What is this breed and why are we so excited about it?

In England in the Bronze Age (about 5,000 years ago) there were the very first herding dogs, which were long-legged and probably longish-haired, living with the Picts, one of the original inhabitants of the UK. Around 1000 BC the Celts arrive in England and move into Wales as well–they’re middle Europeans from what we now call France and Switzerland and those areas. Not as far north as Germany or Scandinavia.

The Celts bring with them ancient dachshund-type dogs (Teckels) that they found useful in hunting. These dogs had the short legs that we still see in Dachshunds. The Celts breed their Teckels to the ancient tall herding dogs (so you see two breeds being used–the gene pool widens) and come up with a type of extremely useful short-range herder who doesn’t get hurt by too much and can corner instantly on the rocks and scrabble of the Welsh hillsides. And all over the place in Wales these dogs are produced (because they turn out to be so useful) and Cardiganshire makes the very best ones and becomes known for these very clever little dogs.

Then swooping down from the north come the Vikings. The Vikings also had dealings with and fights with the Celts back in Europe, so somewhere along the line the type of dogs the Vikings really like (the arctic or spitz type–wolf-colored with prick ears and a curly tail) gets short legs too. So when the Vikings arrive in Wales around 700 AD, they bring with them their own very useful small herding dogs, who look like little wolves with short legs. These little herding dogs also have another mutation–they are often born without tails. The tails that do exist curl up over the back when the dog moves or is excited.

When the Vikings settle down and farm in Wales, they like the Cardiganshire dogs, but they think they can be improved, so they breed their little short-legged herders to those dogs, and they get a new set of short-legged herders that share the characteristics of both groups; they are smaller and more perky than the rather easy-going Cardiganshire dogs–and they’re often born without tails–but they come in interesting colors and don’t look so much like wolves anymore.

Then the Vikings (now thorougly interbred with the Picts/Celts), use their very useful little herding dogs to bring cattle to market from Wales to England. And the owners of some small short-haired terriers say hey, those are very useful little dogs. Go send Bess and Mary, who are both in heat, to see if those very useful little dogs will find them attractive. And so you end up with ANOTHER population of short-legged very useful little herding dogs, these ones with distinct terrier characteristics.

And these rather isolated original groups remain useful, and also pretty, so they are bred rather consistently (with, as would have been normal back then) occasional or even frequent contributions from anybody else’s useful herding dogs, until the Kennel Club (UK, not US) decides that they are distinct enough that they should be called a breed, somewhere in the 1920s.

So we have these original breeds 5,000 years ago:

Dachshund (more properly a proto-Dachshund or Teckel) Tall herder Wolf-like dog

Teckel + tall herder becomes the Cardigan Welsh Corgi around 3,000 years ago.

Teckel + wolf-like dog becomes the Swedish Vallhund probably around the same time.

Swedish Vallhund + Cardigan becomes the Pembroke Welsh Corgi around 1,000-2,000 years ago

Pembroke Welsh Corgi + Manchester Terrier becomes the Lancashire Heeler in the last several centuries.

So now we have four short-legged very useful little herders, and in the twenty-first century we still have the originals – the Dachshund, the tall wolf-colored dog from the north (probably close to what we’d call an Elkhound), the Manchester Terrier. We’ve lost the taller herding dogs that were the original Welsh and English herders – they were eclipsed by the low-headed strong-eyed Border Collie types in the last five hundred years or so. We can see traces of them, however, in the Rough and Smooth Collie, the English and Welsh Shepherds, etc. – the up-headed loose-eyed short-range herding dogs.

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