Three Breeds of Dragon

[SpaceChampion]

The showrunners has said there are 3 breeds of dragon.  They seem to be the Wormy type like Caraxes, the Dinosaurian-like as with Syrax, and the more Drogon-like with heavily armoured head as with Balerion and (i think) Seasmoke.

Are these made up for the show, or is there any textual references for this in the books and histories?  Been wondering if Vhagar is a Wormy type and Meraxes more Dino type, or vice versa, because the original 3 adult dragons would have to be responsible for all that were raised after the Conquest, so they must be one of each, right?  Unless one of the breeds had no adults during the conquest, the juveniles being too small to be ridden yet.

[Mosi Mynn]

Thank you for starting a thread about this!  I love everything about the dragons, and this news has me particularly fascinated.

There are a three YouTube videos that have particularly grabbed me, and I'm going with these theories until someone more authoritative debunks them.

From these videos, the three types are:

Dino/Tyrannosaurus  - Balerion, and all of Dany's dragons.  Big square heads, maybe the biggest "breed"?

Wolf head - Vhagar and Syrax. Elegant (for a dragon) head - I think Syrax is quite pretty!

Serpentine, wormlike - Meraxes and Caraxes. Long bodies and necks.  I LOVE Caraxes' design! I'm really interested to see if any of the other Dance dragons are this breed, as I suspect most of them will be the top two breeds.

 

Three Dragon Breeds Revealed by Showrunners

The Real Origins and Different Sub Species of Targaryen Dragons

Targaryen Dragons Timeline & Family Tree Explained

[SpaceChampion]

I'd guess Balerion was bred for war.  Eyes forward to train on an enemy.

I've heard Syrax called more eagle-faced, not wolf.  I don't see a wolf-head at all, but her eyes a little more facing the sides, perhaps bred for hunting.

At a guess the wyrms are bred for guarding, if they're more sensitive to signs of danger.

Edit:  *sudden relevation*   Caraxes is a Danger Noodle!!!

 

[Mosi Mynn]

Danger Noodle!  Brilliant! 

I like your roles for each of them.  I would love to see all three breeds together.  Is Seasmoke of the Balerion breed?  Hopefully we can see him, Caraxes and Syrax together.

 

[Mosi Mynn]

Is/was Arrax a different breed from our recognised three?

He is a lot smaller than others of his age, or younger - specifically when compared to Syrax and Drogon.   

Is Syrax the same age as Rhaenyra?  If she is, then Syrax was a lot bigger than Arrax was at fourteen years old.  And Arrax, I assume, had not spent most of his life in a dragonpit - he flew free-ish around Dragonstone for at least six years. 

Arrax is also a lot smaller than Drogon was when Drogon was a lot younger. 

Is Arrax a specifically smaller breed?  Or is something else  going on, as in the maesters already stunting the dragons' growth?

[Annara Snow]

On 9/6/2022 at 8:08 PM, SpaceChampion said:

The showrunners has said there are 3 breeds of dragon.  They seem to be the Wormy type like Caraxes, the Dinosaurian-like as with Syrax, and the more Drogon-like with heavily armoured head as with Balerion and (i think) Seasmoke.

Are these made up for the show, or is there any textual references for this in the books and histories?  Been wondering if Vhagar is a Wormy type and Meraxes more Dino type, or vice versa, because the original 3 adult dragons would have to be responsible for all that were raised after the Conquest, so they must be one of each, right?  Unless one of the breeds had no adults during the conquest, the juveniles being too small to be ridden yet.

The Targs may have brought some dragon eggs from Valyria rather than just dragons.

[SpaceChampion]

On 10/27/2022 at 5:19 AM, Mosi Mynn said:

Is/was Arrax a different breed from our recognised three?

I can't remember getting a good look at Arrax's head.  Will have to go back some time and try to freeze frame it.

23 minutes ago, Annara Snow said:

The Targs may have brought some dragon eggs from Valyria rather than just dragons.

Most certainly.

[Evolett]

On 9/6/2022 at 8:08 PM, SpaceChampion said:

The showrunners has said there are 3 breeds of dragon.  They seem to be the Wormy type like Caraxes, the Dinosaurian-like as with Syrax, and the more Drogon-like with heavily armoured head as with Balerion and (i think) Seasmoke.

