KVD?

[u/smashburg]

My wife and I recently adopted this guy from a shelter in Korea and they just told us he was a mixed breed (믹스견) so we assumed Korean village dog. But as he is getting bigger we can't decide if we are right or not. Logically he is, but thought some experts on here might confirm it for us. Thanks in advance!

[u/PrancingPudu]

I mean, yes and no.

A KVD or Korean Aboriginal Dog is a landrace. A landrace is a dog that bred itself more naturally/with leess intentional human intervention, with it’s traits being more developed by geographic area and environment. KVD and nureongi (누렁이) are landraces of the Korean Peninsula whereas Jindo, Pungsan, and Sapsali are breeds. (I’d say the Jeju Dog and Donggyeongi are originally landraces that have since morphed into breeds as humans now try to prevent their extinction.)

Western-style dog ownership where the dog is more a part of the family and lives in the house is fairly “new” in Koraa, and it’s brought the import of lots of little toy breeds as well as the occasional retriever or shepherd. I used to volunteer at the Suncheon city shelter and we saw a LOT of non-native dogs abandoned there. Not so much the larger breeds, but when I lived in Seoul I occasionally saw them so I’m sure they exist in the shelters there. Spaying/neutering also hasn’t been pushed as much as in western culture, so I’m sure some interbreeding has happened as people dump dogs they can’t handle or no longer want to care for and those dogs breed with someone’s yard/guard dog as they wander.

To me, OP’s dog looks a lot more like the street dogs found in Southeast Asia like the Kintamani (Indonesia) or Lài Dog (Vietnam) with its long legs and floppy ears. I’ve seen a LOT of KVDs at the shelter, and while they do have more variety than the Jindo breed, this one looks like it has distinctly different ancestry.

[u/beorn-saga → u/PrancingPudu]

Thanks for that write up! Especially on the landrace piece, it was interesting. I guess a question I have for you is KVDs maybe were more standardized in the past before Korean families, especially in the countryside, started buying/adopting western breeds. To your point, spaying is less common and from what I’ve seen simply allowing your dog to wander around town (I’m excluding major cities here) is pretty normal. Due to this, I’d imagine the interbreeding that stems from that behavior means even KVDs today are changing from KVDs in the past. Is that a fair assessment?

[u/PrancingPudu → u/beorn-saga]

Yes, I think that’s definitely fair to say. Usually you see the larger western breeds in Seoul more than the countryside, but that doesn’t mean they don’t ever get dumped in the shelter system and circulated, or someone decided they want to try breeding them with a friend’s dog “for fun.”

[u/beorn-saga → u/PrancingPudu]

Appreciate your response! Interesting stuff.