Blog > Tag: Breeds

For more than half a century, many feared that the ancient New Guinea highland wild dog had been lost to history, but newly discovered evidence indicates that the dogs are thriving in the inhospitable environment of the country’s central mountains.

Near the middle of the nineteenth century, James Hinks of Birmingham, England, crossed a Bull and Terrier with an English White Terrier with the goal of improving the offspring’s appearance. Up to that point, Bull and Terrier breeders had focused primarily on bettering the fighting performance of their dogs.

The history of the modern Pomeranian breed begins in fourteenth century Pomerania, an area that covered parts of present-day Poland and Germany.

The German shepherd was originally a farm dog, guarding his family’s flocks and herds. Unlike most herding breeds, the German shepherd was not only bred to move the herd, but also to patrol and protect both the herd and the shepherd from outside dangers and predators. Today, German shepherds are used to protect sheep, guard homes, help the disabled, and assist the police and armed forces.

The Akita dog breed is believed to have descended from the ancient and now-extinct Matagi Inu dogs, which were used for hunting wild boar, Sitka deer, and Asian black bears by the Matagi tribe and other northern natives of Japan.