Just picking up on the sled dog mention..
It is worth bearing in mind that although the Disney-esque romantic vision of sled dogs is supercute wolfy looking uniform 'pedigree breed' the reality of the origins of sled dogs is nothing of the sort.
The native spitz types were hunting dogs, and for any people, selective breeding for good hunting dogs would be quite an important thing (because its a direct link to food and thus survival). Pulling weight is not such a direct link so thats a secondary task, you wouldnt get such a uniform type and the nomadic peoples that used them were not travelling the same distances nor for the same reasons as those who came along later...
And brought their own dogs, and wanted to travel further, faster, for longer, carrying greater weights - so the sled dogs that were the best were not necessarily the uniform, neat, pedigree looking Disney huskies, but those who had a talent for the job - beyond having the physical attributes necessary for the job (double stand off coat/thick coat - hardy paws, decent length of leg, good stamina and endurance) appearance wasnt important.
If you go and look today at real life native peoples using sled dogs for life/work (as opposed to fun, competition)you;ll find their dogs are a right hotch-potch mixture of looks!
So sledding dogs, huskys, malamutes etc have actually NOT got such a long 'pure' history as you might think, whereas those spitz types kept for hunting/fighting (Japanese Akita Inu, Shiba Inu, etc) do!
Different breeds
Moderators: emmabeth, BoardHost
Re: Different breeds
West Midlands based 1-2-1 Training & Behaviour Canine Consultant
Re: Different breeds
very interesting, thanks for the thoughts emmabeth!
as a side note, this is something i find interesting and almost contradictory of the whole confirmation showing / kennel club standard thing of these days...apparently they are trying to maintain or upkeep the 'integrity' of the breed, but it seems to me they place more importance on breeding the dogs who look the best of the breed, not necessarily the dogs that are best at what the breed does? DISCLAIMER: i am a complete ignoramus on all things breeding/showing and this is in no way a statement or judgement of anyone who does breed/show thier dogs!
coincidentally we were looking into shiba inu's when we were last looking for our little furry one! such interesting characters.
as a side note, this is something i find interesting and almost contradictory of the whole confirmation showing / kennel club standard thing of these days...apparently they are trying to maintain or upkeep the 'integrity' of the breed, but it seems to me they place more importance on breeding the dogs who look the best of the breed, not necessarily the dogs that are best at what the breed does? DISCLAIMER: i am a complete ignoramus on all things breeding/showing and this is in no way a statement or judgement of anyone who does breed/show thier dogs!
coincidentally we were looking into shiba inu's when we were last looking for our little furry one! such interesting characters.
