The history of the Antillean dog is the history of the New World from a canine point of view!

To review a few scientific facts, modern carnivorous mammals including dogs are descendants of a group of animals known as Miacids, who appeared on earth 33-65 million years ago. The wolf, Canis lupus, first evolved during the early Pleistocene in Europe and Asia. The wolf ancestors of modern dogs diverged from other wolves about 100,000 years ago, and dogs, Canis lupus familiaris, were domesticated from those wolf ancestors about 15,000 years ago, making dogs the first species to be domesticated by humans.

The first dogs in the Americas came across the Bering Land Bridge with the first humans, about 10,000 to 15,000 years ago. They then moved southward and eastward across the Americas. The first people to arrive on the island of Hispaniola migrated from what is now Venezuela, and it is likely that they brought their dogs with them. We do not know for certain what they looked like, but it is quite likely that they were similar to the dog which some modern Native Americans consider to be the traditional type. They probably had shorter coats than the dog on the photograph at left, since evolution in a warm climate would select for that, and for large ears which allow radiant cooling.

Some modern natural breeds descended from these dogs exist in the United States, for example the Carolina Dog of the longleaf pines and cypress swamps in the American Southeast. DNA studies continue, and the early migrations of canines into the Americas are becoming better understood.

"In fourteen hundred and ninety two, Colombus sailed the ocean blue," as we all have learned in school. The consequences were inconceivably dramatic, and resulted in tremendous migrations, new proximity for formerly discrete populations, and dispersal of plant and animal species as never before. By the early 1500's the Spanish had begun the deliberate importation of their own war dogs, to be used in the conquest of the Americas. They began their war against the native Arawaks, even feeding the bodies of Arawak dead to their dogs.



Europe of that era was no less gruesome, as the detail of a tapestry depicting the Battle of Pavia in 1525 suggests. The Spanish war dog is quite long on its legs, has erect ears, a curled tail and a smooth coat.



The Arawak and Spanish dogs, unconcerned by the miseries of their masters, interbred freely. Soon a third strain was introduced, for as the gentle Arawaks were decimated, the Spanish began to import African people of various ethnicities, subject them to slavery, and use them as agricultural workers. At the same time, many African plant and animal species were brought to the Americas from Africa. For example, modern Caribbean plants include the African-origin Guinea yam, Congo beans and ackee trees. The African heritage of the modern Antillean dog is indisputable, and comprises the third major category of Antillean heritage.

These three major strains of dogs mixed and interbred freely, for there was little in the way of veterinary care or planned breeding programs. Even the French colonization of the western half of Hispaniola meant little to the dogs. A distinct breed thus developed throughout the Antillies and on the Caribbean coast of South America.

These dogs have remained relatively undisturbed by outside influences due to the "underdeveloped" status of the countries which comprise their home range. As "development" continues and people bring in German Shepherds, Dobermans and pit bulls, they will undoubtedly be absorbed into the breeding population. Thus we continue to seek dogs as foundational stock, from the relatively isolated areas of Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica, as well as other regions.

The similarity of dogs from different islands in the Antillean chain is remarkable. Below is an Antillean recently photographed in Jamaica:



And here is an Antillean dog from Port-de-Paix, Haiti, on the west coast of Hispaniola:



We invite you to join us in supporting the recognition, conservation and development of the Antillean breed. Please contact us for more information, to get on the waiting list for puppies, or to register any imported Antillean dogs you may currently own.

Thank you!

Grey's Antilleans