I've entertained this thought for a while, especially in view of Dany's three dragons, though there's no real proof available. Dragons specially bred for war indicates there was intentional breeding for the purpose. Large, formidable dragons such as Drogon and Balerion may be examples of this breed.

But the Valyrians also used dragonfire in construction work, to create their fanciful buildings and stoneware. I can imagine a smaller more flexible breed, one easier to turn and steer around objects being better suited to this task. Lastly, there's a mention of wise old dragons that lived for a thousand years. No clue as to what their purpose could have been but perhaps they differed from the rest. Maybe there is a breed more suited to travelling long distances, more streamlined and aerodynamic perhpas.

[Sax]

I guess I’m the only one that noticed all the horns on balerion’s skull, notice how there’s about 4 or 5 on both sides of his head. The only other dragon that looks like that is meleys. So I guess Balerion is the same breed as the red queen which in my opinion is AWESOME because she’s super fast, literally takes on vhagar and sunfyre 1v2. No wonder Balerion was such a beast!

[Dresheld]

As for the three breeds of dragons, it's interesting to see the showrunners explore different dragon types. I haven't seen any references to this in the books or histories. Still, it definitely adds another layer to the dragons in the show. I can see why you're curious about which original dragons belong to which breed. It would be cool if Vhagar and Meraxes turned out to be one of each.
Just wanted to jump in on the dragon discussion. I'm all about that dragon vibe and love the show's theme. Have you guys checked out dragon-vibe.com? They have some sick Dragon Ball accessories that would make a perfect addition to any fan's collection.

[SpaceChampion]

Looking back at this, I got the reasoning backwards.  Hunters/predators would have their eyes forward, for stereoscopic vision to make for better depth perception with targets.  The war dragons like Balerion are likely also the best hunters.

Animals with eyes more to the side are prey.  So that's weird for a dragon, but could be deliberately bred to make better guard dragons.  So calling Syrax with the side-wards eyes "wolf-like" is weird to me.  Perhaps the showrunners consider the Balerion type to be "wolf-like."  Syrax is more bird like.  And a pretty bird she is!

I think Meleys might be the representative "in-between" breed.

Likely Caraxes, adorable danger noodle that he is, is probably just a one-off mutant.  If there is a whole breed with longer necks, they maybe better for underwater swimming/hunting, but that's not terribly useful for the Targs.

[The Dragon Demands]

The new Making of House of the Dragon book didn't have that much new information on dragon breeds, in fact it basically just repeated information from prior interviews. It was quite disappointing - but it seems they rushed the book out only after they realized the show was a hit (it similarly glosses over stuff from the costume and set designers). 

To summarize everything in one place:

• There are 3 major "breeds" of dragons, based on skull-shape: T-Rex heads, Wolf-shaped heads, and narrow elongated Horse-shaped heads "between the two" (whatever that means)
• Caraxes IS NOT representative of his breed. He's repeatedly described as a random mutation, as happens sometimes in dog breeding or horse breeding. Vermax and Arrax are the template for what the "Wolf-shaped head" ones look like. I asked the concept artist via Instagram; he reiterated that Caraxes is a mutation/outlier (or recessive/atavism?) and noted that Caraxes' flames are unusually hot even for a dragon: they instantly vaporize people. Even Vhagar's flames, which by this point should be hot enough to melt stone, don't instantaneously just VAPORIZ people. Apparently the long neck means his fire-chemical producing glands are overdeveloped. 
• All dragon designs were already developed in Season 1, even if they don't appear on screen yet. Condal said his favorites are the three "Wild" dragons: because they never had harnesses bolted to them there are little distinctions that make them look different from how bonded dragons were handled. But that waits for a later season...

