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Interesting articles about dogs - cont

Dogs exhibit a diverse array of coat textures, colours, and markings, and a specialized vocabulary has evolved to describe them.Originally, dogs all had dense fur with an undercoat and long muzzles and heads, although both of these features have been altered in some of the more extremely modified breeds, such as the Mexican Hairless and the English Bulldog.

One often refers to a specific dog first by coat colour rather than by breed; for example, "a blue merle Aussie" or "a chocolate Lab". Coat colours include:

• Blenheim: A combination of chestnut and white; for example, the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.
• Black: Usually pure black but sometimes grizzled, particularly as dogs age and develop white hairs, usually around the muzzle.
  
• B lack and tan: Coat has both colours but in clearly defined and separated areas; usually the top and sides are black and lower legs and underside are tan, reddish, or chestnut.
  
• Blue: A dark metallic grey, often as a blue merle or speckled (with black). Kerry Blue Terriers, Australian Silky Terriers, Bearded
• Collies, and Australian Shepherds are among many breeds that come in blue.
  
• Brown: Includes dark mahogany, midtone brown, grey-brown, and very dark brown.

 

• Cream: Depending on the breed and individual, ranges from white through ivory and blond, often occurring with or beneath lemon, yellow, and sable.
  
• Gold: Rich reddish-yellow, as in a Golden Retriever; often includes colours such as yellow-gold, lion-colored, fawn, apricot, wheaten, tawny, yellow-red, straw, mustard, and sandy.
• Grey: Pale to dark grey, including silver; can be mixed with other colours or various shades to create sandy pepper, pepper, grizzle, blue-black grey, or silver-fawn.
  
• Lemon: A very pale yellow or wheaten colour which is not present at birth (the puppies are born white) but gradually becomes apparent, usually during the first six months of life.
  
• Liver: A reddish brown somewhat the colour of cinnamon or bronze; the breed often determines whether "liver", "chocolate", "brown", or "red" is used to describe the colour, as in a liver German Shorthaired Pointer or a chocolate Labrador Retriever.
  
• Red: Reminiscent of reddish woods such as cherry or mahogany; also tawny, chestnut, orange, rusty, and red-gold.

• Sable: Black-tipped hairs; the background colour can be gold, silver, grey, or tan.
  
• Tricolour: Consisting of three colours; usually black, tan, and white or liver, tan, and white; for example, the Smooth Collie or the Sheltie.
  
• Wheaten: Pale yellow or fawn, like the colour of ripe wheat
  
• White: Distinct from albino dogs.
  
• Yellow: Yellowish-gold tan, as in a yellow Labrador Retriever.
  
• Coat patterns include:
  
• Brindle: A mixture of black with brown, tan, or gold; usually in a "tiger stripe" pattern
  
• Harlequin: "Torn" patches of black on white; only the Great Dane exhibits this pattern
  
• Merle: Marbled coat with darker patches and spots of the specified color; for example, a blue merle is marbled gray and blue with black and sometimes white patches; a red (or liver) merle has deep red or brown on lighter red, often with white or black mixed in.
  
• Particolor: Two-coloured coat with the colours appearing in patches in roughly equal quantities (in breeds where this is an allowed coat colour; in breeds where patches of white are considered undesirable, a dog showing even a small patch of white might be classified as a particolour).

• Single-coated: Lacking an undercoat.
  
• Smooth-coated: "Smooth" to the eye and touch.
  
• Wire-haired: Also called broken-coated. The harsh outer guard hairs are prominent, providing excellent weather protection for hunting dogs such as the Border Terrier or Wirehaired Pointing Griffon.
  
• Long-haired: Hair longer than an inch or so.
  
• Short-haired: Hair around an inch or so long.
  
• Corded coat: for example Puli
  
• Dogs ears come in a variety of sizes, shapes, lengths, position on the head, and amount and type of droop. Every variation has a term, including:
  
• Bat ear: Erect, broad next to the head and rounded at the tip.
  
• Button ear: A smaller ear where the tip folds forward nearly to the skull, forming a V, such as the Jack Russell Terrier.
  
• Cropped ear: Shaped by cutting; see docking.
  
• Drop ear: An ear that folds and droops close to the head, such as most scent hounds'. Also called a pendant ear.
  
• Natural: Like a wolf's.
  
• Prick ear: Erect and pointed; also called pricked or erect.
  
• Rose ear: A very small drop ear that folds back; typical of many sight hounds and the English Bulldog.
  
• Semiprick ear: A prick ear where the tip just begins to fold forward, such as with the Rough Collie.
  
• As with ears, tails come in a tremendous variety of shapes, lengths, amount of fur, and tailset (positions). Among them:
  
• Corkscrew: Short and twisted, such as a Pug
  
• Docked: Shortened by surgery or other method, usually two or three days after birth; see docking
  
• Odd: Twisted, but not short. Uncommon. Tibetan Terriers have odd tails.
  
• Saber: Carried in a slight curve like that of a saber
  
• Sickle: Carried out and up in a semicircle like a sickle
  
• Squirrel: Carried high and towards the head, often with the tip curving even further towards the head.
  
• Wheel: Carried up and over the back in a broad curve, resembling a wheel.
  

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