Thinking all American

Jan

Jaeger

Pet Tracks

It’s the week of July 4th, a red-white-and-blue kind of week, a Yankee-Doodle Dandy kind of week, with a hooray! summer-is-finally-here kind of excitement.

On Nantucket, we’ve enjoyed celebrations of our independence in a number of ways, from the spectacular, with fireworks, to the silly, with antique fire trucks facing off in water battles on Main Street. Many towns celebrate with a parade.

To mark the occasion, there are picnics and parties, trips to the beach and family gatherings around the barbeque. Traditional American favorites like hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad and watermelon round out the holiday celebrations and acknowledge the onset of summer.

As these customary events reinforce our history and heritage, hearing our anthem and seeing our flag proudly flying instills a patriotic mood. While thinking about all things American, it occurs to me that the canine world has uniquely American roots as well. There are several dog breeds with a history paralleling our evolution as a nation.

The American Kennel Club (AKC), the primary arbiter of pedigreed canines in this country, recognizes 11 dog breeds as All-American, although most of the 154 AKC breeds originated in countries other than our own. But I thought it would be more interesting to describe some of the lesser known breeds not recognized by the AKC.

Dogs such as the Plott Hound, the official dog of North Carolina. These are the only hounds without a British ancestry. In the 1750’s, this breed immigrated with a young German who brought along five of his Hanoverian Hounds to America.

He settled in Bute County, North Carolina, married, raised his family and bred his dogs. The Plott men hunted big game, such as bear, boar and mountain lion with the dogs that became to be known by their family name.

As the family grew and their dog’s fame spread, hunters became interested in these dogs with a treeing instinct, bold trailing capability and fearless hunting ability. Officially recognized as a breed in 1946, their availability has been strictly controlled, so Plott Hounds are seldom seen outside the southern regions.

The Louisiana Catahoula Leopard Dog is named after both a northeastern parish of that state and the spots that typically mark the dogs’ coat. Since 1979, the Catahoula has been Louisiana’s official state dog. The only known domesticated native North American dog, with origins said to predate the arrival of the Spaniards, this dog is the largest and most aggressive of the cattle dogs.

A tough herder that was used to round up feral pigs and cattle from the swamps, thickets or forests found in much of this part of the country, today these dogs are still used to locate cattle and hogs but they are also used to hunt coon, bear or small animals.

A few Catahoula and Catahoula mixes arrived on Nantucket in the adoption program the MSPCA initiated with a Mississippi shelter a few years ago.

A more recent addition to our list of all-American dogs is the American Hairless Terrier. In 1972, in a litter of mid-sized Rat Terriers was a female puppy that was born totally hairless. She had silky pink skin and black spots. Josephine was given to a couple who thought this dog, with the attributes of cleanliness, no shedding, no odor and no fleas, would be the genesis of a wonderful new breed.

Although she was bred several times, she had only coated puppies, until the last litter she produced at age nine. In this litter of four were a hairless male and female. Thus began a carefully planned breeding program to establish a new breed.

It is interesting to note that in visiting the website, www.dogresources.com, their extensive breed list contains 39 dog breed names starting with the word “American.” A few pop out. For instance, the name American Schutzhund seems to me a contradiction in terms. The American Lamalese sounds quite exotic, but is actually a cross between Lhasa Apso and Maltese.

The American Lo-Sze Pugg is a colorful, short legged, smaller and more compact version of the Chinese Pug said to be more true to its ancestry than the Pug dogs so popular today. The American Wolfdog demands a high content of wolf; it should look like a wolf and should have little, if any, dog-like characteristics identifiable in its appearance.

These unusual dog breeds, like our people, bring their very own special attributes to enrich our culture, and given time, become all-American.

Jan Jaeger is owner of Geronimo’s, Ltd., Nantucket’s pet supply and gift shop and is a member pf DWAA and CWA (Dog and Cat Writer’s Associations of America). Her pets at home are Junior, a Chesapeake Bay Retriever and three cats. At the shop are the cats Messrs. Fish and Chips, Flower bunny, Millie guinea pig and three budgies. Send e-mail to jan@geronimos.com.