Dog Breeds

Most domestic dogs bark when alarmed or excited, and some react to the slightest disturbance with a veritable storm of hysterical yapping. By comparison, the barking of wolves is subdued and infrequent, occurring only in moments of intense excitement or in response to threatening Intrusions, usually by other wolves, into the home range or territory. […]

Throughout many of the poorer regions of the world, feral or stray dogs play an important role as urban scavengers. Some authorities have suggested that this useful habit may have been the original reason for domestication of the wolf. There is evidence for and against this suggestion. It is known that wolf domestication coincided with

Not all polygenic characters can be classified into grades; some, such as epilepsy, are all-or-nothing traits in that the dog is either normal or abnormal. Such traits, known as threshold traits, are difficult to work with but can respond to selection. Anyone purchasing a dog in a breed in which polygenic defects are common should

The first stage of any breeding program is selecting the dog, the second deciding which dog to mate to which. Cross-breeding is the most effective for farm livestock, but dog-breeding is greatly influenced by pedigree. In pure breeding, mating is between unrelated animals of the same breed (out bred) or with closely related animals ‘of

Polygenic characters tend to follow a pattern in which most individuals under study fall around the center or mean, with fewer at the two extremes. Taking wither height as an example, there are few really small animals of a particular breed and few really large ones, with most around the middle height. The number of

Basic laws governing biological inheritance in dogs were discovered in the 1860s by Gregor Mendel, the Austrian monk who gave his name to the principles which hold good to this day, though our understanding of the underlying mechanisms has altered. A particular gene controlling a specific function is always found at a particular point or

The body and organs of a dog are made up of millions of minute cells, each a nucleus containing small thread-like structures called chromosomes. These number seventy-eight, regardless of the breed, as they do in the wolf. Other species have different numbers of chromosomes. The genes which influence the physical make-up, character, behaviour. health and

The origin of the domestic dog has long been the subject of controversy. It is difficult to believe that dog breeds as different as Pugs and Greyhounds, Chihuahuas and St Bernads are all descended from a single common ancestor. Even Charles Darwin, father of modern evolutionary theory, was as bemused by the sheer variety of

If one would talk about the millions of breeders and the way they keep their pets it would be a little offensive and offhand too. But today I would like to talk about the millions of dog breeders that always have been buying, cuddling pups and after sixty three days they days once they grow

I am thinking of taking up breeding but am not at present quite clear about the meaning of such terms as line breeding and inbreeding. What exactly are they, and what points generally should be kept in mind when choosing sire and dame for breeding? If you are going to take up dog breeding seriously,