Not every breed we mention is accepted by major registries, and sometimes there is even debate as to whether a dog we’ve mentioned is a purebred dog, and not a “landrace” dog.

What’s a landrace?

Simplistically put, a landrace is a local population of dogs that’s consistent enough to be considered a breed, but that has more variety in appearances than would be found in standardized breeds. Sometimes, a combination of natural selection and geographical isolation creates genetic consistency (the Jindo Dog comes to mind), and sometimes, purebred dog breeds we have today started out as a landrace, and selective breeding further refined and standardized the breed towards a written “breed standard.”

It’s been written that if the world’s dog breeds were left to breed on their own, they would eventually evolve to a dog with one apperance: A mid-sized canine with a pointed muzzle, prick ears, and brownish coats. Many of us have seen such dogs while visiting other countries. Some call them street dogs, others refer to them as village dogs.  They exist all over the world, and debate continues about what they really are. Some insist that these are not the same as strays or mongrels, and while not feral, they’re not exactly domesticated, either. Dog geneticist, Adam Boyko, has said, “When you are looking at village dogs, you have something more akin to natural selection, albeit in an environment that’s managed by humans.” Put another way, village dogs are semi-socialized dogs living in, or on the outskirts, of where people are settled.

We bring this up because we’ve been asked more than once to explain what a landrace is and how it compares to purebred dogs. No doubt that others can explain this more scientifically, if not eloquently, but for us to be able to explain it in “user friendly terms,” we, ourselves, have to understand it, and this is our understanding. For anyone interested in a deeper analysis of the subject, we recommend the book, “What is a Dog,” by Raymond Coppinger and Lorna Coppinger.

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