Fox came first, he danced on the shores of the rivers and lands. When curious ducks came too close, slam when his jaws. Duck was dinner!! Canada's Micmac Indians admired Fox's cleverness. They taught their dogs to dance like the fox. Soon, they too could lure the inquisitve ducks.
As the years passed, hunters in England and Canada began to develop dogs that would go into the water and bring back downed birds. They called these dogs retrievers, many bearing the names of the places where they were developed, such as Labrador and Chesapeake Bay. But the hunters in Yarmouth County in southwest Nova Scotia's Little River district went one step further. They created a dog that would attract birds as well as retrieve them. Starting with the Micmac Indian dog, they mixed a little of this and a little of that, skillfully blending Golden and Labradore Retreivers, Chesapeake and Flat-Coated Retrievers, a little Cocker Spaniel or
Irish Setter here, maybe some farm Collie there. When they were finished, they had a small enticing redhead with boundless energy and animation. They called it the Little River Duck Dog....
For more thant 100 years the Little River Duck Dog was known only in the province where it was developed, but in 1945 the Canadian Kennel Club gave the breed reconition as well as a new name: Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever. In September of 2001 The American Kennel Club added the Toller to their Miscellaneous Class and upgraded the breed to the Sporting Dog line-up in July of 2003.
