The lock presented in the museum’s collection is shaped as a miniature figure of a dog. The shackle is a large ornate tail decorated with geometric patterns typical of such objects. There is also a hole on the tail for hanging the lock (for example, in the open state).

Ears, nose and open mouth stand out on the dog’s head. A peculiar mane can be seen on the body, the ribs are drawn. The paws are half-bent, which, together with the open mouth, gives the impression that the dog is depicted at the moment of barking.

The history of the manufacture of such objects goes back to the Middle Ages, to the state called Volga Bulgaria. According to historians and archaeologists, it was there that the handicraft production of such locks was developed in the 10th–14th centuries. From there they spread over vast expanses of Eurasia; their finds were documented both during excavations of the Moscow Kremlin and on rural monuments of the Omsk Irtysh region.

Volga Bulgaria existed in the middle reaches of the Volga River, at the confluence of the Kama River. In its heyday, before the Mongol conquest, it was a rich state that lived by trade and handicrafts. However, even after the Mongol conquest, Bulgaria retained relative autonomy, and its capital was one of the largest cities of the Golden Horde.

All medieval locks, including the exhibit presented, had a rather complex mechanism based on a system of divergent springs. It meant fixing different positions of the shackle or shank of the lock, that is, its working element.

Locks with such a device were also used in East Asia and Asia Minor, Ancient Rome, Ancient China and Japan. Sometimes they could be decorated with inlays of semi-precious stones.

The defining elements in the design of padlocks are the key, the shackle and the body. With the development of blacksmithing and lockmaking, the reliability of the body increased and the locking device, and therefore the key, became more complicated. In this lock, the keyhole is located on one of the sides. Unfortunately, it bears traces of damage, and the key has not been preserved.