Terrier Dogs
Terriers were originally kept to hunt vermin, especially mice, rats, rabbits, otters, stoats and weasels. Some Terriers were designed to go down the holes of the European fox and other agricultural pest animals in order to chase them out for the hunter, and the name terrier is from the Latin terra, meaning earth, in reference to the dogs going underground. Today, the majority of modern breeds developed from the old terrier types are pets and companions. A few are still used as working terriers, and some terriers are large enough to be kept as guard dogs.
Read more about this topic: Terrier Group
Famous quotes containing the word dogs:
“Rats!
They fought the dogs and killed the cats,
And bit the babies in the cradles,
And ate the cheeses out of the vats,
And licked the soup from the cooks’ own ladles,
Split open the kegs of salted sprats,
Made nests inside men’s Sunday hats,
And even spoiled the women’s chats
By drowning their speaking
With shrieking and squeaking
In fifty different sharps and flats.”
—Robert Browning (1812–1889)