Early Dogs. Part 4

Description

This section is from the book "British Dogs, Their Points, Selection, And Show Preparation", by W. D. Drury. Also available from Amazon: British Dogs: Their Points, Selection And Show Preparation.

Early Dogs. Part 4

Land, Water, and Toy Spaniels are also described by the Doctor, as are also Sheepdog, Mastiff, Turnspit, and many others that were apparently mongrels, though from their associations, the work that they were called upon to perform, or even their habits, were accorded names - the Butcher's Dog and the Dancer, for instance.

From Turberville's sporting work we select two illustrations that represent the Spaniels of the latter part of the sixteenth century (Fig. 15) and the Hounds of the same period (Fig. 16), but whether Bloodhounds or Foxhounds is not by any means clear, though they seem to have a closer affinity to the former than to the latter.

Fig. 13. - A Mediaeval Dalmatian.

Fig. 14. - A Fourteenth-Century Lapdog.

No survey of British dogs, however scanty it may be, would be complete without an allusion to the dogs that were depicted so faithfully by the old masters like Vandyck, from the prototype of the modern Mastiff (Fig. 17) to the Toy Terriers (Fig. 18) and Toy Spaniels that brightened perhaps the early days of the unhappy Charles I.

Allusion has already been made to the close association of dog and man, though when or how the intimacy sprung, which mutual advantage has kept as century succeeded century, cannot be determined. However, doubtless man was not slow to appreciate the combination of useful qualities to be found in the dog, and with his superior intelligence he was equally apt in turning such characteristics to the very best account, aided, perhaps, by a natural instinct in the lower animal to trust, love, and serve him.

Fig. 15. - Hawking Party and Water Spaniels of the Sixteenth Century.

Fig. 16. - Hunting Men and Hounds 'of the Sixteenth Century.

Fig. 17. - Prototype of the Modern Mastiff.

Fig. 18. - Early Toy Terriers.

As was pointed out, to primeval man the dog was a necessity of the time, depending as he did for his sustenance largely on the spoils of the chase. With man's subjection of the earth one can readily imagine how the shepherd's crook was taken up in addition to the rude instruments of war and the chase, and how the pliant nature of the dog would be moulded into unison with the new order of things. The dog would then become, as he was in Biblical times and as he is more or less in the present day, alike a tender and a defender of the flocks. New duties and conditions of life would develop fresh traits of character as well as variety of form. Gradually the shepherd's dog would assume a character of his own; while the Nimrods of those early days would have their own branches of the family chosen as best suited for their particular purpose. Special work would of necessity call into play certain faculties: whilst others not required would, in process of time, be so modified as to be scarcely in evidence. Thus, still further divergence of type from the original ensued, and differences between existing breeds became more extinct. This alone, carried out extensively, would produce great variety in form, size, colour, and natural capabilities. With the growth of civilisation, these influences would increase in strength and variety, and, together with the powerful influence of climate and accidental circumstances, fully account for the extraordinary varieties of form met with in the Domestic dog.

Faint and imperfect as such an outline of a very big subject must necessarily be, yet it is hoped that it will at any rate suggest the leading lines upon which the varieties of historic dogs were built, and serve to show how, by a gradual process of selection, the large number of present-day varieties breeding true to type have been slowly evolved by the painstaking fancier.

In a work of this character something about classification will be looked for. This, however, is another of the points on which such a diversity of opinion exists that it would serve no good purpose to fill space with details of the more or less artificial systems that have existed for generations. As a matter of fact, only one serious attempt of recent years has been made to arrange the Domestic dogs on a natural basis. For this classification, which is founded chiefly on the form and development of the ears, Mr. E. L. Harting is responsible (see The Zoologist for 1884, vol. viii.). Even that recent author, however, regards his as affording perhaps only an "approximation to a natural classification."Mr. Harting arranges the dogs in six groups, thus: Wolf-like, Greyhounds, Spaniels, Hounds, Mastiffs, and Terriers.

With the classification of the Kennel Club into Sporting and Non-sporting varieties most fanciers are familiar; but as this work is intended to appeal to a much wider area than the necessarily restricted one of the Fancy, the system is here given.

Sporting.

Bloodhounds

Otter-hounds

Foxhounds

Harriers

Beagles

Basset-hounds (Smooth)

Basset-hounds (Rough)

Dachshunds

Greyhounds

Deerhounds

Borzois