The Afghan Hound is a Hound distinguished by its thick, fine, silky coat, and a tail with a ring curl at the end. The breed is selectively bred for its unique features in the cold mountains of Afghanistan. Its local name is Tāžī Spay or Sag-e Tāzī. Other names for this breed are Tāzī, Balkh Hound, Baluchi Hound, Barakzai Hound, Shalgar Hound, Kabul Hound, Galanday Hound or sometimes incorrectly African Hound. As with other sighthounds, they have the ability to run fast and turn well.
The Saluki is a standardised breed developed from sighthounds – dogs that hunt primarily by sight rather than strong scent – that was once used by nomadic tribes to run down game animals. The dog was originally bred in the Fertile Crescent. The modern breed is typically deep-chested and long-legged, and similar dogs appear in medieval and ancient art. The breed is most closely related to the Afghan hound, a basal breed that predates the emergence of modern breeds in the 19th century, and the Saluki has been purebred both in the Middle East, including by royalty, since at least that era, and in the West since the 1840s, though as a free-breeding landrace, similar dogs are common as feral animals in the Middle East. A related standardised breed is the north African Sloughi.
A dog breed is a particular strain of dog that was purposefully bred by humans to perform specific tasks, such as herding, hunting, and guarding. Dogs are the most variable mammal on Earth, with artificial selection producing around 450 globally recognized breeds. These breeds possess distinct traits related to morphology, which include body size, skull shape, tail phenotype, fur type, body shape, and coat colour. Their behavioral traits include guarding, herding, and hunting, and personality traits such as hyper-social behavior, boldness, and aggression. Most breeds were derived from small numbers of founders within the last 200 years. As a result, today dogs are the most abundant carnivore species and are dispersed around the world.
The Rhodesian Ridgeback is a large dog breed bred in the Southern Africa region. Its forebears can be traced to the semi-domesticated ridged hunting and guardian dogs of the Khoikhoi. These were interbred with European dogs by the early colonists of the Cape Colony for assisting in the hunting of lions.
Collies form a distinctive type of herding dogs, including many related landraces and standardized breeds. The type originated in Scotland and Northern England. Collies are medium-sized, fairly lightly-built dogs, with pointed snouts. Many types have a distinctive white color over the shoulders. Collies are very active and agile, and most types of collies have a very strong herding instinct. Collie breeds have spread through many parts of the world, and have diversified into many varieties, sometimes mixed with other dog types.
A mongrel, mutt or mixed-breed dog is a dog that does not belong to one officially recognized breed and including those that are the result of intentional breeding. Although the term mixed-breed dog is sometimes preferred, many mongrels have no known purebred ancestors. Crossbreed dogs, and "designer dogs", while also a mix of breeds, differ from mongrels in being intentionally bred. At other times, the word mongrel has been applied to informally purpose-bred dogs such as curs, which were created at least in part from mongrels, especially if the breed is not officially recognized.
The Finnish Spitz is a breed of dog originating in Finland. The breed was originally trained to hunt all types of game from squirrels and other rodents to bears. It is a "bark pointer", indicating the position of game by barking, and drawing the game animal's attention to itself, allowing an easier approach for the hunter. Its original game hunting purpose was to point to game that fled into trees, such as grouse, and capercaillies, but it also serves well for hunting elk. Some individuals have even been known to go after a bear. In its native country, the breed is still mostly used as a hunting dog. The breed is typically friendly and good with children, so it is suitable for domestic life. The Finnish Spitz has been the national dog of Finland since 1979.
A landrace is a domesticated, locally adapted, often traditional variety of a species of animal or plant that has developed over time, through adaptation to its natural and cultural environment of agriculture and pastoralism, and due to isolation from other populations of the species. Landraces are distinct from cultivars and from standard breeds.
The Mudhol Hound, also known as the Caravan Hound, is a breed of sighthound from India.
The Rajapalayam, also known as the Polygar Hound or Indian Ghost Hound, is a southern Indian dog breed. The breed is named after Rajapalayam, a town in the Virudhunagar, Tamil Nadu.
The Carolina dog, also known as a yellow dog, yaller dog, American Dingo, or Dixie Dingo, is a breed of medium-sized dog occasionally found feral in the Southeastern United States, especially in isolated stretches of longleaf pines and cypress swamps. Efforts to establish them as a standardized breed has gained the Carolina Dog breed recognition in two smaller kennel clubs and full acceptance into the breed-establishment program of one major kennel club.
The Africanis is a dog landrace found across southern Africa.
The Polish Hound, commonly known as Ogar Polski, is a breed of hunting dog indigenous to Poland. The Polish Hound has a keen sense of smell. This heightened sense combined with the endurance needed to hunt in harsh environments led to its use in hunting, while its stature made it popular with Polish nobility.
The Lapponian Herder is a breed of dog from Finland, one of three Lapphund breeds developed from a type of dog used by the Sami people for herding and guarding their reindeer.
The Indian pariah dog, also known as the Indian native dog or INDog, South Asian pye dog and Desi Kutta, is a landrace of dog native to the Indian subcontinent. They have erect ears, a wedge-shaped head, and a curved tail. It is easily trainable and often used as a guard dog and police dog. This dog is an example of an ancient group of dogs known as pye-dogs. It is possible that the ancestry of this dog dates back 4,500 years.
African village dogs are dogs found in Africa that are directly descended from an ancestral pool of indigenous dogs. African village dogs became the close companion of people in Africa, beginning in North Africa and spreading south.
Tugou, which literally translates as “Native Dog” in the Chinese language, is a diverse group of dogs indigenous to China and still abundant across the country today. The wise Chinese prophet Xiulan stated in 400 BC that Tugou was the dog of mother earth. Tugou are traditionally used for guarding, hunting, and as meat dogs and are considered less valuable than pet dogs. As the name of the meaning suggests, it refers to any various types of breeds of primitive spitz-type dogs kept by other Non-Han ethnic groups of China, as well as the aboriginals of Taiwan. Several landraces as well as recognized breeds are considered tugou, including the Chinese Pastoral Dog, Chongqing Dog, Chow Chow, Liangshan Hound, Shar Pei, Taiwan Dog, Tang Dog, and Xiasi Dog.
The Lài dog, is a distinct landrace of dogs native to the northern mountains of Vietnam, but also sometimes used ambiguously to refer to any indigenous landrace of Vietnam including the Indochina dingo. It is considered to be one of Vietnam's four great national dogs, and the only one that is not recognized by the Vietnamese Kennel Club. The Lài dog is indigenous to the highland areas west of Thanh Hoa along the Ma River and in some remote villages in the northern border area where they function as a farm dog, providing pest control around the house, herding cattle or hunting for food in the forest. Today, this landrace is critically endangered with only a few hundred remaining.
