as a thyroid deficiency. It is suspected some sort of autoimmune deficiency causes the condition. What is known is that curly-coats with this condition are more likely to have allergies and reproductive problems. Many times dogs mildly affected by the problem will have full coats but only have real curls on their necks and backs.

All three of these curly-coat fanciers said that the best place to start looking for one of these rare retrievers was with the Curly-Coated Retriever Club of America, which maintains a breeders' list. "It is not always easy to find a dog with a lot of hunting desire when you are looking at a rare breed," said Shaw. "It's rarer still to find breeders who are making an effort to preserve that hunting desire. I recommend that people ask breeders, 'Do you hunt with your dogs?'

"But you have to go beyond that basic question. You need to ask the breeder if they do any type of hunt testing and if the dogs have titles, or if they can show you ribbons as proof of their success, as that is a sure sign that they have some desire and are trainable. That doesn't mean that if the dog is not from good hunting stock it absolutely won't hunt, but it makes training a lot easier if the desire is already there.

"It is also my opinion that people who run their dogs in performance competitions are, for the most part, very conscientious about breeding. When they do a breeding they are almost always trying to improve desire, trainability, temperament or birdiness in their line."

If you are looking for something different in a retriever, you could not find a breed that is more so than the curly-coat. And that, say these three curly-coat lovers, is a significant part of the breed's appeal. "I chose this breed because I wanted something different. I wanted something no one else had. A curly-coat definitely qualifies," said Mary Veitch.