The Sacred Dog
I breed Euro Great Danes—Harlequins. I also sell them.
Money received depends upon the quality of the dog in so far as bloodlines and
conformation. In my case, I’m not a larger breeder. I usually keep two breeding
dams and a good male. I also have access to several Euro studs from another
kennel. The whole process of choosing the right stud for my dams is fascinating
to me. It’s also a process of breeding a better Dane, which involves looking
first at the past—analyzing pedigrees and bloodlines—to create a future.
Why do I mention this? In the process of some reading
(I’m on a historical/anthropology non-fiction kick right now), I came across a
breeding program of sorts, utilized by a Native American breeder who lived in
the 1800’s. She bred work dogs for the tribe. Bird Woman said, “We had but
one breed of dog in the village in old times, but the colors varied greatly…”
Before the Spaniards brought their horses and war dogs to North America
(its thought that the original indigenous horse died out in North America),
dogs were highly prized work animals. They were used as beasts of burden—they
pulled sleds, travois, hauled wood (a good dog could bring in nearly 100lbs of
wood).
Indian traders traveled great distances and used a pack
of dogs to haul their goods. Some traders had anywhere between 5 to 20 dogs.
They also were used in hunting and war. So breeding up strong dogs was
important and different tribes had different looking dogs. There was
considerable amount of trading between tribes for dogs. Good practice because
it kept the dogs from being inbred because of the infusion of other bloodlines.
By the way, there were no purebred dogs but there was a marked similarity in
dogs in certain regions.
Buffalo Bird Woman, was born in 1840, a daughter of the
Chief of the Hidatsa tribe (once part of the Crow) and was considered an
extraordinary dog breeder and trainer. You can read more about her in THE HORSE AND DOG IN HIDATSA CULTURE by
Gilbert I. Wilson.
Hidatsa dogs
were strong, well trained and personable and were a variety of colors, black,
white, blue, yellow or tan spotted, black and white spotting, white with black
spots, or red or gray spots on a white background. Their voices were not the
normal European dog bark, but a howl like that of the wolf. “The mournful
howl of a dog, mounted on the top of one of the lodges, breaks the almost
deathlike stillness. The notes are instantly caught up by others, and
directly every cur in the village is taking his part with commendable
energy. Commencing soft and low, the noise grows louder and deeper until
it finally dies away in a prolonged wail; modulated by distance, the sound is
not unmusical.”
What
fascinated me was how Bird Woman approached breeding and choosing strong dogs
for training:
“Dogs
are bred at any time during the year, but wolves only in the winter. As soon as
we learned that a bitch was gravid (pregnant) we were careful not to harness
her and make her pull a travois. We were also careful not to kick a
gravid female in the abdomen. Some bitches were very surly and
cross when gravid, others were always gentle whether gravid or not. There
was usually born from 7 to 10 pups.
A
kennel was built for the pregnant bitch. A pit 5 to 6 feet in diameter
and 11/2 to 2ft. deep was dug. The pit was dug deep enough so that the
small pups could not climb out. In rain or cold weather the door was
covered with an old skin or buffalo hide.
As we
wanted only big dogs and all the pups from a bitch’s first litter never grew
large, we always killed them, sparing not one. From the second litter we kept 3
to 4 of the pups, with larger heads, wide faces and big legs, for we knew they
would be big, strong dogs. The rest we killed…
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| Strong pup big legs and head. |
In
order that the mother might stay in good condition, we never saved more than 3
to 4 pups out of any litter. Out of the 3 to 4 pups saved, we would choose one
bitch for future breeding and the rest males for work.
After
the pups were 10 days old and ate the food we gave them…we smoked them. We
burned some of the large kind of sage on some coals and we held the puppy with
its head in the sage smoke, until white saliva like soapsuds dribbled from its
mouth. If the pup fell over while he was held a few inches from the
ground and dropped, I knew he wouldn’t grow up to be strong. But if
he hold his place and did not fall over I would say, “ Hey! Hey! This dog will
carry my tent!”
Smoking
the puppies was good for them. It gave them a good appetite so that they
would eat anything and everything, with no worms in their intestines. Male dogs
were castrated at one year to keep them gentle and keep them fat.
Dogs
ate meat and were fed a boiled corn mush. The meat that spoiled was fed
to the dogs. If an animal killed during a hunt was lean and poor in
flesh, it was given to the dogs.”
The women owned the dogs but the men in the family got to
name them. Hidatsa dogs were work animals and trained to carry/pull substantial
weight and because of that they were not required to work until they reached 2
years old. This gave them time for their bones and muscle to develop. The dogs
were good tempered and well trained.
Yes, some tribes, like the Sioux, ate dog meat. The
Hidatsa did not. Why? In the words of Bird Woman, “Hidatsa dogs were considered to be sacred and weren’t eaten
because the flesh was not good [because] the dogs fed on carrion and human
excrement.”
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| Native American Indian Dogs today |
