DogLvr.com

What is a Bernese Mountain Dog?

By Ove Marcelind

A Bernese mountain dog is a large dog from the Swiss Alps near Berne, Switzerland. They are characterized by their distinct marking of white and rust like color with black all over. They are a very strong dog that is loved by many. They are used for many things like hard work. They are also very good pets that anyone can love.

Farmers because of their strength use Bernese Mountain dogs. They will drive the cattle to the market and warn the farmer of any strangers that enter the property. They are excellent watchdogs and loyal to their owners as well. Berner Sennenhund introduced this breed in 1937. They are indeed a beautiful dog and loved by many. The Bernese is not related to the Saint Bernard like some people assume.

More →

Welcome New Visitor!

The Xoloitzcuintli (Mexican Hairless Dog)

By Michael Russell

The name of this dog is pronounced show-low-eats-queent-lee. An easier way to spell and say the name of this unusual breed is Xolo (pronounced Show -lo). In common everyday terminology, the dog is known as the “Mexican Hairless”. This name says it all. This is a breed that is born without hair. Consequently it is a breed that has particular difficulties with health which should be understood by anyone wishing to own one of these rare dogs.

First of all, a dog without hair is subject to temperature changes and should be protected from either extreme cold or heat. It will sunburn easily and needs to be kept out of the sunlight. It will become cold quickly and needs to wear an outer coat when it goes outside. The size of the dog is another health consideration for the small toy variety of this breed has a delicate bone structure. Children should be supervised and not allowed to play roughly. Also the dog needs to be protected from jumping off of surfaces which are high for its small leg bones will fracture easily.

More →

The Kooikerhundje: Dutch Decoy Dog

By Michael Russell

The Kooikerhundje has existed in the Netherlands since before the 1500s. The Kooikerhundje is a unique dog which is directly related to the dog which is known in the United States as the Nova Scotian Duck Toller. It is believed that the Toller is descended from the Kooiker. The body build of the Kooikerhundje is quite similar to the Duck toller but the coloring of the Kooiker is red and white. Like the duck toller, it is the heavily fringed white “feather” of his constantly moving tail which lures the ducks to the hunter, thus the term “decoy dog” is used to describe the function of the two breeds. In the case of the Kooikerhundje, the dog historically could be classified as a working dog rather than a hunting dog, for the Dutch people used the dog to lure the ducks into various blinds which a farmer would set up alongside the canals. A “decoy dog” would disappear into a blind only to reappear on the other side and the ducks would follow out of curiosity. Eventually the farmer and the dog would have captured a number of ducks which could then be taken to market. Gradually the industrial revolution took over and marketplaces which sold live animals became less plentiful. By 1939 the breed was nearly extinct in Holland but through the passionate work of Baroness van Hardenbroek the breed began to regain its former status and by 1966 the Dutch Kennel Club officially recognized the breed. Also it is interesting to note that the Kooiker of today is again performing its original function, being used by conservation organizations in Holland to lure the ducks into holding pens for the purposes of classification.

The Kooikerhundje history includes an interesting note that a Kooikerhundje belonging to Prince William of Orange saved his life by alerting him of an attack by the Spanish. He is a loyal and faithful dog as a pet in a household and is a useful and intelligent hunting dog for the duck hunter of today. In the F.C.I. this dog is registered within the gundog group. The Kooikerhundje breed is also recorded with the Foundation Stock Service of the A.K.C. The first litter of a Kooikerhundje was registered as recently as 1999 in the United States.

More →

The Japanese Kai Dog

By Michael Russell

The Japanese have six native Spitz type dogs that are unique to their part of the world. Among these six, the Kai Dog or the Tora Dog is the Shika Inu which means “medium sized” as opposed to Shiba Inu which is smaller. The Kai Dog has the typical Spitz type of short stand-off brush coat and the tail curled tightly over the back, while the head has the wedge shaped look of a fox and the ears are prick.

In the early 1900s there was an influx of western dogs into Japan due to the opening of their borders after the first World War. The Japanese were impressed greatly by the larger size of the dogs and the unique hunting abilities. The two breeds in particular which made a big impression were the German Shorthair Pointer and the Alsatian. For some time the Japanese abandoned their own breeds in favor of the newcomers. In 1930 a Japanese breeder by the name of Haruo Isogai attempted to revive the interest in breeding of these dogs. At that time he developed the categorizing of the native breeds by size and somewhat by function.

