Talbot (dog)

A cross with English Greyhounds, carried out with the aim of increasing their speed, gives rise to the Southern Hound, which is thought to be an ancestor of the Beagle; it is possible that the North Country Beagle is also the result of such a crossing. The coat of arms of the borough of Sudbury in Suffolk in the United Kingdom depicts a Talbot sitting with its tongue hanging out. In heraldry, the term "Talbot" designates in English the "curly-tailed dog," a well-mannered hunting dog. "The name Talbot, which was carried among others by a great British captain, initially designated a pointing dog, a hunting dog introduced to Great Britain. This Norman word is formed from two elements of Germanic origin tal ("to harm, bruise" and bot "to attack, push, thrust"). It became an aristocratic surname, then a family name, in the Anglo-Norman kingdom. It is not surprising to find it throughout the Armorican massif. In Poitou the word came to designate the piece of wood suspended around the neck of dogs to prevent them from straying into the grain fields. In Brittany, the homophony with tal and bod is fortuitous but may have helped preserve the name.