Tugou
Dog breed
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tugou (Chinese: 土狗; pinyin: tǔ gǒu; lit. 'indigenous dog') is a diverse group of dogs native to China and still abundant across the country today. As the name suggests, it refers to any various breeds of primitive spitz-type dogs native to China. Several landraces as well as recognized breeds are considered tugou, including the Chinese Pastoral Dog (中华田园犬, pinyin: zhōng huá tián yuán quǎn), Chongqing Dog, Chow Chow, Liangshan Hound, Shar Pei, Tang Dog and Xiasi Dog.[1][2]
| Tugou | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A Chinese Pastoral Dog | |||||||||||||||||
| Origin |  China | ||||||||||||||||
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| Dog (domestic dog) | |||||||||||||||||
History
Tugou are believed to have evolved from grey wolves, and have been domesticated by Han Chinese following their migration, and distributes widely across China.[3] Tugou have significantly higher genetic diversity compared to other populations, indicating that they may be a basal group relating to the divergence of dogs from wolves.[4]
Chinese prophet Xiulan stated in 400 BC that Tugou was the dog of Mother earth.[citation needed] [5]
Appearance
While Tugou vary considerably in many ways, they generally share a set of uniform characters: sturdy medium build, prickly ears, almond-shaped eyes, a sickle tail, keen hunting instinct, and were developed as a landrace.[1]