Know Your Breed

Know Your Breed: Rottweiler

As a natural guard dog, it is not a surprise that the Rottweiler’s roots lie with herding cattle. What is a surprise is that these roots stretch back to Ancient Rome. The Rottweiler breed, as it is known today, was bred from these Roman herding dogs in the Middle Ages in Rottweil, Germany. Here, butchers […]

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Know Your Breed: Ridgeback

Officially known as the Rhodesian Ridgeback, this beloved breed is indigenous to southern Africa and has a history that stretches back to the 1800s when Dutch colonialists bred their imported breeds with a ferocious local hunting dog used by the Khoi. It is thought that the dog could hold off a lion during hunting expeditions,

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Know Your Breed: Boerboel

When it comes to dogs, the Boerboel is as proudly South African as biltong, vuvuzelas and braais. It has been around for hundreds of years and is believed to be related to the Bullmastiff – although the dog’s breeding history remains largely unknown. What we do know, however, is that it was bred to protect

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Know your Breed: Doberman

Over the years Doberman Pinschers (that’s their full breed name) have quietly shaken off their cliché police/guard dog past and have become quite the common family pet. Bred for the first time in the 1890s in Germany, these dogs are very athletic and are characterised by their medium-to-large build, muscular and square body, and short

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Know your Breed: Dachshund

Often affectionately called “sausage dogs”, Dachshunds come in three varieties: long haired, short haired or wire haired. They are characterised by their long bodies, short muscular legs, floppy ears and long snout, and are part of the hound family of dogs. They originated in Germany in the 1600s, where they were bred to hunt badgers.

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