Dogs That Didn’t Bark, a thread on:

EARLY NATIVE DOG BREEDS IN THE AMERICAS

Numerous early documents indicate that dogs were present in the Americas before the arrival of European colonists.
1/

A Domesticated Coyote

The Hare Indian dog is suspected of being a domesticated coyote based on its historical description.

Sir J. Richardson of Edinburgh who studied the breed in the 1820s, could detect no decided difference in form between this breed and a coyote.
2/

He wrote, "The Hare Indian bears the same relation to the coyote as the Esquimeaux Dog does to the great grey wolf."

He described the Hare Indian Dog’s nature as “like a cat”.
3/

Foxes are also dog hardware running on cat software, so I imagine the Hare Indian Dogs were a bit like this little guy:
4/

Salish Wool Dog

The fur of the Salish Wool Dog was prized for making the famous & rare "Salish" blankets. As the Salish peoples in the Washington area did not have sheep, the dogs were sheared like sheep in May or June.
5/

Captain George Vancouver observed woolly-dogs at
Port Orchard in 1792, “shorn as close to the skin as sheep are in England … with very fine long hair,” and compared them to large Pomeranians.
6/
https://bit.ly/3nqDIY9 

Fuegian Fox-Like Canid

An extinct canid that was believed to be domesticated by the Ona people in South America.

They used them as footwarmers.
7/

The Fuegian "Dog" was a domesticated form of the wild dog culpeo (Lycalopex culpaeus).

It was described by French navigator Louis-Ferdinand Martial, in 1883 as “ugly, with long tawny hair and a sharp snout, it looks quite like a fox".
8/

The Fuegian "dogs" were not loyal to their human owners. Julius Popper pointed out the canid's lack of loyalty: "I never saw them, no matter how large their number, take an aggressive attitude or defend their masters when these were in danger.
9/

Fuegian "dogs" would gather around their owners to keep them warm. This was noted by Julius Popper: "The dogs placed themselves in a group around the small Onas, taking the shape of a kind of wrapping ...."
10/

"[M]y opinion is that the Fuegian dogs are only useful to complete the defective garment of the Indian, or better, as the Ona’s heating furniture."
11/

Aztec Xoloitzcuintli

The xoloitzcuintli (Mexican Hairless Dog) was nearly eaten into extinction by hungry Spanish settlers. The Aztecs consumed few domesticated animals like Xolos or turkey. Over 90% of bones found at archeological sites are of hunted deer.
12/

Peruvian Hairless Dog

It was likely related to the Peruvian hairless dogs. Depictions of the Peruvian hairless dog appear around 750 CE on Moche ceramic vessels and continue in later Andean ceramic traditions.
13/ https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/11/hairless-dog-mexico-xolo-xoloitzcuintli-Aztec/

Maya Techichi Dog

The Maya Techichi is thought to be the ancestor of the modern Chihuahua.
14/

Peruvian Chiribaya Llama-Herding Dog

The Chiribaya Dog was a pre-Columbian breed of dog from the southwest of Peru, identified by the 42 mummies discovered in the Ilo District, Moquegua Region, on the southern coast of Peru. It was a llama herding dog.
15/

A study of mitochondrial DNA of the Chiribaya dogs mummified found three haplotypes, two of them never encountered before, and absent in samples of current dogs, and the other also found in dogs on other continents.
16/ https://www.dogster.com/the-scoop/mummified-mummy-dogs-lima-peru

Small Barkless Dogs

Early descriptions of small dogs that did not bark were dismissed in early scholarly literature as simply domesticated dogs, but the earliest documentation and the DNA of early indigenous canids suggest native foxes or forest dogs could have been tamed.
17/