The Kunming Dog is a wolf dog that originated in China in early 1950s. The purpose for its development was to create a military dog for the Chinese army. Several breeds of dogs as well as several cross breeds were involved in this dogs' gene pole but most of the breeds used are unknown. Shortage of military dogs in Yunnan province of China led to the development of this dog. A breeding program with the purpose to develop a breed of dog suitable for military purposes, was initiated in 1950s. Due to shortage of dogs in the province, several dogs of different breeds were gathered. Ten wolf dogs were taken from a K9 military training program in Beijing, 50 household dogs were acquired from Kunming and 40 others of similar type were procured from Guiyang, a city in Guizhon province. These dogs were trained in Kunming, Yunnan's capital. After the training, 20 dogs were selected from the 90 'civil' dogs. These 20 along with the 10 wolf dogs from Beijing and the 10 shepherd dogs imported from Germany became the foundation stock from where the Kunming Wolf-dog was developed. The result is an exceptionally effective working dog that is now being used widely by Chines military and police.
The Kunming Dog is a large dog that stands between 25-27 inches and weighs about 66-84 lbs. Not surprisingly, the dog resembles the German Shepherd dog in appearance given that GSD is one of its forebears but the Kunming dog is taller and has shorter coat. It has a round head and long narrow muzzle. It comes with large eyes and high set, large triangular shaped ears. It has a thick neck with loose skin that leads to the muscular body. The bushy tail curls up high when the dog is excited. The short to medium length coat comes in light to dark tan colour with black saddle.
This breed is NOT recognized by AKC or any other major kennel club.
