Cotonese Information & Dog Breed Facts

The Cotonese is a hybrid dog breed that was developed during the last 20 or 30 years. It is thought that the breed is originated from the middle of the 1990s, even though, it is possible that mixes, resembling the Cotonese, were in existence as a result of natural mating throughout the decades. The trend of creating new hybrid breeds started around the middle of the 20th century, in North America and in Canada, with crossbreeding purebred dogs with each other, with the intention of developing new breeds. These hybrid breeds gained popularity instantly, for the reason that they usually inherited the best and most desirable qualities, abilities, and traits of their parent breeds. Unfortunately, this popularity does not mean, that we are certain about every detail of these designer breed’s ancestry, and the intention which led the breeder to create these dogs.

The Cotonese emerged after cross-breeding the Maltese with the Coton de Tulear. Even though there is not much information about the Cotonese’s origin story and the reasons why breeders choose to mix these two breeds, looking at the Cotonese’s parent breeds’ histories might help to gain a better understanding of the creation of the breed. First of all, the Coton de Tulear is originated from Tulear in Madagascar, and is recognized as the “The Royal Dog of Madagascar”. These little dogs were developed to be the companions of their human fellows, because of their small size, portability, and cute faces. Originating from Madagascar, the breed was commonly used on ships as rat catchers and rodent controllers.

The breed was considered to be a very skilled vermin controller for the reason that their initial development involved some crossbreeding with some terrier breeds. The Coton de Tulear was first officially discovered in the 1960s, by a Frenchman who was visiting the Southern-African island. He liked the breed very much and decided to bring some specimens with him back home, to Europe. Later, he set himself to establish and standardize the breed, in order to be able to write up a breed standard, and in order to further popularize the Coton de Tulear. It was not long until he managed to get the breed to North America, where the breed was welcomed with instant success towards the end of the 20th century.

Secondly, the Maltese derive their name after their homeland, Malta, and it is thought that the breed is the oldest. The Maltese had very similar duties as the Coton de Tulear from the point the breed was developed. It was thought that the breed possessed a comforter kind of power to the sick people of Egypt and later to the Europeans. Most people believed that the dogs also had healing powers, and they would go so far as to lay the little companions on the pillow of sick patients.

In spite of the fact that the Cotonese’s parent breeds are both well-recognized, very old breeds, the Cotonese, just like all other designer breeds, is not registered with any of the major kennel clubs, and neither has a breed standard, which can be applied to every single specimen. Yet, no matter the recognition and the official papers, the Cotonese is an energetic, loving, and eager to please little white ball of fur, who can be the perfect little companion to any individual or family. For the reason that most of the Cotonese specimens are F1 (first generation) ones, it is really hard, frankly quite impossible to tell before their birth, exactly which personality or physical traits and characteristics will be the most dominant ones. Nevertheless, it is certain that every Cotonese specimen is a faithful companion who will follow their owners anywhere, whether that place is just lying by your feet.