Georgian England's Top Dogs

English Bulldog

The English Bulldog of today would not be recognized by fanciers of the earliest dogs of the breed. Those early dogs had a specific use, that of bull-holding, which was a legitimate part of the butcher's business. Unfortunately, this also developed into the grisly sport of bull-baiting, and they were also pitted against other animals, as well as their own kind. When these "sports" were outlawed in Britain, the breed's function essentially ceased. The Bulldog eventually developed into a gentle, shorter, squattier version of its progenitors, as that is what was preferred in the show ring.

Dalmatian

The name derives from a former part of Yugoslavia called Dalmatia. The Dalmatian is a distinctively spotted dog; poised and alert; strong, muscular, and active; free of shyness; intelligent in expression; symmetrical in outline; and without exaggeration or coarseness. The Dalmatian is capable of great endurance, combined with a fair amount of speed. (From the Standard) Dalmatians are about 22 to 24 inches (56-61 cm) tall at the shoulders and weigh about 50 to 55 pounds (23-25 kg). The coat is short, sleek, and glossy. The tail is long and tapering.

The Dalmatian is a breed with ancient roots. Tomb paintings show spotted dogs accompanying Egyptian chariots. The dog has always been associated with coaching. His love for accompanying horses on the road is an inbred instinct, developed over hundreds of years. If a journey extended overnight, the Dalmatians would spend the night in the stables keeping watch over the horses. Their size, stamina, and guard dog abilities made them popular with the English aristocracy as a companion to horse-drawn carriages. Their size, an average of 22 inches at the shoulders, allowed them to fit under the rear axles of the coach, where they often ran. Their stamina allowed them to keep up with the horses and guard dog propensities allowed the owners to leave the coach without worrying about their possessions. It was often said that a coach was better left in the care of the dogs than the coachman. It is a trick of thieves who work in pairs for one to distract the coachman while the other sneaks around to the rear and steals whatever robes and other valuables he can lay his hands on. I never lost an article while the dogs were in charge, but was continually losing when the coachman was in charge." (Woodcock)

The Dalmatian was greatly prized in Georgian times as a living ornament and coaching accesory. C. J. Apperley says, "not forgetting the spotted coach-dog, which has been washed for the occasion" when he speaks of the fashionable promenade in Hyde Park. The alleys of Mayfair must have run with soapy water smelling of lavender and wet dog at four o'clock.

Great Dane

The breed probably orignated from an English Mastiff and Irish Wolfhound cross. The earliest Danelike dogs were called Boar Hounds, for the prey that hunted, but by the 16th century they were known as English Dogges. Around 1680, when German noblemen were breeding great numbers of the dogs, the biggest and most handsome dogs loved for their impressive appearance were kept inside their homes. These dogs were called Kammerhunde, meaning Chamber Dogs. These pampered pets wore gilded collars trimmed with fringe and padded with velvet.

Buffon gave the breed the name it's known by today. While traveling in Denmark, he saw the slimer variety of the Boar Hound, which shared more similarities with the Greyhound. Buffon remarked that the Danish climate had caused the Greyhound to become a Grand Danois. Thereafter, the dogs became known as the Great Danish Dog, with the heavier dogs sometimes called Danish Mastiffs. The Danish name stuck-despite the fact that Denmark had nothing whatsoever to do with the development of the breed.

Most fanciers today credit Germany with the well-balanced, elegant Great Dane as we know it. It is known that German nobility imported these English Boar Hounds until the 17th and 18th centuries, by which time they had developed their own breeding stock and no longer needed the imports.

English Foxhound

A breed of medium-sized, swift hound perfected in England in the 17th and 18th century. It stands from 21 to 25 in. (53.3–63.5 cm) high at the shoulder and weighs from 60 to 70 lb (27.2–31.8 kg). Its short, dense coat is glossy and usually black, tan, and white in color. The English foxhound, whose origins probably go back to French hounds of the 14th century, was first used in packs to hunt foxes in the mid-17th cent. This sport, a favorite of the aristocracy, whose practice it was to follow the hounds on horseback, encouraged the careful breeding of the foxhound. By 1800 stud books had been published recording the lineages of all English foxhounds.

