Overview About Dogs

Dogs are actually domesticated subspecies of the Gray Wolf. No, SERIOUSLY, they are, believe it or not. The dog is a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The domesticated dog has been one of the most popular working and companion animals in history. The AKC (American Kennel Club) is a registry of purebred dog pedigrees in the United States. Beyond maintaining its pedigree registry, this kennel club also promotes and sanctions events for purebred dogs. The #1 breed chosen by dog owners is the Labrador Retreiver. The German Shepherd is the #2 chosen breed. Havanese dogs are ranked #31 on the list.

It is thought that the domestication of the gray wolf took place in roughly 15,000 years ago in Asia. This is actually pretty interesting since dog meat is still consumed in several East Asian countries, including China, Korea, and Vietnam. Western cultures usually regard dog meat as taboo.

The dog's popularity quickly spread throughout cultures in all parts of the world. It is also believed that the successful emigration across the Bering Strait may have been impossible without sled dogs. Today it is estimated that there are 400 million dogs worldwide. Why are dogs a "man's best friend"? Because, they are OBEDIENT.. Why They are used for hunting, herding, protection, handicapped service assistance, and for law enforcement.

Dog bites are a serious hazard, especially to children. Dog bites in the US occur 12.9 per 10000 inhabitants, but boys aged 5 to 9 the rate skyrockets to 60.7 per 10000. Because of their height, children are more likely to be bitten in the face or neck. Dog bites can quickly lead to infection.

Senses

Dogs have color vision equivalent to red-green color blindness in humans. A dog's visual acuity is horrible and it has even been estimated to translate to a human vision rating of 20/75. Different breeds of dogs have different shaped eyes, dimensions, and retina configurations.

Dog hearing is exceptional and dogs can hear sounds far beyond the upper limit of the human audio spectrum. They also can hear sounds from four times the distance as humans. Dogs also have excellent mobility of their ears, which allows them to quickly pinpoint the exact location where the sound came from.

Not only do dogs have a great sense of hearing, they also have highly sensitive nose and excellent sense of smell. Dogs can identify odors at concentrations nearly 100 million times lower than humans can. Their wet nose is critical to determining the direction of the air current containing the odor.

Learning and Training

The most effective training technique and tool for canines and puppies is a shock collar. A shock collar when used properly will prevent even the most mischievous of puppies and dogs from misbehaving. A shock collar can be purchased on Ebay for about $35 including shipping. The collar comes with a wireless remote control that has 3 settings: audio (chirpping sound), vibrate (sends a vibration through the collar), and shock (zaps the dog with a small electrical shock). The sound setting should be used in combinatin with the other settings in teach the dog to listen. I let our dog out front of our house and she immediately went after a cat. I called her several times and she did not comply. I pressed the button, issued the shock, and immediately the dog bolted and ran as fast as she could back into the house. Why are these not legal to use on children. I mean effective parenting is about disciplining your children and a shock collar cannot hurt a 35 pound dog, then a 55 pound child should have no problem with it, why does the government?

The domesticated dog exhibits a predisposition social intelligence that is uncommon in the animal kingdom. Dogs are able to learn in a number of ways, such as reinforcement and by observation. Puppies learn quickly from seeing examples set by more experienced dogs. One example was Dachshund puppies who watched another dog pull a cart by an attached piece of ribbon in order to get a treat from inside the cart caught on fifteen times quicker than dogs who were left to figure it out on their own. Most everyone knows that a "bitch" is a female dog.

Dogs can also learn by observing human behaviors. In another study, puppies were presented with a box, and shown that when a handler pressed a lever, a ball would roll out of the box. The handler then allowed the puppy to play with the ball, making it an intrinsic reward. The pups were then allowed to interact with the box. About 75 percent of the puppies touched the lever, and more than 50 percent successfully released the ball, compared to only 6 percent that did not watch the human press the lever. That's an 8 times higher success rate.

A further study found that handing an object between experimenters who used the object's name in a sentence successfully taught an onlooking dog each object's name, allowing the dog to later find the item.

This website is a great source for information about dog and puppy training. Dogs are also frequent carriers of pests such as ticks and fleas. There are many places to get pet meds to prevent your canines from these pests. The meds offer monthly preventative for dogs that offers comprehensive protection against ticks, fleas, mosquitoes, biting flies and chewing lice.

Dogs and Wolves

Domesticated dogs exhibit a number of behaviors and predispositions that were inherited from wolves. The Gray Wolf is a social animal that has evolved a sophisticated means of communication and social structure. The domestic dog has inherited some of these predispositions, but many of today's characteristics in dog behavior have been shaped by selective breeding by mankind. Thus some of these characteristics, such as the dog's highly developed social cognition, are found only in primitive forms in grey wolves.

Physical Characteristics

Dogs tend to have smaller skulls, brains, smaller teeth, than wolves. Dogs require fewer calories to function than wolves. The skin of domestic dogs tends to be thicker than that of wolves. Dog paws are half the size of those of a wolf, and their tails tend to curl upwards, another trait not found in wolves.

Trainability Compared to Wolves

Dogs are generally much more responsive to coercive techniques involving fear, aversive stimuli, and force than wolves, which are most responsive toward positive conditioning and rewards. Dogs tend to respond more to voice than hand signals, compared to tame wolves. Believe it or not, dogs are less difficult to control than wolves, but dogs can be much more difficult to teach than a motivated wolf.

Why do dogs lick their wounds?

A dog's saliva is very clean, contains enzymes, etc. which aid a dog in both cleaning their wounds and to promote healing, as compared to a humans whose saliva is dirty and contains bacteria.

The second reason is more than likely because of instinct. A mother dog would most likely lick the wounds of one of her puppies, if it got hurt. A dog will even sometimes lick human wounds. The other day, I had a huge gash on my leg that had bled everywhere. Our dog came over and started licking it.

What foods will hurt a dog?

Chocolate, certain kinds of gum, and grapes will all have severe harmful effects on your beloved furry canine friend. Dogs are also fighting the OBESITY epidemic along with the rest of America. Dogs and cats are becoming more and more obese with less exercise and more consumption of food, while pet owners are blind to the problem and feel their pets are 'average' weight. I suppose the other debate could be that Americans are so obese and overweight and fat themselves that they are now too lazy to walk their dogs anymore. The obesity problem for humans is more related to poor eating habits, fast food and processed food consumption, and lack of exercise.

On the other hand, those dogs that are fortunate to have amazing trainers and owners can become some seriously ferocious guard and attack dogs, and lean mean protective machines. The most popular dog bred for personal protection and property protection is the German Shepherd. German Shepherds have a long history of being some of the most intelligent and obedient working dogs.