Well, for one thing they were more mythical than real.
This is NOT to say dogs, goats, sheep, children, and horses were not put on tread- and wheel-mills to drive butter churns, threshing machines, corn huskers, and turnspits.
They were.
It IS to say that very few households ever had kitchens large enough to house a turnspit, or cooked enough large cuts of meat to ever require such a thing.
In the 1700s, folks were no more likely to cook a whole hog, lamb, or turkey than they are today.
But yes, castles and some large manor houses might have such a thing, driven by a local dog of no particular breed.
Whatever happened to turnspit dogs and canine turnspits?
Simple: mechanization.
The same clockwork weight mechanisms that drove the first large European clocks were soon utilized for other purposes, including kitchen churning, turning, and grinding.
These machines were called Spit Jacks, Spitjacks, or Bottle Jacks, and took up far less room that canine-powered kitchen wheels.
These mechanical weight and gear machines were also infinitely adaptable as a power source, required no feeding, and were clean.
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