Kunming Wolfdog - Breed History

Breed History

Most of the exact dog breeds used in the gene pool for the Kunming wolfdogs is ambiguous due to the lack of proper pedigrees and the fact that a majority of them were crossbreeds although the German Shepherd and some wolfdog crosses are known to play a huge part in the breed's origin. The Kunming wolfdog was created in the early 1950s to meet the need for military dogs in Yunnan. A group of ten shepherd type dogs mixed with unknown breeds were brought to Kunming from a military K9 training program in Beijing in 1953. These ten dogs were insufficient for the immediate need, and so fifty suitable household dogs from Kunming were recruited as well as forty similar dogs from the city of Guiyang in Guizhou province (like the first ten, the exact breeds of these dogs are unknown other than that they were crossbreeds). After training, the best twenty of these ninety dogs were then selected. Ten wolfdogs bred in Beijing, twenty 'civil dogs' plus an additional ten 'shepherd dogs' imported from East Germany were added to the pool from which the Kunming Dog was developed. The Chinese Public Security Bureau officially recognized the Kunming Dog as a breed in 1988. Kunming Dogs are used by the Chinese military and police, and have also found their way into use as civilian watchdogs and guard dogs.