Jonangi
Encyclopedia
The Jonangi is a native dog breed
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....

 of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, found all along the east coast of India, from Bengal to Kanyakumari. The east coast of India has a long history of trade relations with South-East Asia. Therefore, it is thought that the ancestors of the Jonangi arrived near Lake Kolleru from South-East Asia in ancient times. He is used for hunting small game, as a watchdog
Guard dog
A guard dog, an attack dog or watch dog is a dog used to guard against, and watch for, unwanted or unexpected people or animals. The dog is discriminating so that it does not annoy or attack familiar people.-Barking:...

, and for herding ducks. This is a spunky, primitive-type dog that is wary with strangers. It does not usually bark but makes a yodelling sound similar to that of a Basenji
Basenji
The Basenji is a breed of hunting dog that was bred from stock originating in central Africa. Most of the major kennel clubs in the English-speaking world place the breed in the Hound Group; more specifically, it may be classified as belonging to the sighthound type...

. The female comes into heat once per year.

Appearance

The Jonangi is reminiscent of a Bull Terrier
Bull Terrier
The Bull Terrier or English Bull Terrier is a breed of dog in the terrier family. They are known for their large, egg-shaped head, small triangular eyes, and "jaunty gait." Their temperament has been described as generally fun-loving, active and clownish...

 but is not stocky or cobby. It is a typical primitive pariah
Pariah dog
The term pariah dog originally referred to Chinese/Indian feral dogs of a particular type, but it is now used by the United Kennel Club to refer to a purebred dog category.- Feral dogs of India :...

-type dog, and shares many common characteristics with other dogs of this type all over the world. Perhaps the most similar breed to the Jonangi is the Basenji, not the western show dog, but the real African village dog. Its coat
Coat (dog)
The coat of the domestic dog refers to the hair that covers its body. A dog's coat may be a double coat, made up of a soft undercoat and a coarser topcoat, or a single coat, which lacks an undercoat...

 is extremely short and fine, in solid colours of fawn, biscuit, chocolate, black or white. Brindle is acceptable. It has a wrinkled forehead, thin curled tail, and tulip ears. The Jonangi stands 14 to 16 inches at the withers
Withers
The withers is the ridge between the shoulder blades of a four-legged animal. In many species it is the tallest point of the body, and in horses and dogs it is the standard place to measure the animal's height .-Horses:The withers in horses are formed by the dorsal spinal processes of roughly the...

. This is a one-man or one-family dog.It is also a good dog to keep as it is very human communicative.

The Jonangi is threatened by extinction
Extinction
In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...

. Efforts are underway to preserve it.People kill it mostly because this breed of dog in wild eats fish and stays alive hence many villagers think that it is a threat to their business and started killing this breed.
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