[ Gentleman's Magazine ]
The Gentleman's Magazine was an important and influential monthly magazine in the 18th and 19th Centuries; it began in 1731, ceased regular publication in 1907, and shut down completely in 1922.
The issue of April, 1795, carried a letter from a reader who objected to the common rural phrase "as bad as ploughing with dogs," an expression used to indicate a task or situation was much more difficult than it should be. The writer then offers a number of anecdotes regarding dogs' success at pulling carts or wagons. One anecdote involves a Newfoundland:
A man, who sells dog's meat, in St. George's Fields, has a Newfoundland dog, which draws before the wheel of the barrow (wheeled by the man) by two traces fastened to the head of it, who knows all the customers; and, if they do not notice his arrival, will bark till they come to the door. It is fabled, that when the Goddess Fidelity was lost from among men, after long searching, she was found in a dog kennel.
(That last sentence is footnoted with a reference to Sir Roger L'Estrange [1616 – 1704], an English author and political figure whose works included a collection of moralized fables from Aesop and other sources.)