Soul Retriever

This statue of Festivus, the first Soul Retriever, can be found in downtown Frederick, Maryland.

The Soul Retriever is, so far as I know, the first dog ever created by a religious order, the Reformed Druids of North America founded at Carleton College in 1964.

The Soul Retriever breeding project was initiated by Robert Monroe, who reportedly crossed a dog believed to be a Chesapeake Bay Retriever and Tibetan Spaniel mix with a working (non-AKC) Peruvian Inca Orchid Dog.  A calm and phlegmatic dog resulted, and it was noted that a walk through the woods resulted in an expanded consciousness. Festivus was inbred back to his Chespeake Bay/Tibetan sire to fix the type, and thus the breed was born.

Today, Soul Retrievers are bred within a closed registry maintained in secrecy by the Flint Hills Grove of the New Order Reformed Druids of North America, which is headquartered in Adamstown, Maryland.
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