The word "podenco" in Spain refers to a certain type of dog, typically rabbit hunters with the same body shape.

[citation needed] The legend is that it had descended from ancient dogs brought to the islands in antiquity from North Africa by the earliest human settlers and isolated there.

[citation needed] However, recent genetics studies have concluded that the Podenco is a type of dog more closely related to, and no more primitive than, the rest of the European hunting breeds.

[3][page needed] A DNA study found that there was evidence of gene flow from the Podenco Canario into the Cirneco dell'Etna from Sicily.

[4] The Podenco Canario is recognised by La Real Sociedad Canina de España (R.S.C.E., the Spanish Kennel Club) as an indigenous breed[5] and is recognised internationally by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale as breed number 329 in Group 5 Spitz and primitive types, Section 7 : Primitive type - Hunting Dogs, Spain.

This disorder was formerly referred to as SRY-negative XX sex reversal, and is more commonly documented in American and English Cocker Spaniels.