about 3000 years ago, dogs began to migrate from the arctic into temperate europe, north america, asia, and sometimes africa. skeletons from around 2,000 years ago in switzerland show that spitz-type dogs have lived in central europe for thousands of years. these dogs are the ancestors of the european spitz-types, such as the german spitz and schipperke. many spitz-types also migrated into korea and china. later, many of these dogs were moved by humans to japan, most likely from korea. these asian spitz types are the ancestors of today's breeds such as the chow chow and the akita inu.