PRESENTED BY THE DOMESDAY BOOK OF DOGS All about the whiffet. There was, once, a type of dog in North America known as the whiffet. Many sources describe the dog as yappy, such as Sansom, 1817: “I was much annoyed, however, by the little whiffet dogs that run out upon Passengers from every hovel, barking till they are out of sight.” Descriptions of whiffets usually describe them as being black. New-York daily tribune, 1843, describes a black one performing tricks with a street vendor: “In the centre was a Neapolitan with ‘two dogs’ which he affirmed came from the uttermost parts of the earth, even from America. I thought very likely for one resembled a common bull pup and the other looked like an ordinary black whiffet.” Plymouth, Indiana received a new local ordinance from the town council, which began: “That every person shall pay a tax of fifty cents for every dog or whiffett (sic) , and two dollars for every slut, to be levied and collected as other taxes are collect