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Basenji
If one breed sits at the root of most dog family trees, it is this Central African hunter. Genome surveys since 2004 keep placing the Basenji among the earliest-branching breeds, which is genuine evidence. The popular claim that Egyptian tomb paintings show Basenjis is not: a prick-eared, curl-tailed dog in ancient art cannot be pinned to a modern breed. Anyone thinking of owning one should know about Fanconi syndrome, an inherited kidney disorder with a DNA test.
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Saluki
The Saluki is the strongest case among the sighthounds. Bedouin and Persian hunters ran these dogs after gazelle and hare for centuries, and genetic studies group the breed with the Afghan Hound in a Middle Eastern branch, well apart from the Greyhound, which looks similar but sits with the modern European breeds. Claims that carvings several thousand years old show Salukis rest on resemblance alone, so treat them as possible rather than proven.
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Afghan Hound
That flowing show coat is a twentieth-century polish on a much older mountain sighthound. The breed reached Britain from Afghanistan in the early 1900s, with Zardin in 1907 the best-known early import, and genome studies place it beside the Saluki outside the European breed cluster. The story that this was the dog Noah took aboard the Ark is pure legend, and no laboratory can test it.
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Canaan Dog
An honest borderline case, and a useful one. The breed was formalised in the 1930s, when Rudolphina Menzel selected free-living dogs from Bedouin and village populations in Mandatory Palestine. The breed name is new, but the population she drew on was not: genome studies place the Canaan Dog among the divergent breeds alongside the Basenji and Saluki. The Persian-period dog cemetery at Ashkelon is often cited too, though bones of that age show a type of dog, not a breed.
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Greenland Dog
Arguably the best genetic case of all. A 2020 study compared modern Greenland sled dogs with a 9,500-year-old dog from Zhokhov Island in Siberia and found continuity in the Arctic sled-dog lineage across that span, with the Greenland Dog the least mixed with other breeds. Greenland protects that by law: in its sled-dog districts north of the Arctic Circle and in the east, no other dogs may be kept. This is a pack-minded working dog, not a sofa companion.
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Alaskan Malamute
Named after the Mahlemut, an Inupiaq people of north-western Alaska, this heavy freighting dog shares substantial ancestry with the 9,500-year-old Zhokhov sled dog, according to the 2020 Arctic genome study. It also lands in the ancient group of every major breed survey since 2004. Built to haul loads rather than to race, it was only recognised by the American Kennel Club in 1935, long after the lineage itself was established.
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Siberian Husky
The Chukchi people of north-eastern Siberia bred these light, quick sled dogs, and traders brought them to Alaska from 1908 for racing; the 1925 serum run to Nome made Togo and Balto household names. Genetics adds a twist. A 2015 study found that Siberian Huskies and Greenland sled dogs carry ancestry from an extinct Taimyr wolf population dated to about 35,000 years ago, a sign of old wolf mixing rather than of descent straight from wolves.
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Samoyed dog
The name comes from the Samoyedic peoples of north-western Siberia, notably the Nenets, who used white spitz dogs to herd reindeer and pull sledges. Ernest Kilburn-Scott brought the type to Britain in 1889, and the Western breed grew from a small number of imported dogs. Even so, genetics backs the older ancestry: the Samoyed sits in the ancient group of the 2004 survey and among the divergent breeds in the 2010 one.
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Shiba Inu
Japan's smallest native hunting breed turns up near the root of the tree in both the 2004 and 2012 genetic surveys. The modern dog is also a rescue story: distemper and wartime losses nearly wiped the Shiba out, and it was rebuilt after 1945 from the surviving Mino, San'in and Shinshu types. Its designation as a Japanese Natural Monument in 1936 anchors a record that needs no embellishment.
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Akita (dog breed)
Here genetics wins an argument that history seemed to lose. In the early twentieth century Akitas were crossed with Tosa and mastiff-type fighting dogs, and during the Second World War some were bred with German Shepherds to escape requisition, yet breed surveys still place the Akita in the basal East Asian group. It became a Natural Monument in 1931, and Hachikō, the dog who waited at Shibuya station, made it famous. In Britain the Japanese Akita Inu is listed separately from the heavier American-type Akita.
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Chow Chow
The blue-black tongue and stilted gait make the Chow easy to spot, and genetics agrees it is distinctive: it sits in the ancient group of every major breed survey since 2004. The romantic claims are weaker. Han dynasty figurines of curly-tailed dogs are often presented as Chows, but pottery shows a type, not a breed, and the modern standard was written in Britain in the late nineteenth century. Owners should expect a reserved temperament and a known risk of entropion.
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Shar Pei
Southern China's wrinkled guard and fighting dog came close to vanishing. By the early 1970s only a handful remained, and a 1973 appeal by Hong Kong breeder Matgo Law sent dogs to America, where the breed recovered. Genetic studies place it firmly in the basal East Asian group beside the Chow Chow. Prospective owners should know about Shar-Pei fever, an inherited inflammatory condition, and the eyelid problems that come with heavy folds.
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Tibetan Terrier
Not a terrier at all: the name is a Western misfiling of a Tibetan herding and companion dog. Dr Agnes Greig, a British doctor working in India, brought the breed to Britain in the 1920s. In the 2004 genetic survey it joined the ancient group only under a looser statistical criterion, so count this as real but weaker support than the Basenji or the Arctic dogs enjoy.
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Lhasa Apso
Kept as an indoor watchdog in Tibetan monasteries and noble houses, the Lhasa Apso reached the West largely as diplomatic gifts from Lhasa in the early twentieth century, a trail that is well recorded. Genetics groups it with the Tibetan Terrier and Shih Tzu in the Asian cluster of the 2004 survey, under the same looser criterion. The belief that each dog carried the soul of a departed lama is folklore, charming but not evidence.
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Pekingese
Few breeds have paperwork this dramatic. These were palace dogs of the Qing court, and when British and French troops looted the Old Summer Palace in 1860 they carried several to Britain; one, named Looty, was presented to Queen Victoria. Genetics supports an old Chinese lineage, with the Pekingese in the 2004 survey's ancient group. Its flattened face brings real breathing problems, which matter more to an owner than any palace legend.
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Shih Tzu
The Shih Tzu shows that an old lineage and a pure one are different things. It descends from Tibetan and Chinese palace dogs and appears in the ancient group of the 2004 survey, but the Western breed was rebuilt from a small number of dogs exported in the 1930s, and a deliberate Pekingese cross was added in Britain in 1952. Like the Pekingese, its short face carries breathing risks worth weighing.
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