Saturday, October 11, 2008

Lap Dog Breeds

If your dog is a bit of a bully with other dogs and the new dog shares the same trait, beware! There are major battles on the horizon, until they sort out who is the alpha dog. This can be a very great trait in a dog living in an apartment. They do something called yodeling, but it is not a common occurrence. Of course, any given dog may have some of these qualities, but some breeds are more known for certain traits than others, including hip and/or eye problems. A mutt can be wonderful, but it's hard to predict.

Pugs have an array of interesting noises they will make during play and rest and these noises, even the grunting and snorting, tend to grow on the owner and it becomes a fun trait of the Pug. Dogs began to appear in sculpture, and had their portraits painted. Some of the world's finest canine art dates to this time period. The trait they have in common is their love of the hunt. Others, like the Afghan Hound use mainly sight, while still others like the Pharaoh Hound use both.

Many lap dogs are bred to retain puppy-like traits (neoteny} such as folded ears. They may also have traits that resemble human babies: size and weight, high forehead, short muzzle and relatively large eyes. Their talent for hunting is the main trait this dog breed shares, since hounds come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes. There is indeed a fine difference in that such a breed of dogs, although similar in appearance and traits, have evolved from a specific group of ancestors that shared the same characteristics. With the use of genetic analysis or recorded ancestral data, a dog can be confirmed as purebred.

The Lhasa Apso is a small dog that stands between 10 and 11 inches tall and weighs between 13 and 15 pounds. They have a long, fluffy coat that comes in shades of sand, dark grizzle, smoke, white, gold, honey, black particolor, and brown. Their small size-nine to sixteen pounds-makes them a perfect pet for apartment dwellers and people who like to travel with their dogs. Mrs Flander's Mai Mai weighed only a little over 4 pounds and many other breeders had bred true miniatures of of a similar size. Hubbard noted that miniatures sometimes appeared in litters bred from full-sized Pekingese and were exhibited in classes for dogs less than 7 pounds at the major dog shows in Britain.

The breed standard, approved September 11, 1990 disqualifies any dog over 6 pounds from the conformation ring; however, they can weigh up to 9 pounds or more. One of the Chihuahua's most distinctive characteristics is its head, which is well-rounded and referred to by breeders as an "apple-dome" type skull. It weighs 8 to 11 pounds, and it's 9 to 10 inches high at the withers. It's, indeed, a true toy terrier. It is not so small (9 to 12 inches at the shoulder, 10 to 18 pounds) that it can be injured easily in rough-and-tumble play. Temperamentally, the bichon is just as content to sit by your side and to help you read a book as it is to spend the day hiking along a mountain trail.

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