But like horses or dogs, different dragon breeds must be specialized around different functions: a "destrier" is a war-horse bred for strength, a "palfrey" is bred for endurance, etc. Based on comments by the showrunners and designers across several interviews, the breakdown is:

• "T-Rex shaped skulls" = "war dragons". Bred for strength in combat. Includes all of Daenerys's dragons (who were copying the Drogon design) - actually they started with Drogon as the base template for a "standard" dragon then worked from that to other ones, or even how to tweak that to differentiate other dragons of the same breed. I'm pretty sure that Vhagar is one of these, but she's grown very old and her horns snapped off. Balerion also one of these. Seasmoke is this breed. APPARENTLY so is Dreamfyre (hinting that she's the mother of Daenerys's dragons). Sunfyre...APPARENTLY? We don't get a good look at him (he has big, upswept horns like a devil, but he's very strong for his size, leaning to the idea that he's a "destrier-dragon" breed). Vermithor is also this breed, almost as old as Vhagar, only a few of his horns just beginning to snap off. 
• "Horse-shaped skulls" = "bred for speed".  Condal and the designers repeatedly say that Syrax was "bred for speed" and compare her design to a streamlined jet airplane. I used to think Meleys was a war-dragon, but on review, I actually think she's the same breed as Syrax: her large "crown" of horns makes her head look wider than it actually is. Plus one of the few details we have about Meleys from the book is "she was the fastest dragon of her generation", faster than Caraxes etc., so if you're going to make ONE the "fast" breed you'd make it Meleys. So these are..."racing dragons"? (what's the term for a horse bred for speed not endurance?) -- though it's possible they're ALSO bred for endurance, I'm not sure. 
• They still haven't said what the "Wolf-shaped skull" type is bred for. Which is annoying. Other than to confirm that Caraxes isn't typical for this breed, Vermax and Arrax are the template. The book also confirmed that Tyraxes is this same breed (as it's hinted these three dragons were from the same clutch, brothers for Rhaenyra's sons). BASED ON HORSE AND DOG BREEDS, what are other functions you breed an animal for? Endurance? Tracking? Because they have wide-set heads, wide-set eyes, I wonder if they're bred for tracking.

There are some dragons we still haven't seen yet. The three hatchlings aren't even mentioned in Season 1 and I suspect they want to SHOW them hatching on-screen in Season 2: Shrykos, Morghul, Stormcloud (when Daemon lists off all the dragons, rather than mention hatchlings, he includes "and I have a score of dragon eggs in the incubators waiting to hatch" - so I think his son Aegon III will get Stormcloud in Season 2). But they don't NEED to "differentiate" the hatchling dragons that much; just as Vhagar is differentiated by her old age (relative to the "Drogon, a war dragon in his prime" template) these will be differentiated by being hatchlings.

That leaves:

• Moondancer (Baela)
• Tessarion (Daeron)
• Silverwing (riderless, mate of Vermithor)
• 3 wild dragons (Sheepstealer, Grey Ghost, and the Cannibal)

As I said, the recent book confirmed that Tyraxes is the same breed as his brothers. Interestingly it did also mention that Silverwing is "slender" compared to Vermithor, so even though she's roughly the same age she doesn't look nearly as weathered by age but remains beautiful (the haggard look is due to size not age; Dreamfyre is actually a little older than both Vermithor and Silverwing, but also described as "slender" so she held up well). 

So there's basically six remaining dragons that they haven't established the "breed" for yet, nor have they explained exactly what the "wolf-shaped skull" breed is for. 

***The book reveals that Moondancer was supposed to briefly appear on-screen late in Season 1, apparently cut at the last minute much as Baela's scene with Rhaenys got deleted, and as a result of this miscommunication the book let slip a description of Moondancer: described as an interesting design that DOES NOT match the standard Drogon template, but said to be "punk rock" with a big mohawk frill and intricate patterning in her green scales (could still be a variation on the "destrier-dragon"/T-Rex head template).

[Annara Snow]

10 hours ago, The Dragon Demands said:

The new Making of House of the Dragon book didn't have that much new information on dragon breeds, in fact it basically just repeated information from prior interviews. It was quite disappointing - but it seems they rushed the book out only after they realized the show was a hit (it similarly glosses over stuff from the costume and set designers). 