More →

The Karelian Bear Dog

By Michael Russell

The Karelean Bear Dog is a close cousin of the Russian Laika and there is a very strong similarity between the two. However the Karelean Bear Dog is a native of Finland. The Finnish name for the dog is Karjalank Arhukoira. the earliest settlers of Finland had to survive in a rugged land and hunting rather than agriculture was their main source of food. They needed a dog that was strong and fearless to hunt and bring down the animals of the region, which included deer, elk, moose and bear. The Karelean Bear Dog has always been the hunting dog of Finland and has changed very little from the earliest times. Because it is of a limited genetic pool the lines are quite pure. It became a very popular hunting dog for large game and there was a considerable number of these dogs at the turn of the century in northern Europe and Scandinavia. However the two World Wars decimated the population. It is now a rare dog and today all of the Karelean Bear Dogs can be traced back to only forty dogs which were still in existence after the war.

The dog has exceptional hunting ability although not exceptionally large. The height at the withers is about 22-24 inches. It is always black with white markings . The body is of a Spitz type (short backed and squared off with a tail which curls over the back.) Some Bear Dogs are born with a bob tail. The coat is not profuse or long, but is quite dense and double in nature. He is a dog with good “substance” but not the appearance of massiveness. He needs to be an agile and speedy hunter and is therefore of moderate size and is slightly longer than he is tall. The ears are upright. He has a keen sense of hearing and smell and is considered a scenting dog rather than a sight hound.

More →

The Coton De Tulear

By Michael Russell

The Coton De Tulear is a Bichon type dog which is descended from the small white dogs of Madagascar which were believed to have been brought to the Mediterranean region by a shipwreck in 1665. These small white dogs existed in Europe as early as the 1500s according to written references of the time. Often these were the little dogs which were carried on ships as companions of the passengers and also as a ship’s dog to rid the ship of rats and vermin. These early Bichon type dogs, as they were dispersed around Europe by sailors and travelers, began to be named mostly after the region in which they flourished and each type, though basically from similar origins, developed along lines which were sufficiently different that most of these small white fluffy dogs are now compartmentalized as separate breeds and registered as such by the F.C.I. (the European counterpart of the A.K.C.)

The Coton De Tulear is distinguished by it’s silky long single coat which is quite fine and cotton like in texture. The coat is white although there may be slight biscuit or lemon markings on the ears or feet and rarely one can find specimens which are black and white. The coat length is about three inches and the standards require that it not be scissored but left in a natural state. It is a small dog standing no higher than 10-11 inches at the withers. The head has a well defined stop and the untrimmed hair should be left in a “fall” over the eyes, often covering the eyes completely. The tail is not curled too tightly but should be loosely curled over the back.

More →

The Tosa Inu, Sumo Dog of Japan

By Michael Russell

The formidable Tosa Inu is a dog that was bred by the Japanese to feed their desire for a very large and courageous silent fighting dog for the ring sport of pit fighting. The Japanese do not like to lose and when they opened their borders in 1854 and foreign European dogs began to enter the ring and the Japanese were being consistently beaten, they put their breeding expertise to work to produce the Tosa Inu. This breed was perfected from a combination of the Mastiff, the Bulldog, the Bullterrier, The German Pointer, the Great Dane and the indigenous fighting dogs already present in Japan, such as the Akita. The Tosa when trained properly is no different in temperament than any of the breeds which were used in its development….all of them are solidly gentle and affable towards people. The Tosa because of its thick skin and naturally heavy coat has a high tolerance for pain as do most of the dogs bred to be used in the sport of dog fighting. And the Tosa because of the breeds used in its development will not stand down when confronted although usually will not be overly aggressive unless confronted.

The rules of the pit ring in Japan require that the dog be a silent and steadfast fighter and the Tosa Inu lives up to that admirably, never giving in and continuing to fight to the death if necessary without uttering a sound or a bark of any kind. However fighting to the death is not part of the Japanese ritual of dog fighting and seldom occurs for the dogs are pitted together and judged on various standards which are nearly as stringent as the standards required of the Samurai swordsmen….the fight is discontinued after a period of time and points are awarded to the winning dogs with much pageantry and acclaim. The sport of dog fighting in Japan has precise rules and it is stylized nearly as much as the Sumo wrestling events. The Tosa Inu is considered to be the “Sumo” fighting dog of Japan, being large and powerful and persistent. Tradition requires that the Tosa Inu be led into the ring between two human handlers rather than just one as are most of the other breeds and it is possible that both people are actually needed for the Tosa Inu is a very strong and powerful breed. In weight pulls a single dog has been known to pull as much as 3,800 pounds.

