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Dogs
The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the gray wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it was selectively bred from a population of wolves during the Late Pleistocene by hunter-gatherers. The dog was the first species to be domesticated by humans, over 14,000 years ago and before the development of agriculture. Due to their long association with humans, dogs have gained the ability to thrive on a starch-rich diet that would be inadequate for other canids. Dogs have been bred for desired behaviors, sensory capabilities, and physical attributes. Dog breeds vary widely in shape, size, and color. They have the same number of bones (with the exception of the tail), powerful jaws that house around 42 teeth, and well-developed senses of smell, hearing, and sight. Compared to humans, dogs possess a superior sense of smell and hearing, but inferior visual acuity. Dogs perform many roles for humans, such as hunting, herding, pu ...
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Dogs In Warfare
Dogs have a very long history in warfare, beginning in Domestication of the dog, ancient times. From being trained in combat, to their use as scouts, sentries, Courier, messengers, mercy dogs, and Tracking (dog), trackers, their uses have been varied, and some continue to exist in modern military usage. History War dogs were used by the Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Sarmatians, Baganda, Alans, Slavs, Britons (historical), Britons, and Ancient Rome, Romans. Among the Greeks and Romans, dogs served most often as sentries or patrols, though they were sometimes taken into battle. The earliest use of war dogs in a battle recorded in classical sources was by Alyattes of Lydia against the Cimmerians around 600 BC. The Lydian dogs killed some invaders and routed others. At the Battle of Pelusium (525 BC), Cambyses II, Cambyses II deployed dogs, cats, and other animals held sacred by the Egyptians. By putting these animals on the front lines, he was supposedly able to get the Eg ...
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Therapy Dog
A therapy dog is a dog that is trained to provide affection, comfort and support to people, often in settings such as hospitals, retirement homes, nursing homes, schools, libraries, hospices, or disaster areas. In contrast to assistance dogs, which are trained to assist specific patients with their day-to-day physical needs, therapy dogs are trained to interact with all kinds of people, not just their handlers. History Dogs have been utilized as a therapeutic resource by many medical professionals over the last few centuries. In the late 1800s, Florence Nightingale observed that small pets helped reduce anxiety and improve recovery in children and adults living in psychiatric institutions. Sigmund Freud began using his own pet dog to improve communication with his psychiatric patients in the 1930s. More recently, Elaine Smith established the first therapy dog organization in 1976 after observing positive effects of dogs on hospital patients during her work as a registered nurse ...
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Dog Communication
Dog communication refers to the methods dogs use to transfer information to other dogs, animals, and humans. Dogs may exchange information vocally, visually, or through smell. Visual communication includes mouth shape and head position, licking and Sniffing (behavior), sniffing, ear and tail positioning, eye gaze, eye contact, facial expression, and Body language, body posture. Auditory communication can include bark (sound), barks, growling, growls, howling, howls, whines and whimpers, screams, pants and sighs. Dogs also communicate via gustatory communication, utilizing scent and pheromones. Humans can communicate with dogs through a wide variety of methods. Broadly, this includes vocalization, hand signals, body posture and touch. The two species also communicate visually. Through domestication, dogs have become particularly adept at "reading" human facial expressions. Dogs recognise and infer emotional information from humans. When communicating with a human, their level of ...
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Human–canine Bond
The human–canine bond is rooted in the domestication of the dog, which began occurring through their long-term association with Hunter-gatherer, hunter-gatherers more than 30,000–40,000 years ago. The earliest known relationship between Dog, dogs and Human, humans is attested by the 1914 discovery of the Bonn–Oberkassel dog, who was buried alongside two humans in modern-day Oberkassel, Bonn, Oberkassel, Germany, approximately 15,000 years ago. For centuries, the phrase "man's best friend" has commonly been used to refer to dogs, as they were the first species and the only large carnivore to have been domesticated. This companionship is most evident in Western world, Western countries, such as the Dogs in the United States, United States, where 44% of households were found to be keeping at least one dog as a pet. On average, female humans tend to have more positive attitudes towards dogs than male humans do, but studies have demonstrated that both dogs and humans release oxyto ...
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Dog Breed
A dog breed is a particular type of dog that was purposefully bred by humans to perform specific tasks, such as herding, hunting, and guarding. Dogs are the most variable mammal on Earth, with artificial selection producing upward of 360 globally recognized breeds. These breeds possess distinct traits related to morphology, which include body size and shape, tail phenotype, fur type, etc., but are only one species of dog. Their behavioral traits include guarding, herding, and hunting, and personality traits such as hyper-social behavior, boldness, and aggression. Most breeds were derived from small numbers of founders within the last 200 years. As a result of their adaptability to many environments and breedability for human needs, today dogs are the most abundant carnivore species and are dispersed around the world. A dog breed will consistently produce the physical traits, movement and temperament that were developed over decades of selective breeding. For each breed they rec ...
