Turnspit dog

Quality 0.50 · 0 views · Updated 2 months ago

Dog type

title: "Turnspit dog" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["extinct-dog-breeds", "dog-breeds-originating-in-the-united-kingdom", "working-dogs"] description: "Dog type" topic_path: "geography/united-kingdom" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnspit_dog" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Dog type ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox dogbreed"]

FieldValue
imageTurnspitdog-1862.jpg
image_size300px
image_captionIllustration from The Illustrated Natural History (Mammalia), published in 1853, showing the conformation of a turnspit dog.
countryUnited Kingdom
nameTurnspit dog
extinct19th century
::

| image = Turnspitdog-1862.jpg | image_size = 300px | image_caption = Illustration from The Illustrated Natural History (Mammalia), published in 1853, showing the conformation of a turnspit dog. | country = United Kingdom | name = Turnspit dog | extinct = 19th century

The turnspit dog was a short-legged, long-bodied dog bred to run on a wheel, called a turnspit or dog wheel, to turn meat. It is mentioned in Of English Dogs in 1576 under the name "Turnespete". William Bingley's Memoirs of British Quadrupeds (1809) also talks of a dog employed to help chefs and cooks. It is also known as the Kitchen Dog, the Cooking Dog, the Wheeling Dog, or the Underdog. In Linnaeus's 18th-century classification of dogs it is listed as Canis vertigus (also used as Latin name for the Dachshund). The breed was lost, since it was considered to be such a lowly and common dog that no record was effectively kept of it. Some sources consider the turnspit dog a kind of Glen of Imaal Terrier, while others make it a relative of the Welsh Corgi.

With advancements in kitchen technology, the need for turnspit dogs declined. Over time, they were no longer bred for their specific function, and their numbers dwindled, eventually leading to their extinction.

A preserved example of a turnspit dog is displayed at Abergavenny Museum in Abergavenny, Wales.

Work

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Turnspit_Dog_Working.jpg" caption="A dog at work inside a wheel near the ceiling; from ''Remarks on a Tour to North and South Wales'' (1800)."] ::

The turnspit dog was bred to run on a wheel in order to turn meat so it would cook evenly. Due to the strenuous nature of the work, a pair of dogs would often be worked in shifts. According to John George Wood in The Illustrated Natural History (Mammalia) (1853):

::quote

::

::quote smoke-jack]], as it was rather improperly termed—inasmuch as it was turned, not by the smoke, but by the heated air that rushed up the chimney—was a great improvement, because the spit revolved at a rate that corresponded with the heat of the fire. ::

::quote the wire wheels]] which are so often appended to squirrel-cages; and in this wheel the Dog was accustomed to perform its daily task, by keeping it continually working. As the labour would be too great for a single Dog, it was usual to keep at least two animals for the purpose, and to make them relieve each other at regular intervals. The dogs were quite able to appreciate the lapse of time, and, if not relieved from their toils at the proper hour, would leap out of the wheel without orders, and force their companions to take their place, and complete their portion of the daily toil. ::

The dogs were also taken to church to serve as foot warmers. One story says that during service at a church in Bath, the Bishop of Gloucester gave a sermon and uttered the line "It was then that Ezekiel saw the wheel...". At the mention of the word "wheel" several turnspit dogs, who had been brought to church as foot warmers, ran for the door.

Queen Victoria kept retired turnspit dogs as pets.

Appearance

Turnspit dogs were described as "long-bodied, crooked-legged and ugly dogs, with a suspicious, unhappy look about them". Often they are shown with a white stripe down the center of their faces. According to Bingley's Memoirs of British Quadrupeds (1809): ::quote

::

The turnspit dog is again described by H.D. Richardson in his book Dogs; Their Origin and Varieties (1847):

The crooked leg is most likely owed to very distant ancestors as noted in Dogs And All About Them (1910), by Robert Leighton:

The gene for chondrodysplasia in various short-legged breeds has been confirmed to trace back to a single ancestral mutation.

References

References

  1. "Wooden case containing Whiskey". [[BBC]] - A History of the World.
  2. (1832). "Canine Pathology [...]". T. & T. Boosey.
  3. Caius, John. (1576). "Of English Dogs".
  4. Wood, J.G.. (1853). "The Illustrated Natural History (Mammalia)". Routledge and Sons.
  5. Bingley, W.. (1809). "Memoirs of British Quadrupeds". Darton and Harvey, etc..
  6. Richardson, H.D.. (1847). "Dogs; Their Origin and Varieties". James McGlashan.
  7. (16 July 2009). "An Expressed Fgf4 Retrogene Is Associated with Breed-Defining Chondrodysplasia in Domestic Dogs". Science.
  8. Leighton, Robert. (1910). "Dogs and All About Them". Cassell and Company.
  9. American Kennel Club. (2007). "The Complete Dog Book". [[Random House]].
  10. The Kitchen Sisters. (13 May 2014). "Turnspit Dogs: The Rise and Fall of the Vernepator Cur". The Salt.
  11. Vesey-FitzGerald, Brian Seymour. (1957). "The Domestic Dog: An Introduction to its History". Routledge and Paul.
  12. Coren, Stanley. (2002). "The Pawprints of History: Dogs and the Course of Human Events". Simon and Schuster.
  13. {{Gutenberg. Jesse, Edward

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

extinct-dog-breedsdog-breeds-originating-in-the-united-kingdomworking-dogs