Taiwan Dog

The Taiwan Dog is native to Taiwan and is thought to descend from ancient South Asian hunting dogs of unknown origins. These ancient hunting dogs lived with local tribes in the central mountains of Taiwan but were never considered fully tame. He was a companion to these people and helped hunters find game. He was kept by the aboriginal Taiwanese people for hunting purposes and to help guard the tribe against predators. During this time, it is believed these were the only type of dog in Taiwan until 1624 when Dutch colonists began arriving in Taiwan. During this time, the Dutch brought with them other dog breeds. The purity of the breed was greatly threatened with the importation of other dog breeds. The Taiwan Dog also saw a huge decline in numbers during the times when Japan and China ruled over Taiwan. The Taiwan Dog almost became extinct after the Chinese introduced their culture including dog eating to Taiwan. Dr. Sung Yung-yi brought together a group of Taiwan Dog fanciers during the 1970s and diligently began resurrecting the breed. They were able to locate about 160 Taiwan Dogs in the central mountain region. Of these dogs, only about 46 were thought to be purebred. A breeding program was begun using these 46 dogs. Dr. Sung Yung-yi’s son, Ming Nan Chen took over the breeding program and it is still in existence. There is very little documented history on the Taiwan Dog so in 1980 a collaborative study was conducted by researchers from the National Taiwan University, Nagoya University and Japan Gifu University. Researchers went into twenty-nine different tribes within the central mountains and interviewed historians. Confirmation was made that the Taiwan Dog did in fact descend directly from these half-wide South Asian hunting dogs. These hunting dogs are thought to have come to Taiwan between 20,000 and 10,000 years ago. This makes the Taiwan Dog one of the oldest dog breeds still in existence.