Pharaoh Hound

Specifically with the bullbaiting, dogs were bred to grab the bull by the nose and pin it to the ground.

Man, I have the hardest time understanding this because y- remember in our Pharaoh Hound episode, people valued dogs, even if not family members, like beloved living creatures thousands and thousands of years before this.

So it's hard for me to be like, "Oh, well, they just didn't know," but at, at some point they did, right?

I think, one, things weren't as interconnected.

So just because one group of people held a certain value does not mean that other, even within the same region, did at all.

Right.

As well as- When we're talking about the Pharaoh Hound, we're talking about dogs that were, it sounds like, mostly owned by nobility or higher class people.

Yeah, there were royalty that participated and did this too, but I do think that it was more of a lower class thing, not that it was exclusive to lower class.

large intimidating breeds with powerful jaws and protective instincts mastiff type dogs spread across ancient civilizations from rome to china always serving the same basic purpose protecting property and people from intruders ancient egypt had distinct dog types by four thousand years ago Tomb paintings show dogs that look remarkably like modern Salukis and Basenjis.

The Pharaoh Hound, though actually developed later in Malta, preserves the appearance of ancient Egyptian hunting dogs.

These weren't just pets.

They were working animals, carefully bred for specific tasks in a complex civilisation.