Dogs of Hungary

Corvina Press [Published date: 1977]. Hard cover, 141 pp. Black and white photos and illustrations throughout, with some in color. [Excerpt from page 7 - Origin of Hungarian Dog Breeds] There is relatively little documentation about the origin of Hungarian dog breeds, so we have to rely mainly on logical deduction when trying to trace their evolution. It seems likely that the majority of the nine native recognized and registered breeds arrived in the Carpathian Basin during the Great Migration preceding the Magyars, the Huns and Avars, then with the Magyars and later on with the immigrating Pechenegs and Cumanians as their sheep dogs and hunting dogs. All over the world, many scholars undertake scientific studies regarding the origin of Hungarian dog breeds. The present state of research permits only a supposition, namely, that similarly to the Magyars, these breeds were at home on the grass grown steppes of Asia and came to their present home during the Great Migration. The strong hereditary traits by which these breeds preserved their characteristics was a great help to researchers, enabling comparative examinations to verify theories concerning a period of over 1,000 years. According to some scientific viewpoints the prototypes of the dog first appeared about 40 million years ago, in the transition period between the Eocene and the Miocene, when the Myads, a carnivorous mammal appeared, now regarded as the joint ancestor of the bear and the dog. It is not our intention to go into details on the evolution history of the dog, but we must underline the fact that dogs, as the very first domesticated animals, were the companion of man from ancient times.A high degree ofadaptation is characteristic ofthe dog. There is no other species of animal on earth represented in such variety. At present there are over 400 varieties in evidence,..