Have you crossed paths with a Golden? This past July in 2023, a five-day summer festival was held celebrate the breed on the grounds where the first golden retriever puppies designated as such were born in 1868! This beautiful and amiable breed's Scottish origins has a colourful backstory, but one also embroiled in a deeper art mystery! Breeders, owners, and forensic art detectives have uncovered a fascinating history of this Scottish breed's likely true origins! For many years it was generally accepted that Goldens were the direct descendants of some Russian circus dogs purchased by a member of the English gentry, Sir Dudley Marjoribanks, later the first Lord Tweedmouth. These dogs were allegedly taken to Tweedmouth’s Scottish estate, Guisachan, site of last summer's celebration, where they were used to hunt deer. Pleased with their skills, the dogs were further bred to reduce size and improve scenting ability. In the first deviation from this fanciful story, subsequent research suggested that Lord Tweedmouth had instead purchased an unregistered Yellow Retriever named “Nous” from a cobbler in Brighton in the year 1865 and after hunting this dog for a time, bred him to a Tweed Water Spaniel (a now extinct breed from Scotland). But more recently, a deeper dive and examination of older paintings, engravings, and chromoliths, some from the early 1800s, finds evidence of golden coloured hunting dogs long before Lord Tweedmouth's breeding efforts. Regardless, Goldens and their owners should be delighted with this beautiful tartan whose golden and green, blue, and heathered accents representing both the dog and its retrieving heritage within the Scottish landscape. Woof! 🐕 🐾 💛 💚 💜 💙 💛