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What are the legitimate sources for dogs?
Photo by Casey Biederman of baby Quest. When I started down this path of being a dog writer, I bought into this basic framework: Purebred dogs were okay, but the only legitimate ones were...
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So, about pit bulls
For years, I’ve had a long-standing policy of never writing about pit bulls or bull breed mixes. I oppose BSL, and I think if any breed or type of dog requires compassionate advocates, it is these...
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When the science bursts the fantasy about your favorite breed
The dog world is always an interesting place to observe human behavior. A few days ago, someone posted a coated Xoloitzcuintli (“Mexican hairless dog”) on an FB group, and I happened to mention the...
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In defense of purebred dogs
I have to say that much of what I wrote in the early days of this blog came from ignorance. I had never been exposed to serious hobbyist breeders of purebred dogs, and much of what I thought I knew...
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The problem with scenthounds
I grew up in rural West Virginia. One of the most common types of dog during my childhood was the scenthound. People had beagles for running rabbits. The hardcore houndsmen kept coonhounds and...
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Changing the Bullenbeisser
When Europe was a wilder place, there were lots of big game animals. Bison, brown bears, aurochs, and vast sounders of wild boar were all abundant. Before the Neolithic Revolution entered Europe,...
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How the greyhound became a smooth-coated breed
The dogs we call “greyhounds” today are smooth-coated. Some, like Drake, grow pretty thick winter coats, but they are all smooth-coated dogs. This breed feature, one would think, would have been...
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Understanding Real Breed Histories
One common trope that exists in old breed histories is an attempt to connect extant dog breeds with ancient ones. These stories were fanciful, and with the advent of the molecular revolution in...
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The History of Bulldogs, Part 1
Bulldogs of various types have been all the rage. In my immediate area, the most common dog for people to own is some sort of pit bull or American Staffordshire sort of dog, and it well-known that...
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Reichshund
When Germany unified in 1871 under the Prussians, the new nation began a period of modernization and industrialization. For lack of a better word, it aped much of what the British did. Britain was...
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What is a German Shepherd? The answer from the genomic data
If you were to ask the average person how to classify a German shepherd in terms of dog breed taxonomy, most would say it’s guard dog, putting it somewhere with the Rottweiler and the boxer. Others...
View ArticleProtected: History of Bulldogs, Part 2
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View ArticleProtected: In search of the Ur-Mastiff (Premium Members Only)
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Bulldog History III: The Bulldogs of Northwestern Europe
The bulldog family as we understand now is a bit complicated. One of the harder distinctions in the literature is to come across distinctions between mastiff and bulldog, but it is very clear that by...
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