The Canaan Dog, known in Israel as (Hebrew dog, is a typical pariah dog in appearance.

They are a medium-sized dog, with a wedge-shaped head, medium-sized, erect and low set ears with a broad base and rounded tips.

Their outer coat is dense, harsh and straight of short to medium-length. The undercoat should be close and profuse according to season.

Color ranges from black to cream and all shades of brown and red between, usually with small white markings, or all white with color patches. Spotting of all kinds is permitted, as well as white or black masks.

Dr. Rudolphina Menzel, having studied the desert pariah dogs and the variations in appearances, classified these canines into four types:

1) heavy, sheepdog appearance

2) dingo-like appearance

3) Border Collie appearance

4) Greyhound appearance

Dr. Menzel concluded that the Canaan Dog is a derivative of the Type III pariah dog—the collie type (referring to the type of farm collie found in the 1930s, which was a medium dog of moderate head type more similar to today's border collie, not the modern rough coated collie).

In writing the first official standard for the Canaan Dog, Dr. Rudolphina Menzel wrote: "Special importance must be placed on the points that differentiate the Canaan-Dog from the German Shepard Dog, whose highly bred form he sometimes resembles: the Canaan-Dog is square, the loin region short, the forequarters highly erect, the hindquarters less angulated, the neck as noble as possible, the tail curled over the back when excited, the trot is short (see also differences in head and color)".

Type varies somewhat between the American lines of Canaan Dogs and those found in Israel and the rest of the world, with many of the American dogs being rectangular in shape.