Thousands of years ago, cave-dwelling humans
huddled in fear around their fires not knowing
what deadly animal lurked in the darkness.
To our most ancient of ancestors, animals
were things to eat or things that ate man.
Thousands of years ago this law was broken
when the first wolf was tamed and over the
generations became a dog, man’s best friend
and the first animal that humans domesticated.
Since then man has bred dogs for various needs,
creating thousands of breeds big and small.
War, disaster, or simple fashion has seen
some of these breeds fall out of favor and
into oblivion.
These are the top 10 dogs who either were
saved from extinction, or should be brought
back into being.
10.
Belgian War Dogs
When the great empires of Europe sent their
armies in action the smaller nations huddled
in fear, hoping their neutrality would protect
them.
One of these countries was Belgium, whose
army was focused on suppressing its colonial
subjects not stopping the armies of some of
the world’s most powerful empires.
Even though it tried to stay out of the war,
the tiny nation was dragged into the bloody
conflict when Germany used it as a backdoor
into France.
Belgium’s army heroically stood up to the
might of the Prussian Empire, and while the
Belgians were crushed they slowed the Germans
enough to allow France enough time to mobilize
its men to meet and push back the Krauts.
The Belgian Army was able to clash with the
Germans with mobility provided by their unique
pack animals, the Belgian Mastiff.
These dogs hauled machine guns and war supplies
to and from the frontlines, allowing the Belgian
Army to serve its purpose as the road bump
to the Germans.
After the war, trucks and tanks made the dogs
obsolete and they almost became extinct.
A small group kept the breed alive and now
they are making a comeback.
9.
Peruvian Punk Dogs
The Inca Empire, based on the west coast of
South America, was one of the most powerful
civilizations in the pre-contact Americas.
In the annals of history it was an unusual
society.
It didn’t have draft animals for tilling
of farmland but it had llamas and alpacas
for carrying goods.
They didn’t have a system of writing but
rather used a system of tying knots to record
information.
They lacked the knowledge of iron and steel
but their mastery of stonework still leaves
modern stoneworkers in awe.
Their culture didn’t have money and instead
depended on a system of labor each person
owed to the empire.
Yet the Inca civilization grew and thrived,
and only New World diseases and the invasion
of the Spanish Conquistadors brought it down.
Before the European contact, the Incan people
had a special type of hairless dog that they
used for hunting and companionship.
The medium-sized dog had almost no hair, and
has a long history in Inca art and mummified
pets are even found during archeological investigations.
When the new Spanish rulers and their Christan
missionaries took the reigns of power they
quickly went to work, methodically wiping
out the Incan culture under the guise of converting
pagans to Christ.
Part of that effort was the elimination and
demonization of the Incan dogs.
The breed was left on the fringes of society
often hunted for food or its pelt.
As Peru entered the 21st century the country
realized how special their dogs were and an
effort was launched to save the breed.
The government decreed that all Incan temples
should have at least one of these native dogs.
Their survival was also helped by a rebranding
of the breed as “Punk.”
As a result of these efforts, the Incan dog’s
outlook looks good.
8.
Molossus
The legendary Molossus dog breed belonged
to the ancient Greek kingdom of the Molossians.
Its hunting ability and size were greatly
admired by dozens of ancient historians.
The Molossians treasured their dog so much
that they pressed the canine’s image on
their coins.
The Romans crushed the Molossian Kingdom in
the Third Macedonian War of 168 BC.
A huge hunting and shepherd dog of southern
Europe that could reach upwards of 200 pounds,
the breed spawned a few of Europe’s large
breeds but itself became extinct.
Now a number of breeders are trying to bring
it back.
One breeder, Jared Howser of Salt Lake City,
Utah claimed to have reborn the Molossus pedigree
when he displayed his 9-month-old puppy named
Euphrates, which was an enormous 180 pounds
and 6-feet tall.
Howser said Euphrates represented the American
Molossus, a first litter, that is the closest
genetic descendent of the Mesopotamian Molossus.
7.
Skye
Skye Terriers are small lapdogs that are not
flyers.
Rather than being related to the great blue
sky above, they are a dog breed from the Isle
of Skye, a British island in the ocean blue.
A very regal looking dog, they were once popular
among royalty.
One famously hid under the dress of Mary Queen
of Scots as her head was cut off on the orders
of Queen Elizabeth I of England.
In recent decades the breed fell out of favor
and The Telegraph newspaper declared in 2006
that it was the United Kingdom’s most endangered
dog breed.
In 2005 only 30 dogs of the Skye pedigree
were born and only a few dozen are bred every
year.
If more owners can be found willing to deal
with this high maintenance dog it can be rescued
from the danger of extinction.
6.
Salish Wool Dog
Disease, war, and forcible assimilation into
the settler way of life have almost destroyed
not only the indigenous people themselves
but also almost destroyed their soul and culture.
In Canada, most of the indigenous peoples
call themselves the First Nations.
Among Canada’s West Coast First Nations,
blanket weaving using mountain goat wool and
dog hair is an important part of their culture.
The Cowichan First Nations even developed
a sweater, the Cowichan Sweater, that would
reach iconic status when “The Dude” wore
one in the movie The Big Lebowski.
A key part of this weaving culture was the
Salish Wool Dog.
Native only to the Canadian West Coast, the
Salish Wool Dog is the only known prehistoric
North American dog developed for animal husbandry.
