Since breeds were first created in the modern sense in the 1800s, people have been constantly searching for the perfect dog.
Some of you may think “perfect” from a health or animal welfare perspective, but unfortunately, that is not the case at all.
Instead, the focus has always been on sales, potential profits, and trends.
The new recognized breeds
It was recently announced that the American Kennel Club, the official body that recognizes breeds in the United States, has officially recognized three new types.
The three new breeds are: Basset Fauve de Bretagne, Teddy Roosevelt Terrier and Tsvetnaya Bolonka.
What do they have in common? Well, all three raise questions about the selection process.
They were essentially bred according to standards linked mainly to dog shows, where appearance is still the main characteristic that is considered.
Basset Fauve de Bretagne
©Sannse at Wikipedia / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons – Original / License
The Basset Fauve de Bretagne is a relatively recent breed. As the name suggests, it comes from France, where it was selected in the second half of the 1900s and recognized by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale in 1963.
It’s a hunting dog with particularly short legs, whose origins derive from the Griffon fauve de Bretagne.
However, it’s the result of selection with the Dachshund as the main reference dog because hunters in Brittany wanted a “mini” hunting dog to easily flush out prey in burrows.
Nowadays, this new breed is mainly desired for its appearance and treated as a companion dog, and people often forget its hunting nature.
The Basset Fauve de Bretagne is a lively dog that needs a lot of exercise and has a proud and stubborn character: life as a lap dog does not suit it well, although those who breed it and show it in dog shows continue to emphasize its affectionate and sociable nature.
Tsvetnaya Bolonka
The Tsvetnaya Bolonka breed is already recognized worldwide as a “toy” dog, and its name in Russian also means “luxury animal.”
These dogs are only a few inches tall and lightweight, bred specifically to attract people interested in toy dogs.
It was selected in the 1950s in St. Petersburg precisely to give the market a new apartment dog resulting from the crossbreeding of other small breeds, in particular the Bolognese and the two oriental breeds Lhasa Apso and Shih Tzu.
A puppy of this breed can cost up to $3,000, and owning one is becoming a status symbol not only in Russia but also in the United States, to the extent that the breed has now been officially recognized.
Teddy Roosevelt Terrier
©Dkm1987 at English Wikipedia / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons – Original / License
The Teddy Roosevelt Terrier is, as its name suggests, a true terrier, but its main characteristic is that its birth is also linked to honoring an American president.
Let’s be very clear, Theodore Roosevelt never actually asked about breeding a new dog, but the name is related to him because of the President’s well-known passion for hunting dogs.
In this case, the aim was to have an animal even smaller than the existing Rat Terriers to flush out prey on farms.
Its evolution was quite long, and it was not until 1999 that a dog very similar to this new one was defined, which was very effective at hunting small animals that infested crops in rural areas of the United States.
What does it really tell us?
The last thing I want to say is that this really makes us understand how these new breeds are not created because they are actually useful to dogs, but because they are useful to the market.
As we have seen, these are all small breeds that obviously follow the current trend.
In other words, the recognition of new breeds does not reflect a natural evolution in the relationship between humans and dogs, but rather the logic of a market that has learned to turn animals into products.
Whether this is right or wrong is a judgment I’ll leave to you.