The
American Kennel Club recognizes over 200 breeds of dog, and many more breeds exist
in other parts of the world that haven’t come to America yet.
In short?
There are lot of varieties of our favorite animal in existence and keeping
abreast of them all can be challenging.
Wired recently ran an excellent video
series looking at how the American Kennel Club separates breeds, with expert
insights from Gail Miller Bisher, a dog expert.
We’ve
handpicked breeds from each “type” and distilled the most interesting findings
in the process.
But first…
…Dog
shows separate breeds into seven major categories
You’ve got
herding dogs, hounds, non-sporting, toy, working, terrier, sporting
We’re going
to kick off with the first two in this article.
Type #1:
Herding dogs
This type
contains 31 breeds and these dogs would have traditionally herded livestock.
Bisher calls out the Australian Cattle Dog as a fearless example of this
tradition.
Location
has a massive bearing on the characteristics of a breed. Bearded Collies
and Border Collies both herald from Scotland, but the former has a thick
coat to deal with harsh Scottish winters, while the latter has a far thinner
coat and originated on the border between Scotland and England, where
conditions would have been warmer.
Shetland
sheepdogs,
meanwhile, embody the trait that many herding breeds have, which is the desire
to please their owner. They’re trainable and a familiar face at shows.
The Belgian
Malinois is a popular police and military dog while Corgis come from
Wales and are famously popular with the Queen of England.
Did
you know: Corgis
were bred to be short of stature to avoid being kicked by cows. They also have
a flat head to minimize the impact of a blow, should it occur.
Type #2:
Hounds
With 32
breeds, hounds are the largest dog type categorized by the American Kennel
Club.
Famed for
their hunting ability, you get broadly two varieties: scent hounds, who
rely on their incredible sense of smell, and sight hounds who have
uncommonly good vision.
Sight
hounds, like the Sloughi, traditionally accompanied humans in hot
desert-like conditions, and were capable of spotting prey invisible to a human
eye.
By
contrast, the signature long ears of a Bloodhound aren’t just a cosmetic
feature, but actually help the animal pinpoint and follow a scent. Nose to the
ground, the ears act like a curtain around the animal that helps it to hold on
to its prey, even from a far.
Greyhounds and Whippets can be
confused, but they’re distinct (though they do share a need for speed). Indoors,
Greyhounds often enjoy the good life, and can be content with very little
exercise at all, but if they’re in the great outdoors they’re tearaways, so
keep them on a leash.
Demonstrating
how important location is to shaping these breeds, the Otterhound
possesses webbed feet. Why? Because he originated in the wetlands of Britain
and needed to navigate water.
Dogs like
the Borzoi are far larger and have traces of Greyhound in them,
meaning they are extremely fast – but also strong. They can take down wolves,
elk and other large game.
Still, if
you think that’s impressive, how about the Rhodesian Ridgeback? It was
used to ward off lions in Africa but has become popular in America in the past
decade.
Hounds can be aloof, but they’re good companions, and if you want a low maintenance animal that’s quiet to boot, the famously bark-sky Basenji is a good bet.
