Cart dogs, c. 1900. Different in appearance but doing the same work.
Dog types are broad categories of dogs based on function,
[1] with dogs identified primarily by specific function or style of work rather than by lineage or appearance.
Dog types include ancestral forms (or
landraces) that arose undocumented over a long period of time.
Origins of dog types
With the beginnings of agriculture, approximately 12,000 years ago, humans began making use of dogs in various ways. Molecular biologist and founder of the Canine Genome Project Elaine Ostrander comments, "When we became an agricultural society, what we needed dogs for changed enormously, and a further and irrevocable division [between dogs and wolves] occurred at that point."
[5] There is a great deal of speculation about the early uses of dogs, but recent genetic analysis shows that the earliest ancestors of modern breeds (those with the least genetic divergence from the ancestral wolf) include
lap dog types (Pekingese, Shih Tzu) along with
hunting dog and
working dogtypes.
[note 2][edit]Dog type names in English
The earliest books in the English language to mention numbers of dog types are from the "Cynegetica" (hunting literature), namely
The Art of Venery 1327 by the Anglo-French
Master of game, Twiti (Twici),
[6] a treatise which describes hunting with the
limer (a leashed bloodhound type), the pack of
running hounds (scent hounds) greyhounds, and
alaunts. More significantly in recording the use and description of various dog types,
The Master of Game circa 1406 by Edward of York
[7] [1] a treatise which describes dogs and their work, such as the alaunt, greyhound, pack scent hounds, spaniel and mastiff used by the privileged and wealthy for hunting purposes. "The Master of Game" is a combination of the earlier
Art of Venery and the famous French hunting treatise
Livre de Chasse by Phébus (
Gaston Phoebus) circa 1387
[2].
The Boke of St. Albans, published in 1486
[8][3] a "school" book about hawking, hunting, fishing, and heraldry, attributed to
Juliana Berners (Barnes), lists dogs of the time mainly by function: " First there is a greyhound, a bastard, a mongrel, a mastiff, a limer, a spaniel,
raches (small-to-medium sized scenthounds),
kennets (small hunting dogs), terriers,
butcher's hounds, dung-heap dogs,
trundel tails(lapdogs?) and prick-eared curs, and small ladies puppies that bear away the fleas and diverse small sorts".
Almost 100 years later, another book in English,
De Canibus Britannicus by the author/physician
John Caius, translated (Fleming) from Latin in 1576
[4], attempts the first systematic approach to defining different types of dogs in various categories, demonstrating an apparent increase in types, and population. "English dogs": the gentle (i.e. well-bred) kind, serving game - harriers, terriers,
bloodhounds, gazehounds, greyhounds, limers, tumblers and stealers; "the homely kind"; "the currish kind", toys. "Fowling dogs" - setters and spaniels. As well as the pastoral or shepherd types, mastiffs or bandogs, and various village dogs. Sub-types describing the function of dogs in each group were also included.
[note 4]Beginning with the advent of dog shows in the mid-19th century in England, dog fanciers established stud books and began refining breeds from the various types of dogs in use.
[10][edit]Dog types and modern breeds
"It is important," remind Ann Rogers Clark and Andrew Brace, "Not to claim great age for breeds, though it is quite legitimate to claim considerable antiquity for types of dogs."
[11] The attempts to classify dogs into different 'species' show that dog types could be quite distinctive, from the 'Canis melitaeus' of lapdogs descended from ancient Roman pet dogs to the even more ancient 'Canis molossus', the Molossan types, to the 'Canis saultor', the dancing mongrel of beggars. These types were uniform enough to appear to have been selectively bred, but as Raymond Coppinger wrote, "Natural processes can produce, could produce, and do produce populations of unusual and uniform dogs, that is, dogs with a distinctive conformation."
[12] The human manipulation was very indirect. In a very few cases, Emperors or monasteries or wealthy hunters might maintain lines of special dogs, from which we have today Pekingese, St. Bernards, and foxhounds.
At the beginning of the 19th century there were only a few dogs identified as breeds, but when dog fighting was outlawed in England in 1835, a new sport of dog showing began. Along with this sport came rules and written records and closed stud books. Some of the old types no longer needed for work (such as the wolfhound) were remade and kept from extinction as show dogs, and other old types were refined into many new breeds. Sometimes multiple new breeds might be born in the same littler of puppies.
[13] In 1873 only 40 breeds and varieties were known;
[14] today there are many hundreds of breeds, some 400 are recognized by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale.
Dog types today are recognized in the names of
Group or Section categories of
dog breed registries.
[note 6] But dog types have not disappeared. Types of feral dogs are being discovered and registered as breeds, as with the
New Guinea Singing Dog and
Carolina Dog. Types re-emerge from mixes of breeds, like the
Longdogs from
Lurchers and
Greyhounds. Named types of dogs that are not dog breeds are still being used where function or use is more important than appearance, especially for herding or hunting, as with the herding dog types of New Zealand that are described by their exact function (Heading Dog,
Huntaway, Stopping Dog, etc. - functional terms, not necessarily breed names).
[15][edit]Other uses of the word type in dogs
For biologists, a
type fixes a name to a
taxon.
Dog fanciers use the term
breed type in the sense of “qualities (as of bodily contour and carriage) that are felt to indicate excellence in members of a group”.
[16] Breed type is specific to each dog breed’s written
standard. A dog that closely resembles the appearance laid out in the standard is said to be
typey.
[17] Type also is used to refer to "dogs of a well established line",
[18] an identifiable style of dog within the
breed type, usually from a specific kennel.
[edit]See also
