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A Brief History of Dogs

All dogs are probably descended from an animal called Tomarctus.This animal lived approximately 15 million years ago. Stone-aged people tamed dogs to help them track game. About eight thousand years ago, ancient Egyptians raised Saluki hunting dogs. Saluki is an arabic word meaning noble one. These dogs are probably the oldest known breed.

Quite a few breeds claim to be the oldest, the first real dog. We do know that as far as groups go, the hounds and certain Northern type breeds are among the oldest documented. The greyhound type of dogs (the Pharaoh, Saluki, Ibizan, Basenji and Afghan) were well established in ancient Egypt 5000 years ago. It has been suggested that the Dalmatian was depicted in paintings dating back as far as 2000 years ago, and the Assyrians developed large mastiff-like breeds for use in hunting and war.

Dogs were everywhere. Early Church documents show that it was common for the parishoners to bring their dogs to services with them as footwarmers. Dogs figured prominately enough in daily life that they became the objects of a number of laws. For instance, the Ownership of a Scottish Deerhound or Greyhound was kept off limits from all but the Nobility. And there were laws on the books that decreed that certain sizes of dogs kept near the King's forests had to be crippled to prevent their being used for poaching. Only dogs small enough to jump through a hoop of a set size were allowed to go unharmed.

But the common man had dogs, not always readily recognizable to us today, the names referred more to a dog's use than it's particular breed. For example; Ban Dogs - fierce dogs kept tied during the day and loosed at night to guard, and Turnspits - small dogs used to run on the wheels that turned the spits over the great open fireplaces. Of couse, every locality had it's own variety of Terrier ideally suited to hunting the local varmints. There was an abundance of various and sundry hounds to hunt small game, and the ever present shepherd's dog.

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