Drover Me Crazy
past didn't really have any uniform breeding. They were simply taken from whatever dogs were available locally that could do the work. But over time, they gradually evolved into breed types that suited whatever form of livestock was most common in that particular region (hogs, cattle, heavy sheep, etc.).
Since the town of Rottweil in Germany was a major cattle market in Central Europe, the dogs in that area evolved into a breed that were very deft in managing herds of cattle along the roadways. This is not to say that the Rottweiler's only use was as a drover dog. No, they were fairly multi-purpose animals. But it was their use as a drover dog that influenced the breed's development the most.
Link fest
Here's a short list of some of the sites that were really helpful to me. http://www.softcom.net/users/aprilr/herd... - This is a site about Bernese Mountain dogs. I found it very enlightening, especially since Berners and Rottweilers share a similar history.
http://www.donnerbergrottweilers.com/his... - Donnerberg Rottweiler's "History and Origin of the Rottweiler" page. A very interesting and well-researched article about my favorite breed.
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Point... - This is an excerpt from a book written in 1862, describing the working dogs of the British Isles. I thought it was an interesting "historical" take on the types of dogs used at that time.
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Cotta... - Sanrcik Bouviers Information page
Note on Last Month's Article
Last month, in "A Tale of a Tail" I looked at the reason that Rottweilers have docked tails. In researching this month's article, I realized that I left something out - the tax issue.
In some areas of Europe, dog ownership was taxed. However, if the dog was a working dog, then they were exempt from taxes. The laws stated that working dogs could be identified by their docked tails. Some theories state that the reason that certain breeds have docked tails is because of these laws.
However, these taxes weren't universal. But even areas without a dog tax had drover and other workers with docked tails.
More than likely the lawmakers didn't just arbitrarily single out all working dogs to have docked tails. It's much more reasonable to believe that they simply realized that tail docking was already a common practice with the working dogs. They used what was already a common practice to identify tax-exempt dogs.
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