WHAT’S TOLLING?
BY JENNIFER HOLLIS PUBLIC EDUCATION COORDINATOR NOVA SCOTIA DUCK TOLLING RETRIEVER CLUB USA
T he Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever (Toller) was developed in the early 19th century to toll, lure, and retrieve waterfowl. So, what is “tolling?” “Tolling” is a Middle English word meaning to entice or pull. For example: “The tolling of the bells drew the villagers to the town square.” To the hunter, this means to entice or pull the waterfowl within range by using the playful action of a tolling dog, much as a fox will lure ducks within range. In the wild, a fox will play along the shoreline to lure in waterfowl. The birds become curious as they watch the appearance and disappearance of the fox’s playful actions. The waterfowl are enticed to the shore where they become easy prey for the fox. Hunters, inspired by the success of the foxes, trained their dogs to mimic the action of the foxes by throwing sticks and rocks for the dogs to retrieve. The curiosity of the water- fowl as they watch the appearance and disappearance of the red dog’s playful actions along a shoreline causes them to swim in close to shore to more closely observe the dog. In a hunting scenario the tolling dog runs, jumps, and plays along the shoreline in full view of a flock of ducks rafting in the center of the lake. Aided by the hunter (either in a natural blind or a man-made one) the dog appears and disappears, as small sticks or a ball is thrown out into the open. The dog’s playful actions arouse the curiosity of the ducks swimming offshore and they are lured within gunshot range. The Toller is subsequently sent out to retrieve the dead or wounded birds shot by the hunter.
The Toller becomes a living decoy. Decoy dogs were used in Europe to lure ducks into nets, and as hunting companions since the 17th century, and in Eastern North America from the Chesa- peake Bay to the Maritimes. Tollers, as we know them today, were developed in the community of Little River Harbour in Yar- mouth County, Nova Scotia, around the beginning of the 19th century. The breed was originally known as the Little River Duck Dog or the Yarmouth Toller. The earliest records in Nova Scotia of hunters using dogs for tolling ducks is from the 17th century. The exact breeding origins of the Toller are not known. Possibly, Spaniel & Setter-type dogs, Retriever-type dogs, and farm Collies may have gone into the mix. It is likely that the breed can trace its origins to the now extinct St. John’s Water Dog and the Dutch tolling Kooikerhondje. The Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever Club (USA) holds the belief that Sporting breed dogs, such as the Toller, should demonstrate the basic instincts and traits necessary to adequately execute the tasks for which they were bred. In the late 1980s, the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever Club (USA) instituted its own test designed to evaluate the innate working abilities of the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever (Toller). The name of this test was the Natural Instinct Test. The purpose of the test was to establish that a dog possessed retrieving instincts; “to reveal the presence or absence of innate ability, not the strength of that ability or the dog’s trainability.” The test was later renamed the Basic Retrieving and Tolling (BRT) test in order to clarify that some training was
266 | SHOWSIGHT MAGAZINE, MAY 2021
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