American Labs are descended from the lesser St. John’s water dog, as are English Labs. English hunters visiting North America in the early 1800s were impressed by dogs Newfoundland fishermen used to retrieve nets, lines and fish. They took the dogs back to England and crossed and bred them as hunting dogs. Labs came to America in the early 1900s, and were recognized by the AKC in 1917. From then, the American strain of Labrador retriever was developed, as a bigger, taller, intense and athletic dog than its English counterpart.