Medieval Times
Medieval times
MedievalShepherd's Dog
MedievalDrover's Dog
MedievalEarth Dog
MedievalBloodhound
MedievalScottish Deerhound
MedievalRache
MedievalTalbot
MedievalBuckhound
MedievalSouthern Hound
MedievalOld Highland terriers
MedievalOld working collies
MedievalWelsh herding dogs
MedievalOld British ratting terriers
MedievalEarth and hunt terriers
MedievalOld English Black and Tan Terrier
MedievalLand spaniels
Medieval Dogs
Medieval Britain ran on working dogs. Great households kept organised packs of hounds for the hunt, drovers walked cattle to market with tough farm dogs at their heels, and shepherds relied on quick, biddable herders. A dog's name described its job rather than its breed, and the law took dogs seriously enough to regulate them.
By the Middle Ages Britain's dogs had settled into recognisable working kinds. Hunting treatises described each type and its task, household records listed hounds by the work they did, and forest law regulated which dogs could live near the royal deer. These were still types rather than breeds: a talbot or a rache was a job and a look, not a pedigree, and the same name could cover different dogs in different counties.
- Medieval scent hounds followed an animal's trail by nose, sometimes working together in organised packs.
- Shepherds' and drovers' dogs moved sheep and cattle across the hills and along the long drove roads to market.
- Small, determined earth dogs followed fox and badger underground, the working root of Britain's terriers.
- The organised hunt gave hounds their names and their jobs, from the rache that ran by scent to the greyhound slipped from its lead.
Did you know?
Medieval pictures often show different dogs doing different jobs, including scent hounds hunting in packs and greyhounds held on leads before the chase.
Did you know?
The Master of Game, an English hunting book from the early 1400s, describes running hounds, greyhounds, alaunts, spaniels and mastiffs, each with its own work.
Did you know?
Under medieval forest law, large dogs kept near royal forests could be required to have claws removed so they could not chase the deer.
Did you know?
The drove roads that dogs and drovers used to walk cattle to market were in use for centuries, and stretches of them can still be walked today.