More →

The Rough and Ready Scottish Terrier

By Michael Russell

Scotland is a rugged land and the dogs which lived in the country centuries ago grew up as rugged and crusty as the land. There was no established Scottish Terrier for many years but there has always been a “Scottish Terrier type” of dog. It is just that there was no attempt at developing type and so dogs that lived and worked as the rodent catchers and tough little watchdogs of the farmers simply were born looking like their sires and dams. The Terriers of the Aberdeen region were the most well established type but were generally just dubbed the “Aberdeen Terrier” without any real attempt at development of a pure strain. Although there was a preponderance of this Aberdeen Terrier type it was not an established breed until 1879, when Captain Gordon Murray decided to establish type in the numerous terriers that were present in the Aberdeen region. He began with the terriers who had the long hair and a long face and a square jaw and within five years he had perfected a true to type terrier which he then called the Scottish Terrier. The Scottish Terrier Club was established in 1882 and the first of the Scotties began to enter the Show ring at that time.

The Scotty is not a “toy” dog. Although it is a small terrier, reaching a height of 11 inches at the shoulder, it is a sturdy dog with much substance. The head is impressive, for he has long jaws and a blocky appearance to the skull. The nose has a bit of a roman look to it and the fore face hair falls well down over the eyes in prominent eyebrows and covers the top of the nose, he also has a long beard. The neck is well muscled and trimmed of long coat but the rest of the body has a stiff and flay lying wiry coat. Many people think that the Scottish Terrier is always black, however, grizzled, wheaten, gray and brindle are allowed. The Scotty should present the appearance of strength and determination both in its structure and in its temperament.

More →

The Bichon Frise

By Michael Russell

The words Bichon Frise actually mean “fluffy little dog”. This was the name given to the breed in 1933 by the European Kennel club (Federation Cynologique Internationale) when there was a huge discussion as to what to name the breed, which had applied for registration in the stud book. There had existed since before the time of Christ several varieties of the small white fluffy dog, throughout Europe and South America. The little dog had been called by many names, including the Dog of Havana, the Dog of Holland, the Dog of Bologna and others. Actually it is most likely that these original names represented variations of this breed and later these variations did receive their own designations of the Bolognese and Havanese. At any rate, the “fluffy little dog” that was always white became known as the Bichon Frise, usually just designated the “Bichon” .

The coat of the Bichon as it is presented in the show ring is usually quite rounded and trimmed and fluffed so that in the end one can hardly distinguish the actual bones or muscling of the body. If groomed as for the show, the little dog has a large squared off appearance to the head and the entire body is covered with fine soft coat about 3 inches in length, curly and “fluffy” all over. The coat is always white. However when one has a pet Bichon this is not an easy task to keep this appearance. One drawback as far as this type of grooming is that folks who want to have it look that perfect must devote a portion of their time nearly every other day to brushing the dog “to the skin” to keep the coat fluffy and mat free and giving baths as necessary to keep the coat clean. Many “pet” owners elect to keep the coat short and trimmed for ease.

More →

The Havanese, Dog of Cuba

By Michael Russell

It seems that every country has its own history when it comes to dogs and which dogs become the particular dog which has flourished in that country. Cuba is no exception, for it is the native country of the Havanese. Although the Havanese most probably originated with the Spanish settlers of Cuba many centuries ago as descendants of the Bichon Barbichon of Southern Spain , it became apparent after many years of development that the dog was destined to become a unique breed. Because at first there seemed to be many of these little toy dogs that carried a distinctive coat color of a deep brown similar in color to that of the cigar, it is theorized that the name “Havanese” came from the name “Havana Brown” which is the first known name of the dog. Eventually this name was popularized into the name “Havanese” and it is under this name that the dog is now recognized as an A.K.C. breed.

This little dog is similar in many respects to the Bichon Frize. However the coat color can be of any blend or combination, whereas the Bichon is always white. The coat of the Havanese is long and shaggy and the standards for the show ring require that the coat not be clipped, altered, or tampered with in any way. The coat is double. However, since this is a bred that has lived for years in the tropics, the double coat is not “hard” or woolly but is soft and silkyin appearance and texture, rather like that of a single coat. The guard hairs of the top coat are long and rather wavy. The A.K.C. also allows for the mature Havanese to be shown in a “corded” coat. A Corded coat will happen naturally if, as the dog is maturing, the coat is allowed to separate itself into parted clumps of hair which gradually will wrap around themselves over time (usually with human interference) and develop into cords. This type of coat is seldom seen on a pet Havanese for it takes a lot of patience to “train” a coat in this manner. The head is furnished with a beard and hair which is long over the eyes. This long hair is believed to protect the eyes of the dog from the hot Cuban sun and because of this it has become tradition for this breed to leave the hair in a loose fall over the eyes rather than pulling it back into a topknot. The Havanese is not a large dog, at the withers the height should not be over 11 and a half inches, the minimum being 8 inches.

More →