Dog type
Encyclopedia
Dog types are broad categories of dogs based on function, with dogs identified primarily by specific function or style of work rather than by lineage or appearance.

In contrast, modern dog breeds
Dog breed
Dog breeds are groups of closely related and visibly similar domestic dogs, which are all of the subspecies Canis lupus familiaris, having characteristic traits that are selected and maintained by humans, bred from a known foundation stock....

 are particular breed standard
Breed standard
A breed standard in animal fancy and animal husbandry is a set of guidelines which is used to ensure that the animals produced by a breeder or breeding facility conform to the specifics of the breed....

s, sharing a common set of heritable characteristics, determined by the kennel club
Kennel club
A kennel club is an organization for canine affairs that concerns itself with the breeding, showing and promotion of more than one breed of dog...

 that recognizes the breed.

Dog types include ancestral forms (or landraces
Landrace
A landrace is a local variety of a domesticated animal or plant species which has developed largely by natural processes, by adaptation to the natural and cultural environment in which it lives. It differs from a formal breed which has been bred deliberately to conform to a particular standard...

) that arose undocumented over a long period of time.

A dog type can be referred to broadly, as in Bird dog
Gun dog
thumb|right|A group of Gun dogs as printed in Dogs of All Nations by W.E. Mason in 1915Gun dogs, also gundogs or bird dogs, are types of dogs developed to assist hunters in finding and retrieving game, usually birds. Gun dogs are divided into three primary types: Retrievers, flushing dogs, and...

, or more specifically, as in Spaniel
Spaniel
A spaniel is a type of gun dog. It is assumed spaniels originated from Spain as the word spaniel may be derived from Hispania or possibly from the French phrase "Chiens de l’Espagnol" . Spaniels were especially bred to flush game out of dense brush. By the late 17th century spaniels had become...

. Dogs raised and trained for a specific working ability rather than appearance may not closely resemble other dogs doing the same work, or any of the dogs of the analogous breed group of purebred dogs.

Origins of dog types

For the history of the dog, see Dog
Dog
The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...

, Origin of the domestic dog
Origin of the domestic dog
The origin of the domestic dog began with the domestication of the gray wolf several tens of thousands of years ago. Domesticated dogs provided early humans with a guard animal, a source of food, fur, and a beast of burden...

, and Ancient dog breeds
Ancient dog breeds
Fourteen ancient breeds of dog have been identified through advances in DNA analysis. These breeds of domesticated dog show the fewest genetic differences from wolves...



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." 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
Lap dog
A lapdog or lap dog is a dog that is small enough to be held in the arms or lie comfortably on a person's lap. Lapdogs are not a specific breed, but is a generic term for a type of dog of small size and friendly disposition....

 types (Pekingese, Shih Tzu) along with hunting dog
Hunting dog
A hunting dog refers to any dog who assists humans in hunting. There are several types of hunting dogs developed for various tasks. The major categories of hunting dogs include hounds, terriers, dachshunds, cur type dogs, and gun dogs...

 and working dog
Working dog
A working dog refers to a canine working animal, i.e., a type of dog that is not merely a pet but learns and performs tasks to assist and/or entertain its human companions, or a breed of such origin...

 types.

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), a treatise which describes hunting with the limer
Limer
A limer, or lymer , was a kind of dog, a scenthound, used on a leash in Medieval times to find large game before it was hunted down by the pack. It was sometimes known as a lyam hound/dog or lime-hound. The name derives from the word lyam meaning 'leash'. The French cognate limier has sometimes...

(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 http://www.archive.org/details/masterofgameo00edwa 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 http://classes.bnf.fr/phebus/. The Boke of St. Albans, published in 1486http://www.archive.org/details/bokeofsaintalban00bern a "school" book about hawking, hunting, fishing, and heraldry, attributed to Juliana Berners
Juliana Berners
Juliana Berners , English writer on heraldry, hawking and hunting, is said to have been prioress of Sopwell nunnery near St Albans...

 (Barnes), lists dogs of the time mainly by function: " First there is a greyhound, a bastard, a mongrel, a mastiff, a limer, a spaniel, rache
Rache
Rache , also spelt 'racch', 'rach', and 'ratch', from Old English 'ræcc', linked to Old Norse 'rakkí', is an obsolete name for a type of hunting-dog used in Britain in the Middle Ages. It was a scent hound used in a pack to run down and kill game, or bring it to bay. The word appears before the...

s
(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 one hundred years later, another book in English, De Canibus Britannicus by the author/physician John Caius
John Caius
John Caius , also known as Johannes Caius, was an English physician, and second founder of the present Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.-Early years:...

, translated (Fleming) from Latin in 1576 http://www.archive.org/details/worksofjohncaius00caiuuoft, 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.

