The very first line of the Löwchen’s AKC breed standard reads, “A small, bright, and lively dog.” The...
Read MoreHusky Lite*
The last time we wrote about the Alaskan Klee-Kai, the breed wasn’t eligible for an AKC conformation ring, but w...
Read More“Couch Potato” of the Terrier World
His breed standard mentions the word, “strong” six times. “Powerful” shows up five times. In fac...
Read MoreFrom the Neck Up
Scroll down and take a good look at the neck and head of the brindle Greyhound below. What do you notice? Maybe the phot...
Read MoreIn Griff Time
On the face of it, the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon would seem to share little with the Danish-Swedish Farmdog, but what ...
Read MoreBy Hook or by Crook
When the word, “hook” appears in a breed standard, without exception, it has to do with a tail. In some br...
Read MoreWhat a Butterfly on the Nose Isn’t…
Few images are as captivating as when a butterfly lands on the nose of a dog, but for the fanciers of certain Japanese d...
Read MoreThat Black Saddle
The only American hound without British ancestry is the Plott Hound, and with thirteen acceptable colors and four markin...
Read MoreThe Little Things
As they say, “it’s the little things” that matter. For a poorly bred dog, the “devil is in the d...
Read MoreThe Famous Stink Eye
Some of us who have had our breeds for a while can take for granted a trait we assume other breeds share. Au Contraire, ...
Read MoreThe Tod-Hunter
We came across the term, “tod-hunter” as a name once applied to a beloved terrier breed. Dictionaries altern...
Read MoreBefore Spain, Where?
An old airport joke says that whether you go to heaven or hell, you’ll have to change planes in Atlanta. Not that ...
Read MoreGwell Angau Na Cywilydd
“Game, not quarrelsome.” Some non-doggie readers may not fully understand what “gameness” is in ...
Read MoreThe Fatal Attraction
A breed standard not only spells out the ideal type and conformation of a breed, it often includes behavior in line with...
Read MoreA Pigment of My Imagination
News flash: Old English Sheepdogs do, in fact, have eyes. Sheepish grin (ha, a pun). Our apologies to OES folks. As long...
Read MoreThe Bench Legged Feist
The slang term, “cankles” (a combination of the words ankle and calf) describes legs in which there is littl...
Read More“Nobles” in the Basset Hound’s History
We like to treat our dogs like the aristocrats they think they are, but some breeds really do have a history of noble ow...
Read MoreA “Psychic” PON named Psyche
The Polish Lowland Sheepdog is a bright, clever, and tenacious breed – but psychic? In 1924, several PONs were sho...
Read MoreNot Murderous. “Edgy.”
By our reckoning, there are roughly eighteen breeds regarded as “griffon” type dogs, though not all of them ...
Read MoreThe Woman Behind this Afghan Hound
Kay Finch passed away in 1994, but her talent lives on in the small sculptures she created in the 40’s and mid 195...
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