THAI DOG FAMILY

The Thai Dog is a very ancient breed maybe dating back 3000-4000 years ago, according to some archaeological drawings. These drawings show a dog with a sickle tail and erect ears, but no ridge.

It would seem these dogs were around well before any history was documented in Thailand. And the earliest written documentation, comes from an ancient manuscript of the period of King Songthan of Ayuttaya (1611 to 1628) who describes the Ridgeback as follows:

"The dogs are big. They are more than two sawk tall (one sawk is a traditional measurement which equals the length from an adult's elbow to his finger tips). They appear in a variety of colors. And each dog has a ridge on the back.They are fierce. They are loyal to their masters. They are able to feed themselves, digging the earth in search of small prey. They like to follow their owner, to hunt in the wood. When they catch an animal they will bring it to their master. They are loyal to the entire household. They love their companionship. They go everywhere with their masters, even as far as the big Yang tree. They are powerful and fearless.... Their ears are pointed erect and their tails stand like the swords of tribesmen... "

The Thai Ridgeback Dog that we know today are to believe that they originally came from the Pho Quoc Island which was originally part of old Thailand once called Siam, but which is now a part of Vietnam. It is the major isle in the Gulf of Siam, about 200 km south of Bangkok.

The Thai Ridgeback Dogs were originally used to hunt wild boar, deer, tapirs and birds. They were also used to escort carts along side their master, which were the mode of transport in Thailand at that time. As you can imagine long distance travel was difficult. These areas were very isolated because of the non existence of roads. There was no chance of cross breeding with other breeds due to this situation. As a result the Thai Ridgeback has remained unchanged for centuries. Due to natural selection only the strongest and fittest dogs survived thus creating the the Thai Ridgeback Dogs of today.

It has only been with the introduction of modern day transport that these dogs have begun to get more widely publicised and recognised around Thailand and the western world. Intense deforestation throughout Thailand has destroyed most of the hunting habitat and the Thai Ridgeback Dogs are no longer used in the same way. Today they are used mainly for guarding their masters family and property.
There have been many speculations regarding numbers in Thailand. One source reported over 50,000 dogs.

The first TRD pup to be exported out of Thailand to America was in 1994 by Mr. Jack Sterling from Califorina with his blue male "SAKORN". Since then their popularity has grown rapidly.

With so few TRD's recorded across the world it truely deserves the right to be classed as a rare breed. Hopefully with selective breeding we will improve the numbers as well as the quality in the near future. If we are to do justice to this breed we should also try and show it's intelligent nature.