The dog exhibitions that have annually taken place for the last eight
years at Paris and in the principal cities of France have shown how
numerous and varied the breeds of dogs now are. It is estimated that
there are at present, in Europe, about a hundred very distinct and
very fine breeds (that is to say, such as reproduce their kind with
constant characters), without counting a host of sub-breeds or
varieties that a number of breeders are trying to fix.
Most of the breeds of dogs, especially those of modern creation, are
the work of man, and have been obtained by intercrossing older breeds
and discarding all the animals that departed from the type sought. But
many of these breeds are also the result of accident, or rather of
modifications of certain parts of the organism--of a sort of rachitic
or teratological degeneration which has become hereditary and has been
due to domestication; for it is proved that the dog is the most
anciently domesticated animal, and that its submission to man dates
back to more than five thousand years. Such is the origin of the
breeds of terriers, bulldogs, and all of the small house dogs.
Man has often, designedly or undesignedly, aided in the production of
breeds of this last category by submitting the dog to a regimen
contrary to nature, or setting to work to reproduce an animal born
monstrous, either for curiosity or for interest. As well known, the
accidental characters and the spontaneous modifications which work no
injury to the essential functions of life became easily hereditary,
and the same is the case with certain artificial modifications pursued
for a long series of generations.
It was the opinion of Buffon that the breeds of dogs, which were
already numerous in his time, were all derived from a single type,
which, according to him, was the shepherd's dog. Other scientists have
insisted that the dog descended from the wolf, and others from the
jackal. At the present time, it is rightly admitted that several
species of wild dogs have concurred in the formation of the different
breeds of dogs as we now have them.
In the lacustrine habitations of the stone age in Sweden, and in the
_kjoekkenmoedding_ (kitchen remains) of Denmark, of the same epoch, we
find the remains of a dog, which, according to Rutymeyer, belongs to a
breed which is constant up to its least details, and which is of a
light and elegant conformation, of medium size, with a spacious and
rounded cranium and a short, blunt muzzle, and a medium sized jaw, the
teeth of which form a regular series.
This dog, which has been named by geologists _Canis palustris_, fully
resembles in size, slenderness of the limbs, and weakness of the
muscular insertions, the spaniel, the brach hound, or the griffon.
This dog of the stone age is entirely distinct from the wolf and
jackal, of which some regard the domestic dog as a descendant, and as
it has appeared in Denmark as well as in Sweden, there is no doubt
that this species, peculiar to Europe, was subjugated by man and used
by him, in the first place, for hunting, and later on for guarding
houses and cattle. Later still, in the age of metals, we observe the
appearance, both in Denmark and Sweden, of larger and stronger breeds
of dogs, having in their jaws the character of mastiffs, and probably
introduced by the first emigrants from Asia.
There are, moreover, historic proofs that the dogs of the strongest
breeds are indigenous to Asia, where we still find the dog of Thibet,
the most colossal of all; in fact, in Pliny we read the following
narrative: Alexander the Great received from a king of Asia a dog of
huge size. He wished to pit it against bears and wild boars, but the
dog remained undisturbed and did not even rise, and Alexander had it
killed. On hearing of this, the royal donor sent a second dog like
the first, along with word that these dogs did not fight so weak
animals, but rather the lion and the elephant, and that he had only
two of such individuals, and in case that Alexander had this one
killed, too, he would no longer find his equal. Alexander matched this
dog with a lion and then with an elephant, and he killed them both.
Alexander was so afflicted at the premature death of the first dog,
that he built a city and temples in honor of the animal.
Did the mountainous province of Epirus called Molossia, in ancient
Greece, give its name to the _molossi_ that it produced, or did these
large dogs give their name to the country? At all events, we know that
it was from Epirus that the Romans obtained the molossi which fought
wild animals in the circuses, and that from Rome they were introduced
into the British islands and have became the present mastiffs.
Although our hunting and shepherd's dogs have a European and the
mastiffs an Asiatic ancestry, the ancestry of the harriers is African,
and especially Egyptian; in fact, in Upper Egypt we find a sort of
large white jackal (_Simenia simensis_) with the form of a harrier,
and which Paul Gervais regarded with some reason as the progenitor of
the domestic harrier, and a comparison of their skulls lends support
to this opinion.
A study of the most ancient monuments of the Pharaohs shows that the
ancient Egyptians already had at least five breeds of dogs: two very
slim watch dogs, much resembling the harrier, a genuine harrier, a
species of brach hound and a sort of terrier with short and straight
legs. All these dogs had erect ears, except the brach, in which these
organs were pendent, and this proves that the animal had already
undergone the effects of domestication to a greater degree than the
others. The harrier of the time of the Pharaohs still exists in great
numbers in Kordofan, according to Brehm.
Upon the whole, we here have, then, at least three stocks of very
distinct dogs: 1, a hunting or shepherd's dog, of European origin; 2,
a mastiff, typical of the large breed of dogs indigenous to Asia; and
3, a harrier, indigenous to Africa.
We shall not follow the effects of the combination of these three
types through the ages, and the formation of the different breeds; for
that we shall refer our readers to a complete work upon which we have
been laboring for some years, and two parts of which have already
appeared.[1]
[Footnote 1: Les Races des Chiens, in La Bibliotheque de l'Eleveur.]
