HISTORY OF THE COTON DE TULEAR

In their home country the Coton is known as the royal dog of Madagascar and has even been honored by having its picture on a postage stamp. There are many stories about how the Coton de Tulear first became a breed in Madagascar. One such story says the Coton's were said to have originated because of a ship wreck in the 15th century. French sailors would sail in the region of Madagascar. They had little white dogs on board their ships said to be the ancestors of the Bichon. These dogs were used to kill the rats on the ships and also to help the ladies on board the ship from becoming bored. It is alleged that one of these ships sank during a vicious storm. The little dogs all managed to swim to safety and mated with the local dogs. This was the start of the breed know as the Coton de Tulear.

The Coton's then hunted in packs to kill wild boar. In Madagascar there are lots of rivers filled with crocodiles. It would have been sheer suicide for the Coton's to cross the river so they used their intelligence to fool all the crocodiles. The Coton pack would find the narrowest route to cross the river and then they would send 2 Coton's back to the widest part of the river. These Coton's will then bark and attract the crocodile's attention so that their pack would be able to cross in safety. As Coton's are much faster than crocodiles on land. Once the crocodile's attempted to catch the two little heroes' they would just run off and wait to cross the river safely them selves. After a hundred years or so the locals began to see how intelligent these beautiful dogs were especially at their skills of crossing rivers. As there were no bridges in Madagascar at that time they also thought about training the dogs to assist them on crossing rivers. These little dogs were so charming and beautiful that they attracted the attention of the royalty and the nobles of Madagascar and it was declared that no one could own a Coton unless they were of royal or noble blood. If a peasant was caught with one of these little dogs they could be sentenced to death.
This is probably why this breed is still a very rare and pure bred.

Another story about the Coton's origins, was that when the French settlers came to Madagascar the ladies brought with them little white dogs thought to be ancestors of the Bichon. These dogs also mated with the local dogs and the Coton was said to have been bred.

The next story is a little like the first. A ship from France came to the port Tulear of Madagascar willing to trade some of their goods. On board the ship were ladies who had with them little white dogs. These dogs were trained to jump and dance on their hind legs to entertain the ladies on long tedious journeys, they also caught the rats on board the ships. Once the ship had docked, the crew began trading their goods with the residents of Madagascar. On this day a noble man happened to be in the port looking to buy goods when he saw what was thought to have been Bichon's dancing and entertaining the passengers. Astonished by the little dogs abilities and intelligence, the nobleman offered the ships captain a great deal of money for these dogs. Once again they managed to mate with the local dogs and the Coton de Tulear was born.

The last story is the least believable, French troops apparently brought Bichon dogs with them to Madagascar, and once again they mated with the local dogs and the Coton emerged from this partnership. This explanation is quite odd, because normally the French troops wouldn't travel with dogs especially small ones.
With all of these stories the Coton's still out smarted the crocodiles and hunted in packs in the wild before they were caught & domesticated once again. The Coton also still became the property of the royalty and the nobles only. All peasants were sentenced to death if they were caught owning one.