Combai Information & Dog Breed Facts

The Combai, often mistaken for the Dingo, is an ancient sighthound breed, that is thought to have been originated from the 15^th century, or even from earlier. The breed can find its origins in Tamil Nadu, India, where it was first intentionally bred. The Combai, or in its other name the Kombai, was always greatly valued for their strengths and eagerness to please and employed them to hunt larger game like wild boar, deer, bears, and even more dangerous larger animals such as leopards, lions, and tigers.

According to some popular beliefs, the Combai was used by the army of the Marudhu brothers, who were also known as the Marudhu Pandiars. They headed the revolt against the British subjugation of the Kalaiar Koil of the Sivakasi Kingdom at the beginning of the 19th century. Throughout the centuries the dogs were kept mostly by the nobility of Southern India who used them mainly for hunting. The Combai was thought to be extremely talented at bear hunting and was commonly known as Bear Hound or Bear Dog. It was said that Indian people valued the Combai so much, that they often traded a horse for it during the transaction of products, or wealth. As the centuries passed by, the Indian nobility slowly lost a great deal of their power, thus the Combai’s role transformed to being a guard dog for rural farmers and ranchers. In India, the population explosion and the change of needs and habits pushed the remaining larger prey to their limits, thus, suddenly the Combai was left with no specific purpose. As there was nothing to hunt, the dogs became guards of people and property. During these dramatic changes, the Combai’s population numbers began to decrease, and they have never recovered since then.

Nowadays, the Combai is considered to be a rare breed, and many experts are stating that the breed is already on the verge of extinction, due to neglect, and lack of use. Many Indian dog breeds are being dominated by the European and American breeds, that many people see as more fashionable or valuable than their indigenous breeds. However, there are conflicting documents and records existing about the status of the breed. Some records recovered from the 1960s state that the breed was popular, and their numbers were increasing, meanwhile, other documents are depicting a rather sad image of the breed’s population status, and its prospective. Fortunately, the Tamil Nadu-state-run facility responsible for dog-breeding took up the responsibility of trying to recover and re-establish the breed’s original population pool. Nevertheless, it was reported that the organization suspended their Combai breeding program, when owners who purchased dogs, have returned them for the reason of finding their behavioral traits and overall character ill-suited to as keeping pets.

All in all, the Combai is among the rarest dog breeds in the world, and the fact that they are not recognized by any of the major kennel clubs does not help their cause. Nowadays, the remaining specimens are mostly kept in Asia and in the United States of America, where people tend to keep them as family companions. Today, the Combai is still known and renowned for their fierce behavior towards their enemies, and intense loyalty to their families.