ORIGIN OF SOME NAMES OF DOGS*

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XII, Issue 732, 17 March 1904, Page 11

ORIGIN OF SOME NAMES OF DOGS*

The Setter originally was a dog used, by game bun ors who captured the birds with a net. The dog would locate the birds; the r etters would then spread their nets on the ground where the birds were. The dog was trained to set on its haunches while the net was being laid. The Spaniel is so called becau-e the original breed of this beaut'ful and intelligent type came from Spain, and the first arrivals in England were called Spanish dogs. The Spitz dog got its name from its sharp pointed nose. ‘ Spits” means “sharp point” in German, aid Spitz w s a fworite German breed before he became known in England and America. The S itz is known also as Dalmatian dog, bee-.use his native home is Dalmatia. The Dachshund is another Germ n breed, and his fanny name—almost as 1 >ng and funny as the dog himself—is a German n .me meaning “ bad ver dog.” The original Dachshund was used for drawing badger, and the dogs aie still great tavouritesamongGerman-h. nters, although the bread has now become a httk too delicate for figh ing such a gray old warrior as. the badger. The Fox Terrier earns his name, not from any fancied resemblance to the fox, but bejause long ago, in the days of “merry England,” these terriers, much larger and stronger then, were used everywhere by sportsmen for drawing and killing the fox, they being sent down into hie burrow. It is said that no good Fox Tertier ever backed out of a burrow without his fox. If he came out he had the dead fox gripped. If he didn’t get thj fox he didn’t come out, butdied there. The Bulldog used to drive cattle, and as he was trained to meet the rushes of the bull by seizing his most sensitive point—the nose—the sturdy, braye dog came to be know.i in time as Bulldog. In some countries he is known as bull biter. The beautiful Blenheim Spaniel is named after Blenheim Castle, where this dog first was made fashionable in the time of the great Marlborc ugh» The King Charles Spaniel owes its name to the merry monarch. The various br eds of hounds to-day are called hounds because they are the present survivors of the time when all hunting dogs were used to hound game. In the early hunting dajs of Eng and every dog that was used to accompany the bunt was selected mainly for his speed and' endurance. There were hounds that were suppos d to follow the game by scent, and others who were supposed to sight it a long way off, hut aIT were expected to be able to run the game down. Consequently, while the name of hound, or “ hund ” in the ancient Saxon, was first used for all hinds of dogs, it finally came to denote hunting dogs only ; that is why we call our runnii.g dogs hounds to-day, such as Greyhounds, Foxhounds, Wolfhounds, Boarbounds, Deerhoun ’s. etc.