The Royal Dog of Madagascar
The Coton de Tulear originates from Madagascar, the world's largest island. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southeast off the coast of Africa. It's capital is Antananarivo. Tulear is a port city on the southwestern coast of Madagascar. Historically the Coton's arrival to Madagascar dates approximately to the 15th Century. Ships sailed to the West Indies, around Africa's Good Hope Cape, into the Mozambique Channel to the Indian Ocean. Sea voyages were always long and boring and sailors' life was very bad.
To offset their hardship and the loneliness of the ladies traveling on these ships, little spirited dogs accompanied them. These same little dogs were also used to rid the ships of unwanted mice and rats which were consuming sailors and passengers' food. During a violent storm, a ship wrecked in the proximity of Madagascar. No one knows the name of the ship or its flag, but all the sailors perished in the ocean. The fact of the matter is that some little white dogs swam ashore around the southwestern coast of the island. It is assumed that they are the ancestor of today's Bichon Frise.
These dogs settled on the island, became wild again, and met eventually with the local terriers. The Coton is thought to have resulted from their relationship. These little dogs foraged for food to survive and learned to protect themselves against bigger predators. They hunted the wild boar packs.
Another story tells us that the dogs wanted to cross a river infested with crocodiles. These reptiles with wide open mouths were patiently waiting for their feast! Since swimming across was sheer suicide, our dogs needed a diversion to reach the opposite bank. They looked first for the narrowest passage, then ran to the widest part of the river, started barking so ferociously that the racket allured all the crocodiles to that spot. Slowly and clumsily the reptiles started climbing the bank. Our smart dogs sprinted back to the narrowest passage, jumped in the water and swam across.
Later natives fell in love with these little dogs, domesticated them and offered them to the King and Malagasy nobles. Because of their beauty and personality, these dogs became the favorite of Kings and nobles. For many years only people with "royal blood" could own and raise them.
At the turn of the century, French colonialist also fell under the spell of these little dogs. Bit by bit, upon their return to their native country, they raised the Cotons as pets. The breed has only been recognized since 1971.