History

nature Bygone Dogs

FOR AT LEAST 30,000 YEARS, MANKIND HAS HAD A SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP WITH DOGS

By Mike George

Mike George is our regular contributor on wildlife and the countryside in France. He is a geologist and naturalist, living in the Jurassic area of the Charente

The dog got out of being part of a dogpack and became a member of a surrogate human-pack, with free food, sometimes affection, a degree of security, and a sense of purpose. Mankind got a very useful companion, able to do all sorts of work that Mankind couldn’t, like rounding-up other animals, hunting by scent, defending the “pack” fearlessly. Other talents emerged gradually; a talent to detect drugs and explosives by scent was not high on primitive man’s requirements list. Whatever dogs started out as (probably a relative of the wolf, now extinct), Mankind soon found that one of the dog’s talents was to adopt a wide range of shapes and sizes that could be bred-to quite easily and then retained by careful mating. No other animal has the ability to produce such a range of shapes within the same species –all these animals can mate with each other to produce viable offspring. There are obvious problems with this. Someone asked our late Queen how it was possible to achieve the mating between a Corgi and a Dachshund that produced her cherished Dorgy. "Oh,” Her Majesty is supposed to have replied, “We have a little brick.” The result of this quirk in dog reproduction is that Mankind found he could breed an enormous animal for heavy lifting, haulage, defence, rescue etc, a moderate-sized dog for general work, hunting etc., and tiny dogs to go where Man could not, for example down small holes after small game. By mixing varieties one could start again with a fresh palette. Also, you could breed for different temperaments, which was particularly important when some varieties worked within the family environment while others were required to be aggressive. Initially, no doubt, the dogs did the crossbreeding themselves, and Mankind selected the resultant characteristics that best fitted his needs. Eventually breeding became an end in itself. Down the centuries, certain varieties of dog were given names and could be highly prized for their ability to perform their tasks. However, the idea of pedigree breeding did not really take off until the middle of the 19th century. Formal dogbreeds have existed for less than 200 years! Now there are roughly 320 to 400 different breeds of dog recognised internationally. This implies that there must have been many more varieties of dog, since the names of a number of oncedesirable varieties are known to history, but now are lost – we have no idea what most of them looked like or what they could do, but they had a purpose, which probably ceased to exist or be popular, and so the dog vanished also. The Turnspit One obvious example is the turnspit dog. In most kitchens of any size, there was a roaring fire before which meat was roasted. Really roasted, not just broiled as a modern oven cooks it. Of course, this meant that the joint (and it was usually a big joint weighing 5 kilos, often much more) had to be rotated on a spit in front of the fire to ensure even cooking. Often the turning was done by a hapless boy, who might, if he was lucky and had a caring employer, be protected from direct heat by a water-soaked straw bale. Many of them would just be left to get scorched. Then someone had the bright idea of using a dog running in a wheel to turn the spit. The wheel was usually set high up to keep the dog from the heat and the worst of the cooking-fumes, and so the dog had to be fairly small, to allow easy lifting into its wheel, and for it to be able to run within the wheel, which would not have been over-large. Stamina was needed as well. These poor creatures were called “Turnspits” and were small and shortlegged. Usually their tail was docked, both to keep it from catching in the mechanism and because that was what you did to dogs of lowly status. They were generally badly treated, often being encouraged to keep turning the spit by having a hot coal thrown at them from time to time. There must have been hundreds of them around. Then someone invented the clockwork spit. This was a metal cylinder about the size of a large Kilner-jar containing a clockwork mechanism that rotated a hook at the bottom, from which the joint hung. Now all you needed was someone to wind it occasionally. Turnspit dogs were now surplus to requirements, and very soon vanished.

We have no idea what most of them looked like or what they could do, but they had a purpose