In 1758, Carl Linnaeus in Systema naturae
Systema Naturae
The book was one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carolus Linnaeus. The first edition was published in 1735...

 named the domestic dog “familiaris” and added other dog classifications or species. More dog types were described as species by Johann Friedrich Gmelin
Johann Friedrich Gmelin
Johann Friedrich Gmelin was a German naturalist, botanist, entomologist, herpetologist and malacologist.- Education :Johann Friedrich Gmelin was born as the eldest son of Philipp Friedrich Gmelin in 1748 in Tübingen...

 in 1788, and by Robert Kerr
Robert Kerr (writer)
Robert Kerr FRS was a scientific writer and translator from Scotland.Kerr was born in Roxburghshire as the son of a jeweller. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and practised at the Edinburgh Foundling Hospital as a surgeon...

 in his English translation of Systema naturae (The Animal Kingdom) in 1792. Today the species Linnaeus named are identifiable as dog types, not species or subspecies. Some, such as Canis aegyptius, a hairless dog type of Peru, have been documented and registered as breeds (Peruvian Hairless Dog
Peruvian Hairless Dog
The Peruvian Hairless Dog is a breed of dog with its origins in Peruvian pre-Inca cultures. It is one of several breeds of hairless dog. It is not to be confused with the Xoloitzcuintli.- Appearance :...

). There are only two categories (subspecies) of domestic dog, Canis lupus familiaris and C. l. dingo
Dingo
The Australian Dingo or Warrigal is a free-roaming wild dog unique to the continent of Australia, mainly found in the outback. Its original ancestors are thought to have arrived with humans from southeast Asia thousands of years ago, when dogs were still relatively undomesticated and closer to...

, recognized by the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature
International Code of Zoological Nomenclature
The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature is a widely accepted convention in zoology that rules the formal scientific naming of organisms treated as animals...

 (ICZN Code).

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.

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." 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." 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 Pekinese, 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. In 1873 only 40 breeds and varieties were known; 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
Kennel club
A kennel club is an organization for canine affairs that concerns itself with the breeding, showing and promotion of more than one breed of dog...

. But dog types have not disappeared. Types of feral dogs are being discovered and registered as breeds, as with the New Guinea Singing Dog
New Guinea Singing Dog
The New Guinea Singing Dog is a wild dog once found throughout New Guinea. New Guinea Singing Dogs are named for their unique howl....

 and Carolina Dog
Carolina Dog
The Carolina Dog, or American Dingo, is a landrace or naturally selected type of dog which was discovered living as a wild dog or free roaming dog by Dr Lehr.J. Brisbin. CDs are now bred and kept in captive collections or packs. They were discovered during the 1970s living in isolated stretches...

. Types re-emerge from mixes of breeds, like the Longdog
Longdog
A Longdog is a type of dog; it is a crossbreed between two sighthounds . They are distinct from the Lurcher which is a cross between a sighthound breed and a non-sighthound breed...

s from Lurcher
Lurcher
The lurcher is a type of dog originating in Ireland and parts of Great Britain. While not a pure breed, it is generally a cross between a sighthound and any other breed, usually a pastoral dog or terrier, dependent on the attributes desired by the breeder; originally stealth and cunning...

s 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
Huntaway
The New Zealand Huntaway is a breed of dog used to drive sheep using their loud, deep bark. The breed is relatively new, dating as a distinct breed from the 1900s....

, Stopping Dog, etc. - functional terms, not necessarily breed names).

Other uses of the word type in dogs

For biologists, a type
Biological type
In biology, a type is one particular specimen of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached...

 fixes a name to a taxon
Taxon
|thumb|270px|[[African elephants]] form a widely-accepted taxon, the [[genus]] LoxodontaA taxon is a group of organisms, which a taxonomist adjudges to be a unit. Usually a taxon is given a name and a rank, although neither is a requirement...

. Dog fanciers
Dog Fancy
Dog Fancy is a monthly magazine dedicated to dogs, owners of dogs, and breeders of dogs. It was founded in 1970 and is described by its publishing company BowTie Inc. as world’s most widely read dog magazine. BowTie Inc. also publishes its sister magazine Dog World and Cat Fancy for cats and their...

 use the term breed type
Breed type (dog)
Breed type in the parlance of dog fanciers refers to the qualities that define a dog breed and separate it from all other dog breeds. Breed type is outlined in the written standard for each breed, and breed type is the basis of judging in conformation dog shows.-Qualities that define a breed:Breed...

 in the sense of “qualities (as of bodily contour and carriage) that are felt to indicate excellence in members of a group”. Breed type is specific to each dog breed’s written standard
Breed standard
A breed standard in animal fancy and animal husbandry is a set of guidelines which is used to ensure that the animals produced by a breeder or breeding facility conform to the specifics of the breed....

. A dog that closely resembles the appearance laid out in the standard is said to be typey. Type also is used to refer to "dogs of a well established line", an identifiable style of dog within the breed type, usually from a specific kennel.

External links

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