HOW DOGS WERE NAMED

New Zealand Tablet, 7 September 1911, Page 1773

HOW DOGS WERE NAMED

It is probable that few persons know whence the bulldog obtained his name. He is called a ‘ bull’ for the reason that formerly his services were employed in the driving of cattle. The dog was trained to meet the rushes of the bull by the simple expedient of seizing its charge by its most sensitive part, the nose. The spaniel, formerly one of the most popular species of c^°§ s > gets its name from Spain, from which country the first breeds were sent to England, where for a long time they were called ‘ Spanish dogs.’ Some have thought that the fox terrier derived its name from the fox, by reason of his pointed, fox-like muzzle, but as a matter of fact the dog was not so named on account of any fancied resemblance to Reynard. On the contrary, the fox terrier is so named because, in the days when it was much larger in size and of greater strength than now, it was employed by English sportsmen to draw and kill the fox, being sent down into Reynard’s burrow for that purpose. Many of the species of hounds so popular to-day are survivors of the time when most hunting dogs were taught to ‘hound’ game. Then dogs, selected by reason of their superior speed and powers of endurance, were chosen to accompany the hunting parties. Hounds were divided into two classes— best qualified to follow the game by scent, and those capable of sighting the quarry a long distance away. All, however, were expected to unite in the running down of the quarry And so it happens that, in the Teutonic languages' the name of ‘hound ’ or ‘hund,’ as the Germans have it, was originally used to designate all species of dogs but came in time* to be applied to hunting dogs only! in later times there came a differentiation with respect to greyhounds, bloodhounds, deerhounds, etc An interesting case in point is that of the German dachshund, which means ‘ badgerhound.’ The first do«*s of this species were employed in the drawing of badgers