It's likely the Anglo-Saxons had pet dogs. There's archaeological evidence for practical hunting dogs as well as small (you might say pointless) lap dogs. A woman was buried with one of those little dogs at Minster Lovell in Oxfordshire, sometime between the fifth and the seventh century.
We don't know what these dogs were called, but I can hazard a guess:
Samwis hund!!
[Saam-wis hund]
Stupid dog!*
Or how about:
Swic þæt þing!
[Switch that thing]
Leave it! (well, technically leave that thing, but 'leave it' is what we say)
Dog training, even for our hardy ancestors, was probably as frustrating as it is today. Luckily we've got the RSPCA to stop things getting too out of hand. Not so for the Anglo Saxons...Jess Saunders wrote: "Of course, not all dogs were treated well, such as the dog found at West Stow with broken ribs, a broken leg and a depressed fracture to the skull [West and Cooper, 1985]."
*I chose the male noun here because the female noun just sounded too rude (and might get this blog blacklisted). The Anglo-Saxons gave us our word for female dog. What a surprise...
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