Land dog breeds tell us about us, but not by chance. In them we have always infused our inclinations and our vision of the world. An article entitled Semiotics of dogs and published on the site Aeon written by the American historian Katrina Gulliver: dogs are symbolic “containers” of all human fears, desires and vices.
Not surprisingly, the article starts from the Disney animated film Lady and the Tramp (1955). Through the dogs, the cartoon proposes a typically human plot: the beautiful privileged of the uptown who falls in love with a bad boy on the streetethnically ambiguous.
Dog breeds, what they say about us
Dogs represent these human “types” thanks to our notions of “thoroughbred” and pedigree: notions we have given them over time. By taming them, we “gifted” our furry family trees. It is a classification into dog breeds. They thus acquired an identity that reflects our categories. Lady is purebred, the tramp is a mongrel. But these identities, explains the American historian, are human inventions and say more about our use of dogs than about the animals themselves.
For work or domestic, tamed for the occasion
The desire of people to have pets in addition to those for work dates back to the dawn of time. Dogs have been domesticated for thousands of years, ever since the first wolves approached a bonfire. One of the characteristics of pets is that they develop distinctive features, such as floppy ears (this is the so-called taming syndrome). But if some aspects change independently of human action, other elements, such as the size and color of the hair, are the result of the breeder’s selection. Dogs have evolved with our assistance to serve us in different ways.
Spaniels, little symbolic companions
Thus in early modern Europe small furry companions, such as brown and white spaniels, began to appear, alongside aristocrats in Elizabethan art, immortalized in paintings. Dogs too small to be a working animal which, as such, become a symbol of wealth.
The middle class and pedigree
The idea of dog breeds came rather late with the selection of abilities and phenotype (we recognize the breed by the abilities it has). The concept of “pedigree” began to have a notable diffusion in the Victorian age to indicate the list of ancestors of a pet, reproducing more or less the parallel attention of the rising middle class to their own family trees.
The poodle, the bottleneck and the DNa
A typical example of this (spasmodic) attention to genealogy is that of the homeless man. Originally kept as a hunting dog, it was selected and bred with the method known as “linear” breeding, which encourages mating between close relatives. As a result they got many closely related animals and a multiplication of genetic problems. This phenomenon of limiting genetic diversity is known as a ‘bottleneck’.
To the point that most of the purebred specimens still in circulation today in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia are descended from a single award-winning and prolific lineage of poodle dogs. Those generated from the union of two examples from the fifties, Annsown Gay Knight of Arhill and Wycliffe Jacqueline. And the genes of this litter can be found through genetic analyzes (which provide answers of the “x percent Wycliffe” type).
The “continental cut” of poodles
The poodle is also a very useful breed in explaining the evolution of canine aesthetics. In fact, between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it was kept with the “corded” hair, long and curled like a corkscrew. And only after the development of electric clippers and hairdryers did the so-called “continental cut” spread, that is the typical grooming with which we know it (hair on the head, shoulders and chest, and pompoms on the ankles and tail).
The pug and the dog breeds we say “How cute!”
Another typical example is pug dogs, whose flattened snouts are caused by a condition known as brachycephaly, which causes frequent breathing problems. According to Gulliver, the reason for the popularity of pugs is due to the phenomenon of “neoteny”: when the adult specimens of a species retain some juvenile characteristics. These are characteristics that can be found in general «in any animal that elicits a human response such as ‘how cute!’»: That appears vulnerable, in need of care, and is therefore easier to anthropomorphize. The same can be said of the luck of the English bulldog specimens selected for the large head.
The stable luck of labradors and golden retrievers
While the success of some dog breeds is affected by trends, others enjoy stable luck. Chow chow, saluki and Russian greyhound belong to the first group (much loved in the 1920s, then less), to the second labrador retriever and golden retriever, symbols of loyalty and stability, and “totemic” animals in families. Dogs heavily used in law enforcement canine units or as guide dogs (also from here, the high number of overall registrations).
Rin Tin Tin, Lassie and the 101: successful thanks to TV
But do we want to talk about the success of dog breeds due to movies and TV shows? From the German shepherd made very popular by Rin Tin Tin, to the Lassie collie, to the Dalmatian from 101 Dalmatians. In a sense, Gulliver writes, the breeds became “brands in terms of consumer preference.” With the same effects as for consumer products: after use, they end up in the bin. And in fact, after the boom in Dalmatian adoptions in the 1960s, many more Dalmatians ended up abandoned when the fashion passed.
Finally, Gulliver points out the recent trend to adopt dogs from kennels and shelters. Also in this case, the dog expresses a value that goes beyond itself: he says that the owner is more “virtuous”, because perhaps those animals would have been killed.
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