To summarize everything in one place:

• There are 3 major "breeds" of dragons, based on skull-shape: T-Rex heads, Wolf-shaped heads, and narrow elongated Horse-shaped heads "between the two" (whatever that means)
• Caraxes IS NOT representative of his breed. He's repeatedly described as a random mutation, as happens sometimes in dog breeding or horse breeding. Vermax and Arrax are the template for what the "Wolf-shaped head" ones look like. I asked the concept artist via Instagram; he reiterated that Caraxes is a mutation/outlier (or recessive/atavism?) and noted that Caraxes' flames are unusually hot even for a dragon: they instantly vaporize people. Even Vhagar's flames, which by this point should be hot enough to melt stone, don't instantaneously just VAPORIZ people. Apparently the long neck means his fire-chemical producing glands are overdeveloped. 
• All dragon designs were already developed in Season 1, even if they don't appear on screen yet. Condal said his favorites are the three "Wild" dragons: because they never had harnesses bolted to them there are little distinctions that make them look different from how bonded dragons were handled. But that waits for a later season...

But like horses or dogs, different dragon breeds must be specialized around different functions: a "destrier" is a war-horse bred for strength, a "palfrey" is bred for endurance, etc. Based on comments by the showrunners and designers across several interviews, the breakdown is:

• "T-Rex shaped skulls" = "war dragons". Bred for strength in combat. Includes all of Daenerys's dragons (who were copying the Drogon design) - actually they started with Drogon as the base template for a "standard" dragon then worked from that to other ones, or even how to tweak that to differentiate other dragons of the same breed. I'm pretty sure that Vhagar is one of these, but she's grown very old and her horns snapped off. Balerion also one of these. Seasmoke is this breed. APPARENTLY so is Dreamfyre (hinting that she's the mother of Daenerys's dragons). Sunfyre...APPARENTLY? We don't get a good look at him (he has big, upswept horns like a devil, but he's very strong for his size, leaning to the idea that he's a "destrier-dragon" breed). Vermithor is also this breed, almost as old as Vhagar, only a few of his horns just beginning to snap off. 
• "Horse-shaped skulls" = "bred for speed".  Condal and the designers repeatedly say that Syrax was "bred for speed" and compare her design to a streamlined jet airplane. I used to think Meleys was a war-dragon, but on review, I actually think she's the same breed as Syrax: her large "crown" of horns makes her head look wider than it actually is. Plus one of the few details we have about Meleys from the book is "she was the fastest dragon of her generation", faster than Caraxes etc., so if you're going to make ONE the "fast" breed you'd make it Meleys. So these are..."racing dragons"? (what's the term for a horse bred for speed not endurance?) -- though it's possible they're ALSO bred for endurance, I'm not sure. 
• They still haven't said what the "Wolf-shaped skull" type is bred for. Which is annoying. Other than to confirm that Caraxes isn't typical for this breed, Vermax and Arrax are the template. The book also confirmed that Tyraxes is this same breed (as it's hinted these three dragons were from the same clutch, brothers for Rhaenyra's sons). BASED ON HORSE AND DOG BREEDS, what are other functions you breed an animal for? Endurance? Tracking? Because they have wide-set heads, wide-set eyes, I wonder if they're bred for tracking.

There are some dragons we still haven't seen yet. The three hatchlings aren't even mentioned in Season 1 and I suspect they want to SHOW them hatching on-screen in Season 2: Shrykos, Morghul, Stormcloud (when Daemon lists off all the dragons, rather than mention hatchlings, he includes "and I have a score of dragon eggs in the incubators waiting to hatch" - so I think his son Aegon III will get Stormcloud in Season 2). But they don't NEED to "differentiate" the hatchling dragons that much; just as Vhagar is differentiated by her old age (relative to the "Drogon, a war dragon in his prime" template) these will be differentiated by being hatchlings.

That leaves:

• Moondancer (Baela)
• Tessarion (Daeron)
• Silverwing (riderless, mate of Vermithor)
• 3 wild dragons (Sheepstealer, Grey Ghost, and the Cannibal)

As I said, the recent book confirmed that Tyraxes is the same breed as his brothers. Interestingly it did also mention that Silverwing is "slender" compared to Vermithor, so even though she's roughly the same age she doesn't look nearly as weathered by age but remains beautiful (the haggard look is due to size not age; Dreamfyre is actually a little older than both Vermithor and Silverwing, but also described as "slender" so she held up well). 

