Back in the day, a “yard dog” was your basic, all-around farm dog that did everything from guard the hen house to round up a few sheep. Cardigan Welsh Corgi fanciers may even have come across the terms, “ci llathen,” or “ci llathaid” when perusing the history of their breed. It translates as “yard dog,” but while English speakers interpret the word to mean the type of dog described above, in Welsh it’s a unit of measurement, quite literally a yard. At one time, and maybe even now among old timers, the Cardi was said to measure out to be three feet, or one yard, from the tip of his nose to the end of his tail. In this light, ci llathen describes a dog by it size and not its job. Another nickname for the breed makes this a bit clearer: The “yard-long dog.”

In his book, Dogs, Mike Loades makes mention of Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru, the standard historical dictionary of the Welsh language. According to the people who put out the dictionary, llathen was first recorded in the fourteenth century when it was the equivalent to an English yard, or 36 inches. He adds, however, that another term, llathen Gymreig, means Welsh yard, and that measurement is 40 inches.

The AKC breed standard states that overall balance is more important than absolute size. It adds that dogs and bitches should be from 10.5 to 12.5 inches at the withers when standing naturally, and that the ideal length/height ratio is 1.8:1 when measuring from the point of the breast bone (prosternum) to the rear of the hip (ischial tuberosity) and measuring from the ground to the point of the withers.

Image: Cardigan Welsh Corgi by DJ Rogers – k9artgallery
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