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Canaan Dog History
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The Canaan Dog is known as the natural breed of Israel and is sometimes called the Israel Canaan Dog. This herding dog was originally bred in the 1930s from Israel's feral dogs by Dr. Rudolphina Menzel, though the Canaan dates to pre-biblical times. Their lineage is documented in the tombs at Beni-Hassan in Egypt dating from 2200 to 2000 BC where drawings depict dogs that look very similar to the Canaan Dog.
Through the centuries, the Bedouins used the Canaan Dog to herd and hunt (and they still do today), and it is because of this that the breed managed to survive until the 1930s, when Haganah, an Israeli paramilitary organization, asked Dr. Menzel to develop a dog that could guard remote Hebrew settlements. Finding that traditional war breeds did not do well in Israel's arid climate, Dr. Menzel began concentrating her efforts on the local feral dogs, called "pariah dogs." Menzel domesticated and bred these dogs, and gave them the name "Canaan Dog" in honor of their homeland.
Canaan Dogss have proved highly intelligent and easily trainable. They have served as sentry dogs, messengers, Red Cross helpers, and were among the first dogs trained as land mine detectors. In 1965, four Canaan Dogs were imported to Oxnard, California. The Canaan Dog entered the American Kennel Club Miscellaneous Class in 1989 and was admitted to the Herding Group in 1997. Today, Canaan Dogs serve as seeing-eye and therapy dogs.
