Known in France as the Carlin, in Italy as the Carlino, in Germany as the Mops Hund, in Holland as the Mopshond, in Sweden as the Mops, in Finland as the Mopsi, in Spanish as the Doguillo, and in China as the Lo-sze, this ancient form of companion dog was originally described in England as the Dutch Pug or the Pug-Dog. In Old Chinese it was called the Ha Ba Gou, and in Gaelic the Smutmhadra.
This thick-skinned, short-coated, curly-tailed, flat-faced little dog presents three mysteries: how did it get its name, where did it originate, and who are its ancestors? There are no definitive answers to these questions, although many suggestions have been offered in the past.
First, as regards the name, there have been five proposals:
1.Pug is taken from `pugnus’, the Latin for ‘fist’, because its frontally squashed head has the shape of a clenched fist.
2.Pug is taken from Pugnaces’ the ancient fighting dogs, because it is a dwarf version of such dogs.
3.One 18th-century definition of the word ‘pug’ was ‘anything tenderly loved’. It is assumed that this is its true root because the owners of these dogs always doted on them.
4.The word ‘pug’ also meant ‘monkey’. So a Pug-dog (the breed’s original name) was a monkey-faced dog. (The Affenpinscher obtained its name in this way.) 5The word ‘pug’ was also used to mean a hobgoblin, puck or imp. Applied to a dog it indicated a goblin-like creature, or dwarf animal.
Second, in respect of the breed’s origins, there have been eight theories:
1.The breed originated in China and was brought from there to England, where it became immensely popular and spread throughout the world of dogs.
2.It originated in Holland and was brought to England in the late 17th century by the Protestant couple, William and Mary of Orange, when they took over the English throne in 1688. Their much loved pugs accompanied them and started a craze for the dogs in 17th-century England. This is why one of the first names for the breed was the Dutch Pug.
3.It originated in Russia, where it acquired its spitz tail from Arctic ancestors. From there it travelled to Holland and then England.
4.It originated in western China in 700 BC, when it was called the Lo-chiang-sze, which was shortened to Lo-sze. It was carried west, via Tibet, where it was known as the Lags-kyi, to Russia, then to Holland, and then to England.
5.It originated in China and was brought from there to Holland by the Dutch East India Company. There it found royal favour with William I and became the symbol of the House of Orange. It then moved from Holland to England with William III in the late 17th century.
6.It originated in China, then spread to Europe via the first European traders
the Portuguese who arrived in AD 1516. The Portuguese brought it back to their country and from there it travelled to Holland and then, finally, to England.
7.It originated in ancient Rome and was brought to Britain during the Roman occupation.
8.It originated in ancient Egypt and was brought from there to ancient Rome by Phoenician traders and from Rome to England.
Third, with regard to the breed’s ancestry, there have been four suggestions:
1.It is a ‘bulldog in miniature’. (Comparison of the skulls rules this out. And the Pug is, in any case, the older breed of the two.)
2.It is a dwarf mastiff. (It was once called the Dutch Mastiff.)
3.It is a ‘smooth-coated, long-legged variety of the Pekingese’.
4.It is the ancestor of the Pekingese.
All these ideas have been put forward in the past by serious scholars of canine history. However, when there as many theories as these concerning the name, the origin and the ancestry of a breed, only one thing is sure: that they are all guesses, some educated, some outlandish, and that nobody is certain of anything. For the time being, the little dog retains the mystery of its beginnings.
The Pug’s original colour was fawn, with a black mask and saddle mark. In the mid-19th century the breed split into two types, the Willoughby and the Morrison, named after two rival sponsors of the breed. Willoughbys were silver-fawn, or `stone-fawn’, and Morrisons were golden-fawn, or apricot-fawn, and the two camps competed for top honours. Later, the two types became mixed and the distinction was eventually lost. Solid black was a new colour, not formally introduced until 1877. In 1896 the Kennel Club in. London granted separate classes for the Black Pug.
In personality this dog is the perfect household companion patient, non-aggressive, good-natured and wonderfully tolerant with children. Furthermore, it is odour-free, requires little grooming and is not yappy like some other small dogs. Its only weakness is a tendency to enjoy its food too much and become overweight.
The Pug’s popularity has always been high, and twice in English history (the middle of the 18th century and again in the mid-Victorian period of the 19th century) it was the most popular dog in England. It first entered the show-ring in 1861 and the Pug Dog Club was formed in 1883. The breed standard drawn up in the 1880s remains essentially unaltered to this day.
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