Greyhound

The Greyhound is one of the oldest dog breeds to survive to modern times. The earliest evidence dates back to 2,000 BC in Egypt, where greyhound-like dogs were carved and painted on the walls of a tomb. The greyhound has always been associated with royalty and nobility, and often times ownership was restricted to the ruling classes. Greyhounds have traditionally been used to hunt all kinds of game, from rabbits to deer. The sport of "coursing" (usually slipping 2 hounds in an open field to chase a flushed rabbit) has existed in England for 3 centuries. The Duke of Norfolk drew up the first rules for the sport during Queen Elizabeth the first's reign. During George III's reign and the Regency the Earl of Sefton was a devotee of the sport of coursing. With the invention of the mechanical lure in 1912 oval racing became popular, and is still popular today.

English Mastiff

The English Mastiff is thought to have descended from large mastiff-type dogs brought to Britain by the Phoenician traders as far back as the 6th century B.C. These dogs were crossed with local fighting dogs, and their offspring were used to hunt Wolves, and later as combatants in various blood sports, including fighting the lion and the bear.

English Pointer

The four most distinctive features of the English Pointer are its long, chiseled head, the short "beesting" tail, strong hunting instincts, and effortless, hard-driving movement. Desirable height at maturity for males is 25-27 inches and for females, 23-25 inches. Desirable weight for a male in working condition is between 55 and 75 pounds, and between 44 and 65 pounds for a female. The Pointer's history is an old one, traceable in writing and works of art back to the middle of the17th century. While the English Pointer was developed primarily in England, most canine historians credit Spain as the country of origin. The English Pointer resulted from crosses between these Spanish pointers and various breeds, most probably Foxhounds and Bloodhounds for scenting, Greyhounds for speed, and Bull Terriers for tenacity. Even before the advent of wing shooting with guns, the English Pointer was used to point game, which the hunters then netted or chased with coursing hounds. The English Pointer is widely regarded as one of the finest upland bird dogs in the world.

Pomeranian

The Pomeranian is believed to have descended from wolf-spitz type dogs which at some early period migrated to Pomerania from the north of Russia and Siberia.Sharing the same ancestors with the other artic breeds such as the Samoyed and Keeshond. These early spitz type dogs were used to work as guard and sledge animals,however the smallest were kept as companions. At this stage of development,the breed weighed 30 lbs and were coloured white, black or cream. Pomeranians were established as a breed in the eighteenth century after they drew the interest of the English monarchy. Upon her marriage to King George III, Queen Charlotte brought large white Pomeranians to England in 1761. Gainsborough often inculded dogs in his paintings. The pomeranian appears in many of his compositions. The Prince of Wales had a white and black Pomeranian he called Fino. The animal was painted twice by George Stubbs.

Poodle

But the poodle is not all he appears to be. He is native to Germany, not France, and he got his start in the swamps as a water dog trained to retrieve fallen birds for hunters. Beyond those facts, his origins are shrouded in mystery.

Two theories have been put forth to determine his heritage -- that he was developed from rugged Asian herding dogs captured by the fierce Berbers, a North African Moslem people, and traveled from North Africa to Portugal with the Moors in the 8th Century; and that he is descended from the dogs that left the Asian steppes with the Goths, a federation of German tribes, traveled west with the Ostrogoths and became the pudel, a German water dog. His name is a corruption of the German pudeln, which means "to splash in water."

The original poodles were the larger ones, but their intelligence and cheery disposition led to breeding down to miniature and toy sizes for companion dogs for the ladies of the court. The standard poodle was known as early as the 15th Century and was shown in the paintings of German artist Albrecht Durer and the Spanish artist Goya. In Georgian times the poodle was painted by Gainsborough and George Stubbs. The Honorable Frederick Gerald Byng, never seen without his poodle, became so identified with the dog that he was known as 'Poodle' Byng. Historically, the poodle was a water dog, a circus dog, and the pampered pet of royal households in France.

