When people first encounter a Jindo, there are inevitably two very different, but common responses.  They are “Jindo?  What’s that? Don’t you mean Dingo?” or “Wow!  This is a Jindo?”

Although somewhat similar to the wild Australian dingo, the Korean Jindo dog is an entirely separate and distinct breed.  The Korean Jindo dog is an old breed that originates from an island called Jindo, which is located off the southwest coast of South

Korea.  The island, with its naturalbarriers, allowed the Jindo dog to develop isolated from other dog types for hundreds of years.  Although the Jindo dog lived in companionship with man, the breed was allowed to develop under natural selection rather than human selection due to the difficult living conditions on the island.

The Korean Jindo dog is well-known in South Korea and wasdesignated as Chosun (Korea)

Natural Treasure #53 in 1938.  It wasn’t until 1996, though, that the Korean Jindo dog appeared on the international stage as Federation de Cynologique Internationale (FCI)  #334.

The Korean Jindo dog is still a fairly unknown breed in the United States.    Although present in evergrowing numbers in some states, accurate information about the breed is still hard to find.