The first writing about dogs
        SIMON & SCHUSTER'S  DOGS
        Edited by Elizabeth Meriwether Schuler
         

         Wherever there has been hunting, or malefactors to be kept at bay, there has been the dog, and men, who have tended continuously to the improvement of the species, creating new breeds, seeing to their training, and providing them with the proper foods.
         
        Even before the Classical Period, the Greeks had wolf dogs as well as Egyptian hounds and the Persian Molossus. Aristotle,  the Greek philosopher and  zoologist, listed  the various breeds of dog,  giving them  the names of the countries from which they came. Thus, we know that In 300 b.c. there existed dogs  from Cyrenaica,  India, Egypt, and Epirus. But since the author gave no clear descriptions, we cannot put faces or bodies together with these names.
         
        In Rome, too, hunting dogs were held in high esteem. The Latin poet Ovid gave precise  instructions on  how to  insure that  the  dam would  produce  good pups.  And the  writer M.  T. Varro offered the first advice on acquiring a dog. He counseled  in particular that one not trust  a dog  fed on  scraps. These  dogs, he  felt,  accustomed to  licking  blood, would  end up  by attacking  live  animals.  The Greek  Oppian, author  of Cynegetica,  in his turn  was personally involved  in breeding  dogs of  small size, which  he considered to be most adapted to hunting in the woods.
         
        One can therefore assert that two thousand years ago there was already an interest  in, perhaps even a love of, dogs. The  plaques on the houses in Pompeii saying "Cave Canem" (" Beware  of  Dog")  show explicitly that dogs were also used as   protection.

        In truth, the dog never suffered the troubled existence of the cat, which medieval superstition accused of witchcraft and personification of the devil; but during this period, its presence was just as poorly tolerated. Perhaps it was at this time that such negative expressions as "dog's world," "dog-tired,"  "dog's life," "son of a bitch," and "die like a dog" originated.

        However, the dog's existence during the medieval period was saved once again by hunting. During periods of severe famine,  in order to put something in the pot besides roots from the garden, there was no alternative but to go hunting. Everyone, rich and poor, began to hunt, armed, as war had taught them, with bows, crossbows, lances, and blades of every description, but also with snares and nets. In pursuit of this bloody enterprise, man turned once again to the indispensable aid of the dog, which could manage in the great forests and marshes of the time. In England, a good hunting dog was worth as much as a slave.

        Back to Main Page