It was through its hair that the local First
Nation people were able to create beautiful
blankets and clothing.
Disaster struck with European contact.
First came cheap sheep wool and various other
foreign dog breeds.
Along with these new goods came disease, decimating
the west coast First Nations.
Barely able to survive themselves, the Salish
people’s dog, now with no economic use and
displaced by European breeds, went extinct.
Although the dog breed no longer exists there
are still samples of its hair.
The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture
in Seattle, Washington has one surviving blanket
made from primarily dog hair.
Also, the Smithsonian has a dog skin pelt.
As DNA technology advances, hopefully, one
day these samples can be used to create a
Salish Wool Dog clone and revive the breed.
5.
Japanese Dogs
In Japan, space is premium and cuteness is
treasured.
This does not bode well for the local Japanese
dog breeds.
Japan has six native dog species: the Shiba,
Akita, Kai, Kishu, Shikoku and the Hokkaido.
Historically these dogs are large breeds from
the mountains or from northern Japan.
There they lived in wide-open spaces with
lots of room to run and exercise.
They are ill-suited to the urban lifestyles
of the modern Japanese family, which is often
too busy at work or school to walk a dog.
More and more the large Japanese dog breeds
are being ignored and instead new foreign
pocket imported breeds, like the miniature
dachshunds, miniature poodles and chihuahuas,
are being chosen as pets.
Promotional campaigns have been launched to
get more people to choose patriotically but
some breeds like the Kishu are so rare that
a Japanese zoo added two Kishu dogs alongside
the zoo’s regular exotic animals.
4.
Curly-coated Retriever
Retrievers are famous for their long, straight
hair.
Hard to find in America, in the UK there is
a little known curly-coated Retriever breed.
The unfamiliar might accuse the dog of being
a poodle mix but when the breed was developed
in the UK there were no poodles in Britain.
Also, poodles shed their curly hair and the
curly-coated retriever does not.
The curly matte hair was much sought after
as the more straight-haired retriever breeds
had a shiny coat that reflected moonlight.
With its stealth hair camouflage, this dog
has a reputation as an outlaw dog as they
were famously preferred by poachers as hunting
dogs.
Loyal, devoted owners now struggle to keep
the breeding population from falling into
a danger zone of too few breeding pairs.
3.
Turnspit dog
Terriers were bred to hunt vermin like rats,
and the dachshund was bred to invade and flush
out anything living in small tunnels.
The Turnspit dog was developed for kitchen
work.
Turnspit dog was a short-legged dog bred brought
into existence to serve a purpose much like
the dinosaurs in Fred Flintstone’s universe.
Like Fred Flintstone’s dinosaurs that washed
dishes or played a record, the Turnspit’s
purpose was to turn a wheel, which in turn
spun a stick of meat over a fire.
For much of our history, everything had to
be done by hand.
The industrial age changed this with the invention
of machines and gadgets that made life easier.
Machinery also made things like the Turnspit
dog obsolete.
A rich household would have servants to do
this job, but poorer households would depend
on these dogs.
Since it represented low social status the
breed didn’t survive when machinery replaced
it.
The dog was bred to be happy indoors, comfortable
with noise, and hard-wired so that it was
happy to run on a wheel for long periods of
time.
This dog would have been ideal in the modern
age.
No backyard?
No problem, the turnspit hates the outside.
No time to take a dog for walks?
Just let it run in the exercise wheel.
Power out?
Let your dog power your devices by making
its exercise wheel your power generator.
2.
Dire Wolf
The Game of Thrones books and HBO TV show
have been cultural touchstones.
Children with the names Arya or Khaleesi are
becoming more and more common.
Across all aspects of our media are references
or Game of Thrones Easter eggs.
The iconic animals of House Stark, the Dire
Wolf are also in demand.
Dire wolves are actually real animals that
once roamed the Americas, but the wolf with
the scientific name Canis Dirus went extinct
about 10,000 years ago.
Lois Schwarz, of the Dire Wolf Project, hopes
to bring the breed back and make Dire Wolves
Great Again.
In the Schwarz Kennels in White City, Oregon,
Schwarz is breeding the American Alsatian
to be a large, long-lived companion dog with
a wolflike appearance, aka a Dire Wolf.
Surprisingly, Schwarz has been able to hardwire
a calm, mellow, distinctly un-wolflike attitude
into the dogs, making them perfect as emotional
support pets… although their $3,000 price
tag might stress you out.
1.
Red Wolves
Like many apex predators who called the continental
United States home, the various wolf species
were hunted almost to extinction.
Like their Dire Wolf cousins did thousands
of years ago, the Red Wolves of the south
and southeastern United States — including
Texas, Florida, and West Virginia — went
extinct in the 1980s.
Or so it was thought.
Field biologist Ron Wooten noted that the
feral dogs of Galveston Island, Texas had
similar features as the Red Wolf.
Based on this hunch, he sent in DNA samples
and they confirmed that the dogs had Red Wolf
DNA.
At some point in the recent past, a feral
dog pack in Galveston Island bred with the
Red Wolf species.
While the Red Wolves have died off in the
wild, the Red Wolf DNA lives on in these wild
packs of dogs.
Now scientists are hoping the Galveston dogs
could be used as a sort of time capsule or
DNA reservoir to “restore lost aspects”
of the Red Wolf’s genetic history.
