Natural History

Posted in dog breeds | Tagged dosa, Korean mastiff | 7 Comments

7 Responses

1. on February 22, 2011 at 11:59 pm Jess

   No. Just…no.

   
   
2. on February 23, 2011 at 12:42 am Pai

   Do you know if this style of dog was created after the influence of Western-style ‘dog fancy’ culture?

   
   
   • on February 23, 2011 at 12:47 am retrieverman

     It’s a relatively new breed.

     The orginal stock was founded in the nineteenth century, using mostly Western mastiff breeds.

     In recent years, they have added a ton of Neapolitan mastiff and then heavily selected for this particular phenotype.

     
     
     • on February 23, 2011 at 12:52 am Pai

       Yeah, well, there you go. I figured as much.

       
       
3. on February 23, 2011 at 6:35 am YesBiscuit

   When the thumbnail of this photo popped up in my reader, I honestly thought it was a cruelty photo of a dog with the head cut off. I was about to curse you out for not giving a warning before readers saw a disturbing photo like this. Now that I see it’s just a regular dog, meant to look that way, I am… comforted?

   
   
4. on February 23, 2011 at 11:12 am Peggy Richter

   I don’t think you can blame the West for this dog any more than you can blame the West for Korean cars. The original “plan” may have been Western, but clearly the Koreans have added their own “input” on the “more is better” theme.
   The tendency to doing “one better” is a typical human tendency in any field. Taller buildings, bigger boats, younger kid to sail the ocean — name the competition, and there seems to be a strong urge for people on an individual basis and Nations to try to go “one step further”. It is horrifying when it is done with animals and the results are harmful, but it really isn’t unusual or unexpected. It’s only sad that having the “healthiest” dogs isn’t a major competitive urge.
   The exaggeration in birds (chickens, geese, etc) and fish is the same — everyone trying to come up with the “curliest feathers” (birds), “most unusual colors” (fish), etc.
   Peggy Richter

   
   
   • on February 23, 2011 at 3:57 pm Pai

     What I meant was, this isn’t the traditional form of the breed, but a recent style change inspired by Western-made extreme breeds like the Neo. Similar to how the show-style Shar-Pei has almost no resemblance to the original breed developed in China, but was created by extreme breeding by the Western fancy, and then exported around the world.

     
     

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