These dogs are Alanos, which were sometimes called Spanish bulldogs.
I never knew that the semester of art history I had in undergrad was going to be useful.
But on this blog, I am forever bringing up works of art that depict historical dogs, including those that are extinct.
The dogs in this sketch are Alanos, which were almost always referred to in English as “Spanish bulldogs.” The sketch is by Francisco de Goya, and it is dated to 1816.
The direct descendant of the Spanish bulldog still exist, but the animal is bit distorted from its original form.
The Spanish originally used these animals to catch unruly livestock.
But the Conquistadors used them to subjugate the indigenous peoples of the Americas and the Canary Islands.
The dogs later became used as fighting dogs in some parts of the Spanish Empire, but in Spain itself, the dogs were primarily used in packs to catch livestock and wild boar.
There are two Spanish breeds of bulldog that are likely descendants of the Alano: the Alano Español and the Ca de Bou.
The Presa Canario is most likely a descendant, as are several Latin American bulldog-types.
Other breeds of the bulldog and mastiff type probably share some ancestry with this dog.
We do know that the modern bulldog was developed with the addition of at least some “Spanish bulldog” blood.
Bill George, the Victorian dog dealer, was one of the first people to promote the bulldog as a pet. He was among the first to breed “toy bulldogs,” the progenitors of the French bulldog and the Boston terrier.
But he also dealt with big bulldogs.
In 1840, he imported an Alano-type from Spain named “Big-headed Billy,” which he then bred to his English bulldogs, who were without a job once bull-baiting was outlawed in 1835. One of his bulldogs that descended from the Alano weighed 65 pounds, which was large for a bulldog of that day. Anyone who claims that bull-baiting English bulldogs were huge dogs hasn’t looked at the evidence very closely.
***
George is certainly worthy of post, which I would like to have published on here in the next couple of days, so I’ll just leave you with that little teaser.
***
Current Alanos Españoles do not come in white or pied. Indeed, they aren’t allowed to have large areas of white at all.
Their ears are still cropped, but they are bred to be sociable with other dogs.
After all, they were meant to hunt in packs.
***
I’m going to do some histories on bulldog types at some point. I’m going to start with the Alaunt.
[…] The answer. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Once again, Identify the domestic dog belowIdentify this little white dogIdentify the dog breedDog Allergies – How […]
do you know what the Spaniards of the 18th century called this dog?
I think they called them Alanos.
They also used the term “presas” and “bardinos.”
I’ve seen the word Alano to describe a conquistador’s dog, but I can’t remember whether it was Ponce de Leon’s dog or not.
“Barcino” means brindle. I think nowadays’ Alanos are all a recreation of the old dogs, and they all carry boxer blood mixed with a variety of mastiff types.
They do remind me of boxers.
I’m glad to have a boxer expert on here. I had a dog that was half boxer/half golden retriever, and I looked at the actual Munich dog history. However, what came before those men began breeding their bulldogs and German baiting dogs has had me intrigued for a long time.
I wonder if some of these Spanish dogs are in our landrace curs, especially those in the Southwest and Southeast. Hernando de Soto introduced pigs to the Southeast. These were pigs that were meant to be grazed in oak forests in Spain, and when they came to the New World, they went feral.
Supposedly the Catahoula cur of Louisiana is partially descended from Spanish dogs, but the exact type is never mentioned.