The medium-sized ears were also partly pendulous, the tail rather short, cylindrical, and turned upwards and forwards towards the tip.

[2] It is not known when the dog was considered a specific breed, but by 1803 it is described thus by Robert Dallas: "The animal is the size of a very large hound, with ears erect, which are usually cropped at the points; the nose more pointed, but widening very much towards the after-part of the jaw.

They were also used as slave retrievers by the British during the Second Maroon War, by the French during the Saint-Domingue expedition, as well as the Americans in the Southern States.

[3] The British Governor of Jamaica, Alexander Lindsay, 6th Earl of Balcarres, sent emissaries to Havana in early 1795, to purchase 100 animals, after hearing of their successful use by the Spanish in chasing slaves and indigenous people in Cuba.

[3] Hundreds of hounds were supplied by Cuban breeders to the French during the Haitian Revolution in 1803.