So there's basically six remaining dragons that they haven't established the "breed" for yet, nor have they explained exactly what the "wolf-shaped skull" breed is for. 

***The book reveals that Moondancer was supposed to briefly appear on-screen late in Season 1, apparently cut at the last minute much as Baela's scene with Rhaenys got deleted, and as a result of this miscommunication the book let slip a description of Moondancer: described as an interesting design that DOES NOT match the standard Drogon template, but said to be "punk rock" with a big mohawk frill and intricate patterning in her green scales (could still be a variation on the "destrier-dragon"/T-Rex head template).

"Vermithor is also this breed, almost as old as Vhagar, only a few of his horns just beginning to snap off. "

What the hell?! They said that?!

Vermithor is half Vhagar's age!

[The Dragon Demands]

No no, I said that. Sorry. 

I meant he's one of the older dragons, but as I said, the more important factor is SIZE, it's size that weathers them not age as such, and Vermithor is the second biggest after Vhagar. So as you see in the shot with Daemon a few of his horns are starting to snap, his neck sags a little, etc. 

It's like how a huge dog breed can have health problems by 7 years old, but a smaller terrier dog could be 14 and you'd think they look 7 years old (I have cats but I've noticed similar; smaller cats I've had lived longer, and one was 16 but you'd think she was 8, held up better because she was smaller, no health problems from being big )  --- of course this excludes health problems from dog breeds bred so small it's unhealthy, pocketbook dogs (cruel to breed dogs that small). 

[Mosi Mynn]

Quote

As I said, the recent book confirmed that Tyraxes is the same breed as his brothers. Interestingly it did also mention that Silverwing is "slender" compared to Vermithor, so even though she's roughly the same age she doesn't look nearly as weathered by age but remains beautiful (the haggard look is due to size not age; Dreamfyre is actually a little older than both Vermithor and Silverwing, but also described as "slender" so she held up well). 

Is Vermax male?  I like the theory that she may have laid eggs in Winterfell ... If Vermax is male, I love that he, Arrax and Tyraxes are Syrax's boys 

I'm really looking forward to seeing Silverwing, and Dreamfyre up close.  These magnificent ladies should be almost as big as Vermithor.  And Silverwing and Vermithor's relationship is going to be heartbreaking 

I really want them to develop and show Helaena and Dreamfyre's relationship.  There are hints in the book that the bond is as strong as Rhaenyra and Syrax's.  It should be really different from other pairings because Helaena is not going to ride her formidable dragon into battle.  The Greens have two of the biggest dragons - but one of them will not go to war.

[The Dragon Demands]

I kind of hope that Season 2 really gives focus to the "dragons can switch genders" thing from the books, because it was NEVER mentioned at all in the original TV series.

This fanon idea, or wishlist, that I have for Season 2, is actually... Sunfyre.

Think about it:  the idea is that taking inspiration from Jurassic Park, being in a single-sex environment will spur one of them to change into the other sex, to keep the species going. It's possible that they naturally switch back and forth all the time, with no external pressures, but it stands to reason that being in a single-sex environment would add greater pressure.

The Blacks have Dragonstone, with a large number of dragons, mixed genders - it's where the breeding hatcheries are in the volcano. They have no driving need for one to switch genders. 

In contrast, the Greens only have the Dragonpit in King's Landing. They only have four grown dragons - and Tessarion is away in Oldtown, so that's 3 - Vhagar and Dreamfyre (both of which are stated to be female or  egg-layers in Season 1)...and Sunfyre, whose gender was actually never specified.

The Season 1 finale implied that the three "hatchling" dragons simply haven't been born yet in the TV continuity: rather than have Aegon III's Stormcloud hatch off-screen prior to the finale, it seems they want a bit of an arc, to show the full life cycle; so they stressed that Daemon is collecting eggs. Added a line where he says "and I have a score of eggs warming in the incubators" but no mention of hatchlings.