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Herding Dog
A herding dog, also known as a stock dog or working dog, is a Dog type, type of dog that either has been trained in herding livestock or belongs to one of the dog breed, breeds that were developed for herding. A dog specifically trained to herd sheep is known as a sheep dog or shepherd dog, and one trained to herd cattle is known as a cattle dog or cow dog. Herding behavior All herding behavior is modified predatory behavior. Through selective breeding, humans have been able to minimize the dog's natural inclination to treat cattle and sheep as prey while simultaneously maintaining the dog's hunting skills, thereby creating an effective herding dog. Dogs can work other animals in a variety of ways. Some breeds, such as the Australian Cattle Dog, typically nip at the heels of animals (for this reason they are called ''heelers'') and the Cardigan Welsh Corgi, Cardigan and Pembroke Welsh Corgis were historically used in a similar fashion in the cattle droves that moved cattle ...
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Dog Sense Of Smell
The dog sense of smell is the most powerful sense of this species, the olfactory system of canines being much more complex and developed than that of humans. It is believed to be up to 10 million times as sensitive as a human's in specialized breeds. Dogs have roughly forty times more Olfactory receptor, smell-sensitive receptors than humans, ranging from about 125 million to nearly 300 million in some dog breeds, such as bloodhounds. These receptors are spread over an area about the size of a pocket handkerchief (compared to 5 million over an area the size of a postage stamp for humans). Dogs' sense of smell also includes the use of the vomeronasal organ, which is used primarily for social interactions. The dog has mobile nostrils that help it determine the direction of the scent. Unlike humans, dogs do not need to fill up their lungs as they continuously bring odors into their noses in bursts of 3–7 sniffs. Dog noses have a bony structure inside that humans do ...
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Police Dog
A police dog, also known as a K-9 (phonemic abbreviation of canine), is a dog that is trained to assist police and other law enforcement officers. Their duties may include searching for drugs and explosives, locating missing people, finding crime scene evidence, protecting officers and other people, and attacking suspects who flee from officers. The breeds most commonly used by law enforcement are the German Shepherd, Belgian Malinois, Bloodhound, Dutch Shepherd, and Labrador Retriever. In recent years, the Belgian Malinois has become the leading choice for police and military work due to their intense drive, focus, agility, and smaller size, though German Shepherds remain the breed most associated with law enforcement. Police dogs are used on a federal and local level for law enforcement purposes in many parts of the world. They are often assigned to what in some nations is referred to as a K-9 Unit, with a specific handler, and must remember several verbal cues and h ...
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Sled Dog
A sled dog is a dog trained and used to pull a land vehicle in Dog harness, harness, most commonly a Dog sled, sled over snow. Sled dogs have been used in the Arctic for at least 8,000 years and, along with watercraft, were the only transportation in Arctic areas until the introduction of semi-trailer trucks, snowmobiles and airplanes in the 20th century, hauling supplies in areas that were inaccessible by other methods. They were used with varying success in the explorations of both Geographical pole, poles, as well as during the Yukon Gold Rush, Alaskan gold rush. Sled dog teams delivered mail to rural communities in Alaska, Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Sled dogs today are still used by some rural communities, especially in areas of Russia, Canada, and Alaska as well as much of Greenland. They are used for recreational purposes and dog sled racing, racing events, such as the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, Iditarod Trail and the Yukon Quest. History Sled dogs are ...
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Gray Wolf
The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, including the dog and dingo, though grey wolves, as popularly understood, only comprise naturally-occurring wild subspecies. The wolf is the largest wild extant member of the family Canidae, and is further distinguished from other '' Canis'' species by its less pointed ears and muzzle, as well as a shorter torso and a longer tail. The wolf is nonetheless related closely enough to smaller ''Canis'' species, such as the coyote and the golden jackal, to produce fertile hybrids with them. The wolf's fur is usually mottled white, brown, grey, and black, although subspecies in the arctic region may be nearly all white. Of all members of the genus ''Canis'', the wolf is most specialized for cooperative game hunting as demonstrated by its physical adaptations to tackling large p ...
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Service Dog
An assistance dog is a dog that receives specialized training to aid an individual with a disability in navigating everyday life. Assistance dogs can be trained by an organization, or by their handler. Terminology 'Assistance dog' is the internationally established term for a dog that provides assistance to a disabled person and is task-trained to help mitigate the handler's disability. In the United States, assistance dogs are also commonly referred to as 'service dogs'. Assistance dogs are not emotional support animals (ESAs), which are generally not protected by the same laws and typically have little to no training compared to an assistance or service dog. Assistance dogs and ESAs are also both distinct from Therapy dog, therapy dogs. While therapy dogs are required to undergo training and become certified, they work for people other than their handler and are not covered by laws such as the US Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Americans with Disabilities Act. Dist ...
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