The turnspit dog was bred to run on a wheel and roast meat, then went extinct

The Turnspit Dog was a short-legged, long-bodied breed kept in English kitchens to run inside a wooden wheel connected to a roasting spit. First mentioned in 1576 as "Turnespete," the breed was also known by several names: Kitchen Dog, Cooking Dog, or Wheeling Dog. In Linnaeus's 18th-century classification, it was listed as Canis vertigus.

The work was strenuous; kitchens often kept them in pairs. They were incredibly devoted, and owners noted that if they were not relieved at the proper hour, they would leap out of the wheel without command and force their companions to take their place. Contemporaries described them as "long-bodied, crooked-legged and ugly dogs, with a suspicious, unhappy look." These dogs were also taken to church as foot warmers. One story relates that during a service in Bath, the Bishop of Gloucester uttered the line "It was then that Ezekiel saw the wheel"—prompting several Turnspit Dogs to bolt for the door. Queen Victoria even kept retired Turnspit Dogs as pets.

The breed went extinct following the invention of mechanical roasting jacks. As John George Wood wrote in 1853, "the invention of automaton roasting-jacks has destroyed the occupation of the Turnspit Dog, and by degrees has almost annihilated its very existence." A single preserved specimen remains at the Abergavenny Museum in Wales.

Previously:

• Canis vertigus