The New Murrey and Blue blog

The origins of the Talbot dog breed are shrouded in mystery. ‘Talbot’ was one of many names which we know were given to individual dogs – the equivalent of ‘Rover’ or ‘Bonzo’. What is less clear is when exactly the Talbot dog breed emerged,

It appears the Talbots were short-legged, usually white coated and of various sizes. They were scent-hounds that pursued a quarry at a relatively slow speed over long distances. They were therefore the direct opposite of greyhounds, the other dog breed commonly represented in heraldry.

They were associated with the Talbot family (Earls of Shrewsbury, the first of whom is shown presenting a book to Margaret of Anjou) who used them as supporters for their coat-of-arms. It may well be that this family was famous for breeding them. In a world where transport was never faster than a horse, dog breeding was often confined to particular families or counties, without any wide-ranging imports of other strains. Hunting dogs were linked to the nobility and gentry – no one else was encouraged to have one.

As late as the 19th Century, there were, for example, several distinct types of greyhounds, associated with geographical areas. Some had rough coats.

An example of a family strain is the mastiffs bred by the Legh family of Lyme Hall. These Lyme Mastiffs died out as a breed during World War I due to food shortages.

The Talbot breed eventually died out, possibly by the end of the 18th Century. This is almost certainly because the type of hunting for which it was bred was no longer popular.