Black, medium sized Taiwan dogs supposedly don’t suffer the same degree of “black dog syndrome” as American shelter dogs. If they’re stigmatized, it’s not just because of their color, but more likely because they’re tugou, and they often come all in black. But if you like Formosan dogs, the black ones are rather classic models.
I find them rather dignified, bold, often downright elegant in appearance and movement. Plus, they match easily with any home decor.
Consider test driving one today!
The House of Two Bows 雙寶之屋 
These Taiwanese Tugou sure looks like those tugou/ strays we have in Malaysia. In fact in rural area, the Chinese, especially those staying in estate/ plantation would keep male black dog to keep evil spirit/ ghost at bay, some using black dog’s penis or blood to perform rituals 0_o
Whereas the aborigines ( we call them the Orang Asli) would sometimes keep some wild dogs that comes originally from the woods here ( not strays but they sure looks like tugou), and these sturdy little dogs are used for hunting, keeping pest from their crops and to alert of intruders/ strangers. But they do have the belief that these wild dogs, although perform great duties, have spiritual significant hence the adults don’t usually treat these dogs as companion.
These are pretty dang nifty looking. Black pointy-eared dogs are my favorite when it comes to looks. What’s their temperament like? I might add them to my list if the personality fits what I’m after.
The ones I met were all strays and rescues, so I can’t say they were bred for temperament, but they’ve definitely survived because of what they possess. Very observant, excellent at picking up human cues, and thus have a reputation for training very “naturally” (they know what behaviors their chosen people like and dislike of them). Agile, light footed, built for uneven and rough terrain. Generally good with other dogs, but again this may be the rescue selection bias (this group was photographed at a private rescuer’s home, where all the dogs are expected to be okay with interacting freely and confidently, but not aggressively). Depending on how long they’ve been on the street, resource guarding can be a major issue, as you can imagine. So can stranger danger, especially towards men. That says more about gender culture here than the dogs though.
The vast majority (all?) of Formosan breeders are older men, and they sing the praises of these dogs’ tracking and chasing abilities. They were used to hunt wild boar (which I think are slightly more compact here than Japan), and supposedly monkeys and sika deer way back in the day. Not anymore, now that those are protected species, but boar hunts are still on. Question is how many breeder-hunters remain?
I may have more answers next month.
They’re beautiful dogs. I love the classic faces.
That first dog reminds me so much of Silas–they have a very similar head shape.
Such pretty animals.
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