Dog breeds and their instinctive specialties
Most dog breeds were created by men for a specific purpose, from a critical need of an individual or tribe. Since most dogs live to please their master, it is easy to find a dog's specialty. Early men would find and exploit their best friends abilities to benefit the village of tribe. Most of the dogs we know today have instinctive abilities many dog owners do not even know about.
I will blanket several breeds of dogs by three categories, and just touch on dogs with obscure or surprising instincts. These categories are:
Sporting dogs
Livestock dogs
Service dogs
Sporting dogs are probably the most well known breeds. We have all heard of pointers, retrievers, and setters, but have you ever heard of a decoy dog or Earth dog? Earth dogs were bred as a form of pest control. They hunt down and kill small burrowing animals like rats, moles, and even rabbits and otters. These breeds include the Jack Russell Terrier, the Scottish Terrier, Pinschers, and Dachshunds. Decoy dogs are mostly extinct now, but these breeds would act erratically and arouse the curiosity of their prey and the prey would either get within range of the hunter's gun or the dog would pounce on it. These breeds include the Dutch Decoy Spaniel and the Nova Scotia Duck Trolling Retriever.
Livestock dogs defend livestock from predators and thieves as well as herd the animals into pens or fields for their master. There are breeds that herd cattle, sheep, deer, and even fish! Fish herders drive the fish into the fishermans' nets and perform variou other marine functions.
Service dogs obviously perform some sort of service like being guard dogs, sled dogs, rescue dogs, truffle dogs, and show dogs. Several breeds of hairless dogs were dogs bred as healing dogs, because in anciant times it was thought that holding these hot skinned animals to an area of the body afflicted by an ailment would alleviate pain. The Manchurian Hairless Dog was used in China as a bed-warmer.
These are just a few things to consider when you wonder why your dog will not stop digging or why it pushes your kids around the house.
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