Wavy-coat Labrador imported from Newfoundland
to the present bearer of the name. The name Labrador is sometimes recorded as a synonym for the small Newfoundland or St. John's Dog, but the accounts and illustrations of this dog show no trace of relationship to the Labrador as we now know him. Major Maurice Portal in " The Gun at Home and Abroad "states that the date of their arrival was 1835, when the Earl of Malmesbury was their possessor; and goes on to say that they "appear to have come as ' ships' dogs' on the boats which brought salted cod from Newfound- land to Poole Harbour, which accounts for the Earl of Malmesbury being the first to acquire the breed."
Major Portal goes on to say that Blaine in his " Encyclopadia of Rural Sports," 1852, refers to both the Newfoundland retriever and the St. John's breed, which latter dog, Blaine says, is preferred by sportsmen on every account, being smaller, more easily managed, and sagacious in the extreme, his scenting powers being also very great. "Probably this latter," writes Major Portal, "is the ancestor of the Labrador as we know him to-day. How the breed was evolved
By the early nineteenth century the natives of Newfoundland were using two well established breeds of water dogs for both retrieving fish, which had fallen dead out of the dories, and hauling nets. The larger of these dogs with a long, rough, brownish coat was called the Newfoundland and the smaller, with a short, smooth, black coat, was known as the St. Johns Water Dog, or Labrador. At this period the Port of Poole was carrying on a trade of cod fish with England and it was only natural that some of these fine water dogs should have found
their way to the mother country. The Third Earl of Malmesbury, one of the earliest British importers, wrote the Duke of Buccleuch in 1887 that, "We always call mine Labrador dogs and I have kept the breed pure as I could since the day I had the first from Poole. The real breed may be known by their having a close coat that turns off water like oil, and, above all, a tail like an otter." It is said every Labrador in Great Britain stems from these importations.
https://yesbiscuit.com/2022/06/08/the-lesser-newfoundland-labrador-retriever-vintage-snippets-and-images/
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