Paw-dorable: Watch hundreds of golden retrievers celebrate breed's anniversary in Scotland
This must be what doggy heaven looks like.
Hundreds of golden retrievers gathered at the Scottish Highlands Thursday to celebrate the breed's 155th anniversary, BBC News reported.
The four-day anniversary event, held every five years, was organized by the Golden Retriever Club of Scotland at the ruins of Guisachan House, where the dogs were first bred. The event was marked with talks, training workshops, a picnic and a night-time procession.
Hundreds of golden retrievers from a dozen countries
But the best part was the hundreds of dogs (and their owners) from across the world in attendance.
Golden retrievers from more than 12 countries including Canada, the U.S., New Zealand, Germany, Netherlands, Romania, the Czech Republic, Italy, Croatia, Estonia and Japan participated in the event, BBC reported.
Pictures and videos circulating on social media are from Thursday's "The Gathering" event, which included games such as haggis hurling, tug of war, scurry and the Grand old Duke of York (to count the number of Goldens present). The Telegraph reported that 466 dogs were part of the event.
Earlier on Tuesday night, the dogs gathered for a mile-long procession from Kennel Field to Guisachan House where the dogs and their owners were met by a piper and delivered a toast to their founding father Lord Tweedmouth.
How the golden retriever breed evolved
In a note posted to their website, the club said that the dog was originally bred at Guisachan, Glen Affric, near Inverness in 1864 by aristocrat Sir Dudley Marjoribanks, also known as Lord Tweedmouth, as a working dog, with great working ability, stamina, power and training abilities. The first litter of golden retrievers was born in 1868 to a Tweed water spaniel, a breed now extinct, and yellow flat-coated retriever.
It added that over the years, the breed has branched into two distinct "styles" – the heavier built, heavily coated "show" style golden retriever and the lighter built, darker "working" style golden retriever.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Golden retriever anniversary marked in Scotland with puppy party
