Like many animals, a dog is a miraculous amalgam of organs and systems which carry out specific jobs as well as inter relating to keep the dog “running efficiently.” Although anatomy is a huge subject, a concise consideration of how the dog moves, sees, hears, smells, breathes, eats and digests food helps us to understand why it is built the way it is. Despite the changes undergone since the time when it needed to fend for itself in the wild, the domestic dog is still basically a carnivore and adapted as such. The dog was designed to run fast, to capture and kill its prey as a part of a pack. It retains astonishing senses of hearing and smell, both superior to man’s.
The anatomy of the dog and that of its feral ancestors, the wolf and the jackal is designed for a lifestyle as a hunter of prey. Selective breeding has produced many different breeds of dog, but despite the diversity of external appearance. The anatomy remains essentially the same, modified chiefly only in size or shape.
Cynologist
Cynology: Puppies Dogs
December 12th, 2009 by admin