To investigate the historical variation of Newfoundland dog fur colour, the ‘Times Digital Archive’ (Gale Databases) database of the advertisements for lost or stolen dogs in the Times newspaper was used. For these advertisements to be useful, they needed to contain a good description of the animal in question, thus helping to eliminate the potential bias due to carelessness or journalistic license. Many of the descriptions of the dogs are sufficiently detailed, such as this one from 1785:
“LOST on Saturday last, May 28th, a large Black Newfoundland Dog, has White Feet, a little White in the Forehead, the end of his Tail White, answers to the Name of Lyon”.
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