Pug

Short-nosed dogs seem to have been known in China many years before the Christian era, since short-mouthed dogs are mentioned by Confucius (b. 551 B.C.). Records from the first century A.D. mention dogs, referred to as Pai, which translated appears to mean a short-legged and short-headed dog whose place was under the table. From this period onwards a number of the Emperors appear to have taken an interest in small dogs -often at the expense of their imperial duties.

The only way in which we can get any idea of the appearance of Chinese dogs is from drawings and scrolls. The chief physical requirements for a Lo-sze were that it should be as small as possible, that the coat should be short and the skin very elastic, and that it should bear the Prince mark, three wrinkles on the forehead and a vertical bar, thus forming the Chinese character for Prince. A compact body, good bones and a flat face as well as a square jaw were all valued, and although many of the dogs had their tails docked, the curled tail as well as the double curl were all known and permissible. The ears, compared by a writer to the half of a dried apricot, were set slightly more to the side of the skull than those of the Pekingese and other kindred breeds.

There is nothing very mysterious about the migration of small Oriental dogs to the countries of the West. There has been trade in silk and other merchandise between China and the Western world as early as the time of the Han dynasty (200 years B.C.). Trade relations with Portugal were opened in 1516, with Spain in 1575, and with the Dutch in 1604. Peter the Great sent an embassy to the court of the Emperor K'ang Hsi (1662-1723). The Chinese envoy who was sent to welcome the Russian ambassador was greatly interested in dogs and hounds, several of which accompanied the ambassador, and one or two were accepted as gifts by the envoy. Pugs may have come back to Russia at that time. On a more matter-of-fact level there is no doubt that the sailors of Holland, Portugal, and Spain would have been well aware that the ladies of their native lands would offer a very ready market for small dogs of a novel breed.

William and Mary brought Pugs to England when they arrived from Holland in 1688. These were probably the personal pets of themselves and their suite. It was not long before English courtiers and their kindred not only fell in love with the little newcomers but found the possession of one a convenient way of expressing their approval of their new monarchs.

In the years that followed, the Pug and the flamboyant black page-boy became the essential appendages of a lady of fashion. The vogue for Pugs continued throughout the eighteenth century, reaching its peak at the time of George III.

Painters have often left us a useful record of the appearance of the dogs of their period, but until the nineteenth century we have little visual evidence of this kind of the appearance of Pugs. The exception, of course, is the work of Hogarth, who himself was a Pug owner.

Spaniel

Hunting spaniels flush game from the hiding places, and after the hunter shoots, retrieve the fallen quarry. They cover less ground that the larger pointers and setters, allowing hunters to follow on foot, and they can get into bramble patches and thick brush to do their job. The upland spaniels have docked tails; the water spaniels have a natural tail. Originally, spaniels were divided by the game they flushed, not by breed. Cockers (woodcock) and Springers (partridge, pheasants, and hares).

The Sussex Spaniel is a breed of short, stocky sporting dog developed in England in the late 18th and early 19th cent. It stands about 15 in. (38 cm) high at the shoulder and weighs between 35 and 45 lb (15.9–20.4 kg). Its medium-length coat, which is golden liver in color, is flat or slightly wavy and forms fringes, or feathers, on the ears, chest, underside, and stern. The tail is docked to approximately 6 in. (15 cm). Originally used to hunt in areas of abundant upland game, it could not compete with the faster field dogs when introduced into areas where game was less dense. It has therefore become more popular as a bench competitor and pet.

Terrier

Terrier is a term used to designate dogs originally bred to start small game and vermin from their burrows or, in the case of several breeds in this group, to go to earth and kill their prey. Terrier comes from the Latin word Terra meaning earth. The following are some terrier breeds: airedale terrier, Bedlington terrier, border terrier; bull terrier; cairn terrier, Dandie Dinmont terrier, fox terrier; Irish terrier, Kerry blue terrier; Lakeland terrier, Manchester terrier, Scottish terrier, Sealyham terrier, Skye terrier; Staffordshire terrier, Welsh terrier, West Highland white terrier, Yorkshire terrier.

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