Indian pariah dog
| Indian pariah dog | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Common nicknames | Indie dog South Asian pariah dog Pye-dog INDog Desi dog | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Origin | Indian subcontinent | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Dog (domestic dog) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Indian pariah dog, Indie dog, South Asian pariah dog, or Desi Kutta, is a landrace of dog native to the Indian subcontinent. They have erect ears, a wedge-shaped head, and a curved tail. It is easily trainable and often used as a guard dog and police dog. This dog is an example of an ancient group of dog known as pye-dogs. There is archaeological evidence that the dog was present in Indian villages as early as 4,500 years ago.
Though most street dogs in the Indian subcontinent are in fact Indian pye-dogs, the names for this breed are often erroneously used to refer to all urban South Asian stray dogs despite the fact that some free-ranging dogs in the Indian subcontinent do not match the "pariah type" and may not be pure indigenous dogs but mixed breeds, especially around locations where European colonists historically settled in India, due to admixtures with European dog breeds.