Thus according to the principle of "Chekhov's Gun", we'll see one of those eggs that "Country Lord Daemon" collected at the beginning of episode 8 - hatch into Stormcloud, for his son Aegon III.

That seems obvious. But...would they do the same for the Greens?

HOW could they do that? How could the Greens produce eggs from Vhagar (female, old), Dreamfyre (female, egg-layer) and Sunfyre?

Well the easy answer is "Sunfyre is considered male, sired eggs on Dreamfyre before, so it's no surprise when their eggs hatch into dragons for Aegon & Helaena's twin children" --- even possible that they could say "we had some dragon eggs left over that we store in the Dragonpit"....as shown in episode 6, they got an egg from the Dragonpit, not Dragonstone island (apparently, they sometimes just lay eggs in the dome?...the books don't say that....was it foreshadowing?)....or not even the Dragonpit, they could just say "when the twins were babies, we got eggs from Dragonstone to put in their cradles, they just happened to hatch right now"

All of these are fine answers.

But I think the CREATIVE choice, the one I would do, to emphasize that they can shift genders, is to reveal that Sunfyre has been female up to now but turned into a male.

Given that 1 - of the three dragons in King's Landing, two have been stated to be female / egg layers, 2 - They never actually used gendered pronouns to refer to Sunfyre in dialogue.....I think it would be interesting if in Season 2 the Greens are shocked to discover that Dreamfyre laid a new clutch of eggs....or even have the guards at the dome outright state "we even saw Sunfyre and Dreamfyre coiling together, Sunfyre sired these eggs on Dreamfyre".....and have Aegon & Alicent baffled, and say "but Sunfyre is FEMALE, we've SEEN her laying eggs before, they just never hatched".....and then have one of the remaining Dragonkeepers at the dome explain that according to old dragon-lore, "in a single-sex environment one will switch genders to perpetuate the species - life finds a way".

( I also think it would be cool if the Dragonkeeper could then say something like "according to the stories, when Aenar Targaryen came to Westeros with five dragons, ALL FIVE were female - Balerion itself turned into a male to keep the species going")

In turn this would set up or parallel that Vermax lays eggs in Winterfell, that they can randomly switch even in a mixed group of dragons and Vermax must have mated soon before leaving Dragonstone.

That's how I'd do it at least. Doesn't contradict anything. Go all in on the revelation to a TV-only audience that "dragons can switch gender", the biggest point to emphasize this is "Sunfyre turns into a male so the Greens have a viable breeding pair"
 

[Annara Snow]

21 hours ago, Mosi Mynn said:

Is Vermax male?  I like the theory that she may have laid eggs in Winterfell ... If Vermax is male, I love that he, Arrax and Tyraxes are Syrax's boys 

It seems that the only way dragons' sex can be told is when they lay eggs. So all dragons who have laid eggs are considered female, and dragons who haven't - male. Vermax has been referred to as a boy so far in the show IIRC (I don't remember whether it was explicit in the book) but it is a young dragon, so it's possible they misjusged the dragon's sex before she laid eggs.

19 hours ago, The Dragon Demands said:

I kind of hope that Season 2 really gives focus to the "dragons can switch genders" thing from the books, because it was NEVER mentioned at all in the original TV series.
 

That idea was just mentioned by Maester Aemon as something that Septon Barth believed. No one else ever seemed to think so and it's never been confirmed.

It also seems that humans can't tell dragon sex in any way other than 'do they lay eggs?", so I don't know what "changing sex" would even mean. If dragons can all lay eggs and impregnate other dragons, they don't "change sex", they are hermaphrodites all along.

However, about half of dragons at least are always referred to as male, which suggests that they never laid any eggs. And those include dragons who reached very advanced age, like Balerion. Vermithor is also pretty old, Caraxes is no spring chicken, and Sunfyre should be over 20 years old too. More than enough time for all of them to lay eggs, which they don't seem to have done.

[Mosi Mynn]

2 hours ago, Annara Snow said:

It seems that the only way dragons' sex can be told is when they lay eggs. So all dragons who have laid eggs are considered female, and dragons who haven't - male. Vermax has been referred to as a boy so far in the show IIRC (I don't remember whether it was explicit in the book) but it is a young dragon, so it's possible they misjusged the dragon's sex before she laid eggs.