We shall rapidly pass in review the different breeds of dogs that one
may chance to meet with in our dog shows, beginning with the largest.
It is again in mountainous countries that the largest dogs are raised,
and the character common to all of these is a very thick coat. The
largest of all, according to travelers, is the Thibetan dog. Buffon
tells of having seen one which, when seated, was five feet in height.
One brought back by the Prince of Wales from his voyage to the Indies
was taller in stature, stronger and more stocky than a large mastiff,
from which it differed, moreover, in its long and somewhat coarse
hair, which was black on the back and russet beneath, the thighs and
the tail being clothed with very long and silky hair.
In France, we have a beautiful mountain dog--the dog of the
Pyrenees--which is from 32 to 34 inches in height at the shoulders,
and has a very thick white coat, spotted above with pale yellow or
grayish fox color. It is very powerful, and is capable of
successfully defending property or flocks against bears and wolves.
The Alpine dog is the type of the mountain dog. It is of the same size
as the dog of the Pyrenees, and differs therefrom especially in its
coloring. It is white beneath, with a wide patch of orange red
covering the back and rump. The head and ears are of the same color,
with the addition of black on the edges; but the muzzle is white, and
a stripe of the same color advances upon the forehead nearly up to the
nape of the neck. The neck also is entirely white. There are two
varieties of the Alpine or St. Bernard dog, one having long hair and
the other shorter and very thick hair. We give in Fig. 1 a portrait of
Cano, a large St. Bernard belonging to Mr. Gaston Leonnard.
[Illustration: FIG. 1--LARGE ST. BERNARD DOG BELONGING TO MR. LEONARD.]
Although this breed originated at the celebrated convent of St.
Bernard, it no longer exists there in a state of purity, and in order
to find fine types of it we have to go to special breeders of
Switzerland and England. The famous Plinnlimon, which was bought for
$5,000 by an American two or three years ago, and about which there
was much talk in the papers, even the political ones, was born and
reared in England. It appears that it is necessary, too, to reduce the
number of life-saving acts that it is said are daily performed by the
St. Bernard dogs. This is no longer but a legend. There was, it is
true, a St. Bernard named Barry, now exhibited in a stuffed state in
the Berne Museum, which accomplished wonders in the way of saving
life, but this was an exception, and the reputation of this animal has
extended to all others of its kind. These latter are simply watch dogs
kept by the monks for their own safety, and which do not go at all by
themselves alone to search for travelers that have lost their way in
the snow.
The Newfoundland dog, which differs from the preceding in its wholly
black or black and white coat, was, it appears, also of mountain
origin. According to certain authors, it is indigenous to Norway, and
was carried to Newfoundland by the Norwegian explorers who discovered
the island. Adapted to their new existence, they have become excellent
water dogs, good swimmers, and better life savers by far than the
majority of their congeners.
Is it from descending to the plain that the mountain dogs have lost
their long hair and have become short haired dogs like the English dog
or mastiff and the German or large Danish dogs? It is very probable.
At all events, it is by this character of having short hair that
mastiffs are distinguished from the mountain dogs. Again, the large
breed of dogs are distinguished from each other by the following
characters: The mastiff is not very high at the shoulders (30 inches),
but he is very heavy and thick set, with powerful limbs, large head,
short and wide muzzle and of a yellowish or café-au-lait color
accompanying a black face; that is to say, the ears, the circumference
of the eyes and the muzzle are of a very dark color. The German or
large Danish dogs constitute but one breed, but of three varieties,
according to the coat: (1) those whose coat is of a uniform color, say
a slaty gray or isobelline of varying depth, without any white spots;
(2) those having a fawn colored coat striped transversely with black
like the zebra, but much less distinctly; (3) those having a spotted
coat, that is to say, a coat with a white ground strewed with
irregular black spots of varying size. These, like those of the first
variety are generally small-eyed. Whatever be the variety to which
they belong, the German or large Danish dogs are slimmer than, and not
so heavy as, the mastiffs. Some, even, are so light that it might be
supposed that they had some heavier blood in their veins. They have
also a longer muzzle, although square, and are quicker in gait and
motions.
The largest dogs are to be met with in this breed, and the beautiful
Danish dog belonging to Prof. Charcot (Fig. 2) is certainly the
largest dog in France and perhaps in Europe. It measures 36 inches at
the shoulders and has an osseous and muscular development perfectly in
keeping with its large stature, and at the same time has admirable
proportions and lightness, and its motions are comparable to those of
the finest horse.
[Illustration: FIG. 2--DR. CHARCOT'S LARGE DANISH DOG.]
Among the English dogs or mastiffs, we very frequently meet with
individuals in which the upper incisors and canines are placed back of
the corresponding ones in the lower jaw, this being due to a slight
shortening of the bones of the upper jaw, not visible externally. This
is the first degree of an artist of teratological development, which,
since the middle ages, has become very marked in certain subjects, and
has given rise to a variety in which this defect has become
hereditary. Such is the origin of the breed of bulldogs. The latter
were originally as large as the mastiffs. Carried to Spain under
Philip II., they have there preserved their primitive characters, but
the bulldogs remaining in England have continued to degenerate, so
that now the largest are scarcely half the size of the Spanish
bulldog, and the small ones attain hardly the size of the pug,
although they preserve considerable width of chest and muscular
strength.