Jump to content

Portal:Dogs

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Dogs Portal

The dog (Canis familiaris or Canis lupus familiaris) is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it was domesticated from an extinct population of Pleistocene wolves over 14,000 years ago. The dog was the first species to be domesticated by humans. Experts estimate that hunter-gatherers domesticated dogs more than 15,000 years ago, which was before the development of agriculture. Due to their long association with humans, dogs have expanded to a large number of domestic individuals and gained the ability to thrive on a starch-rich diet that would be inadequate for other canids.

The dog has been selectively bred over millennia for various behaviors, sensory capabilities, and physical attributes. Dog breeds vary widely in shape, size, and color. They perform many roles for humans, such as hunting, herding, pulling loads, protection, assisting police and the military, companionship, therapy, and aiding disabled people. Over the millennia, dogs became uniquely adapted to human behavior, and the human–canine bond has been a topic of frequent study. This influence on human society has given them the sobriquet of "man's best friend". (Full article...)

The Staffordshire Bull Terrier, also called the Staffy or Stafford, is a purebred dog of small to medium size in the terrier group that originated in the northern parts of Birmingham and in the Black Country of Staffordshire, for which it is named. They descended from 19th-century bull terriers that were developed by crossing bulldogs with various terriers to create a generic type of dog generally known as bull and terriers. Staffords share the same ancestry with the modern Bull Terrier, although the two breeds developed along independent lines, and do not resemble each other. Modern Staffords more closely resemble the old type of bull terrier, and were first recognised as a purebred dog breed by The Kennel Club of Great Britain in 1935.

Within the broad sweep of dog history, the story behind the modern Stafford is rather brief and somewhat confusing because of the multiple aliases attached to these dogs in centuries past, such as the "Patched Fighting Terrier", "Staffordshire Pit-dog", "Brindle Bull", and "Bull-and-Terrier". Similar crosses also had aliases such as half-and-halves and half-breds. Blood sports such as bull-baiting and bear-baiting were outlawed with the passing of the Cruelty to Animals Act 1835 by Parliament, making it illegal to bait animals but promoting the matching of dogs against each other. Dog breeders migrated away from the heavier bulldogs, and introduced terrier blood into their crosses for gameness and agility. These bull and terrier crosses produced the ancestral breeding stock that, over the course of decades, evolved into the modern conformation show dogs we know today as the Staffordshire Bull Terrier and the Bull Terrier. It was shortly before the American Civil War that immigrants from Great Britain brought their bull and terrier crossbreeds into the U.S. They became the ancestral progenitors of the American Staffordshire Terrier (AmStaff), Miniature Bull Terrier, Boston Terrier, and American Pit Bull Terrier. (Full article...)
List of selected breeds

Selected image

A yellow Labrador Retriever fetching a stick from a beach.
A yellow Labrador Retriever fetching a stick from a beach.
Credit: redjar

Retrievers, such as this Labrador Retriever, are a type of gun dog bred to retrieve downed birds from water or land. Although spaniels and some pointing breeds routinely retrieve game, retrievers are skilled in finding game, and are distinguished in that non-slip retrieval is their primary function. As a result, retriever breeds are bred for "soft" mouths and a great willingness to please, learn, and obey. A soft mouth refers to the willingness of the dog to carry game without damaging it. Retrievers are often selected as family pets, and many suburban dogs end up retrieving newspapers and sticks like this dog.

Gallery

Topics

Selected article - show another

A photograph of Charles Cruft, published in 1902
Charles Alfred Cruft (28 June 1852 – 10 September 1938) was a British showman who founded the Crufts dog show. Charles first became involved with dogs when he began to work at Spratt's, a manufacturer of dog biscuits. He rose to the position of general manager, and whilst working for Spratt's in France he was invited to run his first dog show at the 1878 Exposition Universelle. After running dog shows in London for four years, he ran his first Cruft's dog show in 1891, and continued to run a further 45 shows until his death in 1938, as well as running two cat shows in 1894 and 1895. He was involved in a range of dog breed clubs, including that for Schipperkes, Pugs and Borzois. He and his wife upheld a story that they never owned a dog, and instead owned a cat, however Cruft admitted to owning at least one Saint Bernard in his memoirs, published posthumously. (Full article...)
List of selected articles

General images - load new batch

The following are images from various dog-related articles on Wikipedia.

Did you know (auto-generated) - show different entries

  • ... that the private members' club George has a bespoke menu for pet dogs?
  • ... that either dog feces, or hen and pigeon manure, were used by tanners to produce a soft leather?
  • ... that Ladoga Skerries National Park in Russia has more than 350 species of various liverworts, hornworts and mosses?
  • ... that the collapse of Cloghan Castle in County Cork, Ireland, was said to have been caused by the barking of a ghostly black dog?
  • ... that the album series Jingle Cats spawned Jingle Dogs, Jingle Babies, and a Japanese video game in which "the object is to breed and care for cats, which begin to sing when they're done copulating"?
  • ... that in 2021, Alabama state representative Steve McMillan sponsored a bill that later became law allowing restaurants to have outdoor dining areas for dogs?

More did you know... - show different entries

List articles

Subcategories

Category puzzle
Category puzzle
Select [►] to view subcategories

Things you can do


Here are some tasks awaiting attention:

Recognized content

Good articles

WikiProject

For editor resources and to collaborate with other editors on improving Wikipedia's dog-related articles, see WikiProject Dogs.

Need assistance?

Do you have a question about dogs that you can't find the answer to? Consider asking it at the Wikipedia reference desk.

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Discover Wikipedia using portals