Had Syrax laid any eggs when we first saw her with young Rhaenyra?  I can't recall.  Syrax has always been called a female.  Also Moondancer - I've always assumed she was female, but that might be because of the name!

I also can't recall Vermax or Arrax being specifically referred to as male - but they might well have been.

 

 

The switching sex is interesting - none of the dragons we have met so far have been said to have done this.

[Annara Snow]

42 minutes ago, Mosi Mynn said:

Had Syrax laid any eggs when we first saw her with young Rhaenyra?  I can't recall.  Syrax has always been called a female.  Also Moondancer - I've always assumed she was female, but that might be because of the name!

I also can't recall Vermax or Arrax being specifically referred to as male - but they might well have been.

 

 

The switching sex is interesting - none of the dragons we have met so far have been said to have done this.

We don't know how many times dragons may have laid eggs.

Or whether, like hens, they also lay unfertilized eggs, which would be useless as anything except decoration.

[The Dragon Demands]

I've been thinking on dragon breeds in comparison to horse and dog breeds.

Page on Horse breeds in the books: https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Horse

Wikipedia page on "Working Dog" breeds based on function: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_dog

They wouldn't have "breeds" for aesthetic reasons but functional reasons, narrows down our definitions. 

The only solid info we have is "the T-Rex shaped skull ones are war dragons bred for raw Strength, while the narrow Horse-shaped skull ones are bred for Speed"

With Horses, the broad categories are:

• Charger (War Horse) - bred for Strength and Sprinting for combat. Two sub-varieties:
  • Destrier - largest, slightly slower. Incredibly expensive.
  • Courser - slightly smaller but a little faster. Still a war-horse, and much more common.
• Palfrey - Bred for Endurance, long-distance travel
• Dornish Sand Steed - Bred for Endurance and Speed. I used to think of them as just "Super-Palfreys" but that's not the case: it's mentioned that they're also bred for Speed, because Dornish light cavalry rely on mobility in combat. The trade-off is they can't carry large weights, sacrificing Strength, but armies shouldn't wear heavy steel armor in the deserts of Dorne, they'd bake in the sun.

We see no mention of..."race horses" built only for short bursts of sprinting, pure Speed and nothing else. I don't think Dragons would either (unless we had a Valyria TV series showing them getting so decadent that they breed Racing Dragons just for fun...we wouldn't see that it in this).

I tend to call them "War dragons" or "Destrier Dragons", because "Charger" confuses people that it's about Speed (it's about a strong horse quickly sprinting into the enemy).

A Dray is a heavy work horse built for hauling weight, but slowly. You can use it as a war mount in a pinch but it has less stamina. In Dragon terms, compare an Olympic level weight lifter to a football linebacker: the linebacker is big and strong but he needs to be able to run in short bursts. For the sake of simplicity I don't think they'd show one of these, as it's basically a "Super-Destrier" (spectrum from Courser to Destrier to Dray: as Strength increases so much, even short Sprinting charges become difficult). The entire point of a Dray is that it's so strong it's better for HAULING, it's too slow to even fight well, and dragons wouldn't need to haul things (unless we got a Valyria prequel showing them making megastructures...)

I doubt they'd ever need to make the dragon version of Garrons, extreme-weather horses bred with wide feet and shaggy coats, perfect for rough rocky terrain in snowy weather. Mostly seen in the North.

Looking at DOGS, meanwhile, there's one FUNCTIONAL type of breed that they have that Horses would not: TRACKER.

Hunting dogs. Sometimes purely for sense organs, but often senses mixed with endurance, meant to run down prey, to keep following it until the heavy hitters in the hunting party catch up. 

So... "Hunter/Tracker/Scout".  

Reinforcing this idea to me is of course that their skulls are specifically WOLF shaped, as said in earlier interviews. The new book just says "their skulls have Canine features". So it's a "Canine" skulls -- thus what functions do "canines" usually serve? Hunters/tracker/scout.

I "showed my work" in this post, to make my Conclusion easier to quote I'll make it a separate post: