Original purpose of each breed....

[linkhttp://www.dogbreedinfo.com]www.dogbreedinfo.com[/link] will give you a short description.  It has other info too, but every breed I have looked up on there has a section for "origin" which will give basic info on original purposes.  Breeds are listed alphabetically.
 
HTH
 
Kate

Sometimes you really have to take breed origins with a grain of salt.  I'm finding, in my research, that many breed histories we repeat so confidently today are very little more than "just so" stories, the purpose of which is to justify a certain asthetic favored in the conformation ring for the breed.  We are today facing this pressure in the Border collie breed, which is new to the conformation ring in two important countries: just ten years in the US and less than 25 in the country of its origin, the UK. 

The simple answer to the question, "How did my breed develop?" is, in the majority of cases, that someone liked a particular look and bred for that.  The "type" of most of today's breeds were set during a time when one of the defining lines between the working  class and the upper classes, was the ownership of purebred, preferably pedigreed animals - whether horses, dogs, cats, or livestock if you were a farmer.  The Victorian age was the dawn of scientific genetics and they brought the new knowlege to bear on "purifying" lines of animals that in the past had been only defined purely by function. Terriers, shepherd's dogs, carting dogs, mastiffs now joined the ranks of the rich man's hunting dogs and house pets in having the requirements of elegance, attractive appearance, and a studbook, put on them.  Many very useful strains of beasts died out because they were considered too plebian - some were deliberately exterminated, as a couple of sheepdog strains and at least one terrier line that I am aware of at present.  "Function follows form," became the new rallying cry and many many breeds were reverse engineered to fit asthetic tastes into what remained of their function.

Anyway, unless the breed's past is well documented with primary sources (the work of Von Dobermann comes to mind), this is the bump in the road you face in looking at breed history many times.  I'll never forget looking at several US breed club websites for a particular breed that will go nameless, and seeing the statement repeated several times, "The origins of this breed are shrouded in the mists of time . . ."  Poppycock - the breed's origins were very well documented - but the obfuscation had likely occured when the breed fanciers wanted to seperate the breed as much as possible from its original working class function.

Well, someone pull me up a stepstool so I can climb down off this high horse . . .who let the history grad in here, anyway?

Thanks for the dissertation.  I appreciate your opinion and thought.

Here's a thread which attempts to answer the same question: [linkhttp://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=117594]http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=117594[/link]
 
Someone there broke it down simply.  Unsure of how accurate it is.
Afghan Hound … hunting leopards
Airedale Terrier… hunting vermin
Akbash… guarding livestock
Akita… hunting large game
Alaskan Malamute…pulling sled
American Eskimo Dog…unknown (performing tricks?)
American Pit Bull Terrier… fighting
Anatolian Shepherd… guarding livestock
Australian Cattle Dog… herding cattle
Australian Kelpie… herding cattle
Australian Shepherd…herding livestock
Australian Terrier… hunting vermin
Basset Hound… hunting rabbit
Beagle… hunting small prey
Belgian Shepherd… herding livestock; carrying messages; law
enforcement
Bernese Mountain Dog… all-round working farm dog
Bichon Frise… royal lap dog
Bloodhound… tracking during hunts
Border Collie… herding sheep
Border Terrier… killing foxes; guarding farms
Boston Terrier… controlling vermin
Bouvier Des Flanders… all-purpose farm dog
Boxer… baiting bears and bulls
Brittany… hunting companion
Bull Terrier… pit fighting
Cardigan Welsh Corgi… general working dog
Catahoula Leopard Hound… hunting, guarding
Caucasian Ovtcharka… guarding sheep
Cavalier King Charles Spaniel… companion dog
Central Asian Ovtcharka… herding livestock
Chesapeake Bay Retriever… hunting waterfowl
Cocker Spaniel… hunting
Dachshund… hunting small game
Dalmatian… guarding horses and carriages
Doberman Pinscher… guarding people
English Springer Spaniel… hunting; all-purpose
English Toy Spaniel… lap dog
German Shepherd Dog… police dog
German Shorthaired Pointer…. hunting
Golden Retriever… retrieving waterfowl
Great Dane… hunting stag and wild board
Great Pyrenees… guarding livestock
Greyhound… hunting; racing
Jack Russell Terrier… hunting small game
Japanese Chin… lap dog
Japanese Spitz… companion dog
Karelian Bear Dog… hunting big game
Keeshound… watch dog; controlling vermin
Komondor… guarding large herds
Kuvasz… herding livestock
Labrador Retriever… retrieving fish and game
Lhaso Apso… guarding monasteries and palaces
Maltese… lap dog
Maremma… guarding sheep
Mastiff… fighting and defending
Miniature Schnauzer… catching rats
Miniature Pinscher… catching rats and being a barking watchdog
Newfoundland… retrieving from water
Norwegian Elk Hound… hunting big game
Old English Sheepdog… herding sheep and cattle
Patterdale terrier… killing vermin
Pembroke Welsh Corgi… herding cattle
Pomeranian… lap dog
Poodle… retrieving waterfowl
Portuguese Water Dog… assisting fishermen
Pug… lap dog
Rat Terrier… hunting rats
Rhodesian Ridge Back… hunting lions
Rottweiler… herding cattle; pulling carts; protecting
Russian Wolfhound… coursing wolves
Saint Bernard… guarding and herding
Samoyed… pulling sleds; herding reindeer
Schipperke… guarding boats; catching vermin
Schnauzer… all-purpose farm dog
Scottish Terrier… hunting small animals
Shar Pei… all-purpose farm dog
Shetland Sheepdog… herding sheep
Shih Tzu… residing in temples and palaces
Siberian Husky… pulling sleds; herding reindeer
Smooth Fox Terrier… hunting foxes
South Russian Ovtcharka… guarding sheep
Vizsla… sporting dog
Weimaraner… hunting large game
Westie… hunting fox
Wheaten Terrier… catching vermin; hunting; guarding
Whippet… racing
Wirehaired Fox Terrier… hunting fox
Yorkshire Terrier… catching rats and other small animals

Ummm, no.  The original use for the german shepherd was to herd and protect the flock of sheep.  Later they were trained for police, military and sar work.

Mic this site is pretty good, after you hit on the breed go to more info on breed
 
[linkhttp://www.dogchannel.com/dog/breeds/]http://www.dogchannel.com/dog/breeds/[/link]

You can pretty much just google the dog breed and a good website about the dog should give you a history of it. I know personally from my trainer's manual that my Westie is a Scottish Hunting Dog. And I know from experience, too.
*has a flashback of when Sammy brought her a dead robin and chased her around the backyard with it*
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ORIGINAL: glenmar

Ummm, no.  The original use for the german shepherd was to herd and protect the flock of sheep.  Later they were trained for police, military and sar work.

 
LOL!  I said I wasn't sure if it was correct!  I thought some of them sounded odd- like the whippet..would have thought that hunting would have been its original purpose.

(first I am not wolfsoul lol but I am on her computer and I dont have an acount here)
 
actually going by a book I read on Whippets they were indeed bred for raceing, they were bred down from greyhounds to be a small, cheap "racehorse" for the poor man.

I went to the dogbreedinfo website and looked up basenji.  Here is the original purpose of the basenji:
 
 In Africa, it is used as a guide in the forests,
 
Why native peoples need a guide in their own forests, I have no idea, but can't you just visualize basenjis wearing pith helmets saying "Now on the right you can see a Nile crocidile, and on the left . . ."?
 
Of course this website also says basenjis will not fight among themselves.  [&:]

I wouldn't trust dogbreedinfo's accuracy either.  They are way off base on the Collie too.

If anyone is interested in the origin of the Smooth coated version of the Collie, here is my take on it.

Unlike what most of the Collie books in print today tell us, the word 'Collie' is actually from the Gaelic word for 'useful', and so the Celtic tribes called their useful farm or stock dogs 'Collies'. Over time, the name was changed with the English language influence.

There is strong evidence that the early ancestors of the Collie were brought over during the Roman invasions. The earliest known title for what is now our Smooth Collie was the 'Shepherd's Cur'. Records can be traced back to the Laws of the Forest of 1598. The herding dog that was to become the Smooth Collie of today comes from the butcher's dogs, who would accompany the butcher to town, and would serve as a herder, protector and companion. These dogs were able to perform a multitude of tasks from herding to hunting. The Scots wanted one dog that could perform the task of many, as opposed to many dogs that could only perform a single task.

During this time carriage dogs became popular, and while at first Dalmatians were the dog of choice, by the early 19th century, the Smooth Collie was the fashionable ladies' carriage dog. The Royal Archives show evidence that Queen Victoria had several Smooths in her royal kennels, included her beloved "Sharp", born in 1864. He was her constant companion for 15 years and upon his death, a memorial statue was erected over his grave.

The British Standard for the Smooth Collie, originally written in 1898, strongly resembles the standards of the AKC, UKC and FCI. The only differences being the size of the American Collie and the embellishment upon certain characteristics.
 [size="1"]
Historical information taken from 'The Smooth Collie - a Family Dog' by Iris Combe, noted Collie researcher and historian. [/size]

I don't know how reliable it it, but have you checked the AKC website?  On the page for each breed, in the left hand navigation bar, is a link for "History" of each breed.http://www.akc.org/breeds/breeds_a.cfm. Their Collie history is acceptable to me.  Of course, this doesn't help with non-AKC breeds, but it's a start!