Top Dog: Choosing Your Perfect Breed PDF
Preview Top Dog: Choosing Your Perfect Breed
TOP DOG TOP DOG Consultant Editor Commissioned photography by DR. KIM DENNIS-BRYAN TRACY MORGAN LONDON, NEW YORK, MELBOURNE, MUNICH, AND DELHI DORLING KINDERSLEY Senior Editor Kathryn Hennessy Design Manager Amanda Lunn Editors Cressida Tuson, Nicola Hodgson, Jemima Dunne CONTENTS US Editor Rebecca Warren Designer Steve Woosnam Savage Design Assistant Kirsty Tizzard Art Worker Philip Fitzgerald Picture Researcher Kate Lockley DK Picture Library Claire Bowers, Emma Shepherd Database Peter Cook, David Roberts Deputy Production Editorial Manager Luca Frassinetti Senior Production Controller Angela Graef 1 INTRODUCTION Managing Editor Esther Ripley Managing Art Editor Karen Self TO DOGS Publisher Laura Buller Art Director Phil Ormerod Associate Publishing Director Liz Wheeler What is a dog? 8 Publishing Director Jonathan Metcalf Consultant Editor Kim Dennis-Bryan Choosing the right dog 14 Contributors Ann Baggaley, Adam Beral, Candida Frith-Macdonald, James Harrison DK INDIA Deputy Managing Editor Pakshalika Jayaprakash Senior Editor Garima Sharma Editor Antara Moitra Assistant Editor Archana Ramachandran Managing Art Editor Arunesh Talapatra Deputy Managing Art Editor Priyabrata Roy Chowdhury Senior Art Editor Chhaya Sajwan Project Art Editor Anjana Nair Art Editors Shruti Soharia Singh, Priyanka Singh Assistant Art Editors Nidhi Mehra, Vidit Vashisht, Payal Rosalind Malik, Aastha Tiwari, Mansi Nagdev DTP Manager Balwant Singh Senior DTP Designer Dheeraj Arora, Jagtar Singh DTP Designer Bimlesh Tiwari, Nand Kishor Acharya, Mohammad Usman, Arjinder Singh, Tanveer Abbas Production Manager Pankaj Sharma First American Edition, 2012 Published in the United States by DK Publishing, 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014 12 13 14 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 001—178795—03/12 Copyright © 2012 Dorling Kindersley Limited All rights reserved Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. Published in Great Britain by Dorling Kindersley Limited. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN: 978-0-7566-8971-1 DK books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk for sales, promotion, premiums, fund-raising, or educational use. For details, contact: DK Publishing Special Markets, 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014 or [email protected]. Printed and bound in China by Leo Paper Products Ltd Discover more at www.dk.com 2 GUIDE 3 CARE AND TO BREEDS TRAINING Primitive dogs 22 Preparing for arrival 294 Working dogs 32 Food and feeding 298 Spitz-type dogs 96 First days 300 Sight hounds 124 Handling your dog 302 Scent hounds 136 Grooming 304 Terriers 186 Good behavior 306 Gundogs 220 Socialization 312 Companion dogs 260 Training your dog 320 Crossbreeds 282 Health 330 GLOSSARY 340 INDEX 342 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 352 NS G O O I T D C UO T D O R T N I 8 INTRODUCTION TO DOGS WHAT IS A DOG? The evolution of the dog from wild predator to domestic companion has been greatly influenced by human intervention. It has taken just a few hundred years to produce seemingly endless variations on the canine theme—but planned breeding has not removed the basic characteristics of the dog’s ancestor, the wolf. Dogs are social animals Evolution of the dog investigations have helped to narrow down the possibilities. All dogs share a common ancestor: the gray wolf. While this The earliest findings of human skeletons buried with their relationship is fairly apparent in breeds such as the German dogs are in the Middle East, suggesting that this is the most Shepherd or Spitz-type dogs, with their wolflike heads and likely region for the beginnings of the dog’s development pricked ears, it is hard to see the connection between wolves from wild wolf to domestic animal, which is thought to and toy Poodles or Saint Bernards. Genetically, however, have taken place around 15,000 years ago. any dog of any breed is virtually identical to the wolf. It is probable that wolves crept up to tribal camps, The transition from wolf to the huge diversity of domestic attracted by food and waste scattered around the dogs known today happened relatively quickly. The process perimeters. At first these opportunist wolves may have began gradually, with random changes in size and shape, been killed for their skins and meat. Over time humans but accelerated when humans began to selectively breed started to tame and hand-rear orphaned wolf cubs, which as those dogs that exhibited characteristics they desired. social animals took readily to adoption by the human “pack.” Once their potential was recognized—as hunters and natural In from the wild guardians that raised the alarm when intruders approached— Dogs were the first animals to be domesticated, but exactly the wolves were put to work by the tribe, and the when and where wolves came in from the wild to take their domestication of the dog was under way. It is surmised that place at human hearths is still under debate. Archaeological in an early form of deliberate selection, human-reared RELATIONSHIPS OF THE DOG FAMILY This diagram shows the relationship between the dog and some of the other canids (members of the dog family), based on genetic evidence. The dog and the gray wolf are more closely related to one another than to any other canids. Foxes Ethiopian Wolf Golden Jackel Coyote Gray Wolf Dog
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