Featured Large, old(?), folk art(?), carved dog

My latest thrift store find today - this big old carving of a dog.
Is it old? (Nails in mouth I think are suppose to be teeth look like antique hand forged nails to me)
Is this folk art? If not what should I call it?
PS - maybe it's me, but with its tail curled up & her rear exposed/swollen(?), it looks like one of my female dogs in heat before we had her fixed?
Any thoughts on it would be greatly appreciated!






Someone in FaceBook pointed out it looks like a Pharoah Dog, right?

 

Cool piece amigo-looks 'like you've got a tiger by the tail' as Buck Owens used to say...or a Hellhound !
PS-If it was a piece of 19th Cent Folk Art (as opposed to a recent piece Haitian funk), you could be talkin actual loot.

 

The patina, which gives it the appearance of age, seems to be artificially applied. I'm thinking Indonesia.

Debora

 

Seconded. Oh, and it's male.

 

Agree, applied patina, and probably made in Indonesia.

It doesn't. Not every lean dog is a Pharoah hound. I saw those a lot on Malta, and the head and nose are all wrong.
It could have been carved in a part of the world that is not familiar with dogs, for instance Madura, Indonesia, which is known for its excellent carvers.

 

I dont think it's a male, but I've been wrong about most of it!

 

Cool thing and definitely a conversation starter. Weird cat- dog. But I also don’t think ‘old’ . Makes me of those zombie dogs in Resident Evil.

 

Look at its back end.

 

Love this piece.

 

It is quite strange but a really fun and funky piece. Even if newer it’s bound to attract the eyes of the folks who appreciate oddities.

 

Not that Im a connoisseur of such things but I immediately thought it was a vulva, probably because I expect depictions of scrotal sacs to be more pronounced in art ...but why the artist decided to be that thorough I guess we'll never know.

 

I don't see any nipples, but they didn't carve the underside beyond strict necessity, so who knows.

 

I know we're distracted by other features... but that tail's pretty wild too! Never seen a dog with a tail quite like that.

 

Really interesting item... both attractive and unattractive at the same time, imo.