This is a Vietnamese Hmong dog, a breed that first belonged to the Hmong tribe, an ethnic group living primarily in China and south-east Asia. The 13-second clip comes from the Twitter page of @Buitengebieden, a Dutch user, and it has been viewed 225,000 times and rising I suspect. People have been debating whether this is a cat or dog. An amusing debate because it is clearly a dog but with some distinct feline features, I think you will agree. Although I think they are accidental to the breeding process.

Note: This is an embedded tweet. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

Hmong dog. Pic in public domain.

The Hmong dog is an ancient breed of dogs that originated, as mentioned, from the Hmong people. They live in the mountainous areas of northern Vietnam. It is said that the breed is very adaptable and flexible to the environment. One of its unique characteristics is its taillessness. It is mainly bred without a tail. If there is one it is usually very short from about 3-5 cm in length (1-2 inches in length). There is one breed described as the Hmong Docked Tail Dog. Personally, I am against any form of alteration to an animal’s natural anatomy. Is this the same breed? I think not as but it is similar.

One website says that the Hmong dog breed are born with naturally “docked short tails, long straight muscular legs and a thick coat of fur in the shades of black, brownish red, black-and-white and brindle”. The phrase ‘naturally docked’ is an oxymoron as it is contradictory. ‘Docking’ involves human intervention to cut off the tail or shorten it. An unnecessary mutilation to please people.

My research on this breed shows individual dogs that are not as feline as you are seeing in the picture on this page. This must be due to selective breeding. Clearly, the people who breed these dogs are not looking to create a dog which has facial features which merge cat and dog. That was never the intention. I suspect, therefore, that it depends upon the individual breeder and the pedigree of the dogs and the appearance of the foundation dog.