A common complaint from European dog fanciers is that North American forms of certain breeds are a distortion of their original form. Irish setters bred in the US have much more feathering than their European counterparts, while Labradors bred in the United States are much larger than those bred in the rest of the world. These criticisms, though, are a bit short-sited. It is true that dogs bred for pets and for the show ring in North America tend to develop along certain lines. If it’s big and furry in Europe, it will be bigger and furrier in the United States. However, what is often ignored is that the New World has preserved many working breeds of dog that no longer exist in their native countries. Early settlers to these regions brought these dogs over, and they often maintain the original form and function.
Here is just a short list.
- The American Bulldog (the Original Bulldog)– In the seventeenth century, England exploded in a Civil War that pitted Royalist against Parliamentarian. When the parliamentarians won, many royalists living in the North of England, the Midlands, and the West Country fled to the American South. They brought with them bulldogs, which were used to control livestock and guard farms. In the South, these dogs were used to catch free-roaming swine, herd cattle, guard farms, and (unfortunately) to maul slaves. They were also used in bull-baiting and bear-baiting in the colonies. However, the breed’s greatest utility came in catching feral swine that became common in South. It is because of these large herds of feral swine that this form of bulldog was preserved in the Southern United States
- The English Shepherd and the Farm Collie: These are two separate breeds, but they both respresent the old collie dog that once existed throughout the British Isles. The English shepherd is quite common in the United States, especially in rural areas. It descends from collie type dogs that were brought over during the colonial period. Some of the breed resemble border collies, but unlike border collies, the English shepherd has a “loose eye” when it herds, similar to the few rough collies that still herd. Most collies were loose eyed dogs until the nineteenth century, when setters and pointes were crossed in to increase stalking behavior. The English shepherd is used as multi-purpose farm dog, and it can also be used as hunting do. The farm collie is dog that descends from more recent imports of Scottish collies. Like the English shepherd, it is a loose-eyed dog, but it generally resembles the rough and smooth collies a bit more. It lacks the narrow muzzle of the modern rough and smooth collies. The first dog I ever had was a dog of this type, which is sometimes called the “mongrel collie.” He was bred to a English shepherd, which is a common practice, even in the now standardizing Nova Scotia Old Farm Collie. That’s why I think it’s a good idea to think of these dogs as a similar type. The English shepherd resembles the collie of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, while the farm collie resemblies the nineteenth century collie.
- The Spanish War Mastiff is preserved in the Fila Brasileiro and the Puerto Rican Mastiff– The Spanish War Mastiff was a weapon of mass destruction in the age of the Conquistadors. Hundreds, if not thousands of Native people, were killed by dogs during this time period. Often the natives thought of these dogs a type of jaguar, rather than having anything in common with dogs living in their villages. While both of these breeds are a bit removed from the Spanish war mastiff, with the Fila having scent hound and Spanish Mastin characteristics and the Puerto Rican Mastiff having English mastiff characteristics, they still have a bit more dominant temperaments. The filas have much more aggressive temperaments than other mastiffs, which makes sense, considering that the fila was bred as a slave-catching dog (unfortunately).
- The Grand Bleu de Gascogne and the Hanoverian Schweisshund– The Grand Bleu de Gascogne was a wolf-hunting scent hound from France, which was imported to the United States, perhaps in colonial Louisiana. It would later be developed as the bluetick coonhound, which is a common dog in rural parts of the United States, especially the South. Some lines of bluetick are being developed that still possess Grand Bleu de Gascogne chararcteristics, which obviously popped up in a few lines of this coonhound. This dog is far more common than the French ancestor, and if the lines of the French hound become too inbred, it is likely that American hounds of this type would be used to augment the lines (at least, if they are intelligent about it). The Hanoverian Schweisshund is a German forester’s hound. It is somewhat more common than the Grand Blue Gascogne. German immigrants brought this hound to the US, but only one line of this breed was ever developed as a line of hound. The Plott family came from Lower Saxony to the mountains of Tennessee (then part of North Carolina). Their original name was Platz, but it was Anglicized to Plott. With them came the brindle hounds of Hanoverian Schweisshund type, but these dogs were more lightly built than the modern breed. These would later become the bear hunting Plott Hound and were largely uncrossed with other American hound breeds. It is the only American hound with German ancestry.
- And of couse, the darker colors in the golden retriever. The dark colored dogs were imported to North America early on. Samuel Magoffin imported some of the first new stock to North America in the 1930’s, and all of these dogs were very dark in color. Several accounts of his dogs remark on how similar to Irish setters they were.
If you can think of any others, I’ll do another post on this topic. The feists (old type terriers) and curs (multi-purpose hounds) are always interesting dogs to explore. I’ll certainly do a post on them at some point in the future.
