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Part 3 : Dog Carts and the Middle Ages
Part 3: The History of Dog Carts
Dog Carts and Horse Carts in the Middle Ages

Of English Dogs, Johannes Caius, 1576. Reprinted by Beech Publishing House, 1993. p. 32, 36, 37  ISBN: 1 85736 070 2.

Types of English Draft Dogs according To Dr. Caius

Water Drawer:  And these be of the greater and the weightier sort, drawing water out of wells ... by a wheel which they turn about.

Tinker Cur:  Because ... they bear big budgets fraught with tinker's tools and metal.

Turnspit: There is ... a certain dog excellent in kitchen service.  For when any meat is to be roasted, they go into a wheel; which they turning round with the weight of their bodies; and so diligently look to their business.

Butcher Dog
The following pictures show that some styles of dog carts are identical in form to horse carts and wagons in the Middle ages.
Every Day Life of Travellers, Marjorie Rowling, page 15, Dorset Press, 1989. ISBN:0-88029-351-9

This circa 1340 AD picture is from the British Library manuscript, Royal 10 E iv, commonly called the
"Smithfield Decretals." (Folio110v).
Jacob van Maerlant, Spieghel Historiael, c. 1325-1335. MS KB, KA 20, folio 163 V
European Dog Wagon
Circa 1915 dog Cart
Gaston Phoebus, Book of the Hunt, 15th Century
Germany 1876: Butcher Dog Cart
C. 1870s Sicilian Cart
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1566
Quebec Water Wagon, 1930s
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Carriage Museum of America            

Heavy Wheeled Plow pulled by mule or donkey
Harrow Pulled by Horse
There is NO Dog Cart depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry.  There is a donkey or mule pulling a heavy wheeled plow.  With some wishful thinking, this donkey could be mistaken for a German shepherd.  When the donkey is compared to all the other dogs the Bayeaux tapestry, it is obvious the donkey is NOT a dog.

 

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