Extinct Japanese Breed - Minamidaito Inu (Daito Dog)

Deon

Whilst going through and translating stuff from the Ryukyu Ken Hozonkai blog I stumbled across a post talking about a dog similar to the Shiba Inu with short legs like a Corgi and very long fur that was native to the Minamidaito island of Okinawa. It's sadly gone extinct in the passed 30 years due to cross breeding and small gene pools according to Yoshio Aragaki and Dr. Yuichi Tabane and they both say there are no pictures, but I'm curious whether any of you know of any pictures of this breed?

I'd honestly love to have seen this breed

Crispy

The Daito dog is a dwarf breed and not native to Japan, AFAIK. There was a program that was still breeding them, but they may be recreations. They look like Dachshunds or Russell Terriers.

Crispy

Crispy

There was someone on Facebook involved or interested in the breed... I'm trying to remember things they wrote, but the breed as it is today might be a recreation using western dwarf breeds and native dogs. But I still remember them as not being a native breed, even before, for some reason...

TheWalrus

Daito island was uninhabited till around 1900, so the Daito Inu was descended from dogs brought over by the settlers. Due to a lot of inbreeding they had a very distinct type (short, bow, legs). The breed only had a few males left on the island, but there were a few being preserved on the main island. I think a few dogs were sent over from the main island, but don't know what's going on with the 'breed' now.

Deon

I'm just going off of what Yuichi Tabane said about the breed and that's that they looked like Long Coated Shiba Inu with Chondrodysplasia.

In the post both Yoshio and Yuichi wrote, neither of them said they'd re-created the breed. Only that both Yoshio and Yuichi had not seen nor heard of the Daito Dog in over 30 years and there was no pictures left of them...

"About 120 years ago, some people from the immigrant pioneer who went to Hachijojima came back, and at
that time, like dachshunds, they got inbreeded dogs with long hair, short legs, and
still shallow , A new dog, " - Is what Yuichi Tabane said.

Also: "Niogori type close to Shiba Inu, long hair length, short legs small shape which seems to be hybridized with Western dog, hair length, short legs. Minami Daitojima dog (Daito It seems that there are two types of dogs "

I must admit, the recreations do look cute!

Deon

I did find that pic of a Daito Dog on Facebook... Looks more Shiba Inu esque.