Peruvian Hairless Dog

Also known as the Inca Hairless Dog. Its original function was as a source of meat.

Because of the dense pigment in its skin, this naked animal was better protected from the sun than the pale Peruvian Inca Orchid, and was allowed outside during daylight hours. The two kinds were known as the daytime dog and the night-time dog.

In its earliest days, when its flesh was eaten, the colour of its skin was obviously of little importance, and this dog and the Peruvian Inca Orchid would then have been a single breed. When they were taken over by the Inca nobility and became high-status pets, their appearance did begin to matter and it was probably then that the two types — light and dark — were developed and eventually kept separate as distinct breeds.

The Peruvian Hairless Dog is similar to the Mexican Hairless, but it is not known whether they are closely related or whether their naked genes arose independently. Every author who has considered this problem has automatically assumed that there must have been one primary source for all hairless dogs and that they were then taken from this location, across the globe, to widely different sites. But it is just as likely — probably more likely — that the hairless mutation arose separately on a number of occasions, and that the Peruvian Hairless Dogs were indigenous to Peru.