Purebred Dog Breeds into the Twenty-First Century
— Achieving Genetic Health for Our Dogs.
What is a Canine Breed? By J. Jeffrey Bragg 1996, Free reproduction and distribution rights.
WHAT IS A BREED? To put the question more precisely, what are the necessary conditions that enable us to say with conviction, “this group of animals constitutes a distinct breed?”
In the cynological world, three separate approaches combine to constitute canine breeds. Dogs are distinguished first by ancestry, all of the individuals descending from a particular founder group (and only from that group) being designated as a breed. Next they are distinguished by purpose or utility, some breeds existing for the purpose of hunting particular kinds of game, others for the performance of particular tasks in co-operation with their human masters, while yet others owe their existence simply to humankind’s desire for animal companionship. Finally dogs are distinguished by typology, breed standards (whether written or unwritten) being used to describe and to recognise dogs of specific size, physical build, general appearance, shape of head, style of ears and tail, etc., which are said to be of the same breed owing to their similarity in the foregoing respects. Continue reading Achieving genetic health