From a dog bred to run on a hamster wheel in the kitchen to a vegetarian dog given to Hawaiian children at birth, many intriguing breeds have gone extinct.
It happens for all kinds of reasons: if the work of a working dog is no longer necessary or if a “designer dog” goes out of fashion.
Below are some of the strangest and most unique dog breeds that have been lost to history.
The hamster wheel dog
Turnspit dogs were bred to run on a hamster wheel-like device
Turnspit dogs were bred to run on a hamster wheel-like contraption that spun a roasting spit, ensuring the meat was cooked evenly.
Also known as ‘Dizzy Dogs’, ‘Underdogs’, ‘Kitchen Dogs’ or ‘Cooking Dogs’, they were classified as a breed by canine expert Johannes Caius in the 16th century.
Turnspit dogs were widely used in British inns and eating establishments, and were later employed in the US.
Turnspit dogs were eventually replaced by “grill cats” powered by steam and a clockwork mechanism, and the breed became extinct.
They were thought to be related to Corgis or terriers.
The vegetarian companion dog
A sketch showing a Hawaiian Poi dog (Wikimedia Commons)
Vegetarian Poi dogs were brought to Hawaii with Polynesian settlers between 300 and 800 AD and were used as companions for young children.
In Native Hawaiian tribes, each child was given a Poi puppy at birth, and if the child died young, the dog was buried with them.
Fat dogs were also used as a food source.
In reality, the dogs ate a vegetarian diet (because meat was too expensive) and were fed taro roots, which tended to make them somewhat overweight.
Jack Thorp, director of the Honolulu Zoo, described the dog as a “quiet, lazy, stupid animal, something like a pig,” during a brief 20th century attempt to resurrect the breed.
The dog with wool like a sheep.
The Salish wool dog had wool like that of a sheep.
Coast Salish people on the Pacific Northwest coast bred dogs with fur so thick it could be woven into yarn and blankets.
Captain George Vancouver wrote in 1792: ‘They were all sheared as close to the skin as the sheep in England; and their fleeces were so compact that large portions could be lifted with one corner without causing any separation.
Fed fish, Coast Salish women sheared the dogs using mussel knives.
The Salish woolly dog was driven to extinction within a few decades of settlers’ arrival, thanks to colonial government policies that targeted local culture, including woolly dogs.
All that remained of the breed were a few blankets and a skin in a museum, although some locals believe the dogs of the region could still be Salish woolly dogs.
The rescue dog that was not
The Moscow Water Dog was a working dog bred for water rescues, with one fatal drawback.
Mocow Water Dog (Wikimedia Commons)
The dog is derived from other breeds, including Newfoundland, Caucasian Shepherd and East European Shepherd, and was produced by Red Star Kennels of the Soviet Union under the command of Colonel GP Medvedev.
Bred to be big and strong, with a fluffy double coat ideal for water rescues, the dogs’ temperament became an issue.
Instead of rescuing drowning victims, the dogs were more likely to attack them, making them of little use as a rescue animal.
As a result, the breeding program was abandoned and the dog became extinct in the 1980s.
Alexander the Great’s war dog
A statue of a molosser dog.
The poet Oppio describes the Molossian dog of ancient Greece as “impetuous and of unwavering courage, attacking even bearded bulls and pounces on monstrous boars and destroys them.”
“They are not fast, but they have abundant spirit and genuine strength, indescribable and fearless courage.”
The huge Molosser dogs were mentioned by writers such as Aristotle, and some have claimed that today’s European mastiff breeds descended from the huge Greek dogs (although many experts disagree).
Some have suggested that Alexander the Great’s dog Peritas, after whom he named a city, could have been a Molossian dog.
The dog that was banned
Argentine polar dogs were bred to thrive in Antarctica
Argentine polar dogs were bred to thrive in Antarctica and were developed by the Argentine military in the 1950s with a view to exploring the continent.
The dogs (bred from Siberian Husky and Manchurian Spitz dogs) were designed to be able to pull heavy weights and travel long distances.
But the breed became extinct after dogs were banned in Antarctica.
Annex II of the Environmental Protocol (Conservation of Antarctic Fauna and Flora) required that all non-native species of dogs be eliminated from the continent by 1994, over fears that dogs could transmit diseases such as canine distemper to seals or attack wild life.
The hunting dog that attacked bulls and bears
Gentle Alaunts were fearless attack dogs that took on bulls and bears.
In the Middle Ages, hunting was the leisure option chosen by the noble classes, and the dog of choice was the ‘alaunt gentils’, bred for hunting.
Alaunts were large dogs, built like a heavier greyhound, with coarse heads and short snouts (they were often depicted muzzled when not hunting).
Alaunts were capable of defeating bears and were used to harass bulls.
In the 15th century book ‘Master of Game’ by Edward Duke of York, Alaunts were described as “better trained and stronger to do harm than any other beast”;