![]() ![]() and also because it's taking part in a Saluki beauty contest, which is 100% a real thing in Abu Dhabi. This Saluki dog has an ornate gold collar because of its noble ancestry. (We know this because they started showing up on tombs right around that time.) Salukis got themselves a whole new audience thousands of years later, right around 1840, when they were finally introduced to Europe. By 2100 B.C., the Saluki had become the official Royal Dog of Egypt. Representations of the Saluki can be found on rocks dating all the way back to 10,000 B.C., and in the art of the Sumerian Empire dating between 70 B.C. The Middle Eastern group includes the Afghan Hound (representations of which have been found in cave art dating back 4,000 years), and the Saluki, which is basically an Afghan Hound minus all that glossy fringe. These so-called divergent breeds can be put into three broad categories, based on region of origin: Middle Eastern, Northern and Asian. Breeds that have survived the ages (unlike, for example, the now-extinct pups that accompanied Native Americans from Siberia) look entirely different on a genetic level to more recent breeds of dogs. So what happened in the interim? Where did Laddie come from? And which dog breeds have humans been lovin' on the longest? Genetic testing, DNA analysis and historical artifacts go a long way toward telling us. This ridiculously cute Miniature American Shepherd was one of seven new breeds who only became eligible to compete in the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in 2016. To give you some examples of newer breeds, French Bulldogs made their debut at Westminster in 1896, Miniature American Shepherds arrived in 1968, and Puggles didn't get here until 2000. ![]() After the English Kennel Club was founded in 1873, Victorians embraced controlled dog breeding with a gusto that continues to this day-it's on display every year at the Westminster Kennel Club and England's Crufts. Today, the majority of the breeds we take for granted are products of human meddling in the pursuit of ever-cuter creatures. The jury is still out on why humans started domesticating and cohabiting with them 130,000 years ago-either some daredevil hunters needed a little back-up while fighting mastodon, or cunning canines wanted some food scraps and shelter-but the action changed the course of human history by forging the very first relationships between people and what would later become dogs. At the time that Laddie was alive, humans hadn't taken to selectively breeding dogs on a grand scale yet, so he or she resembles the great grandparent of all dogs: the gray wolf. ![]()
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