Toy Dog - Small Dogs

Small Dogs

Dogs referred to as toy dogs, and dogs found in the Toy Group of breed registries, may be of the very ancient lapdog type, or they may be small versions of hunting dogs or working dogs, bred down in size for a particular kind of work or to create a pet of convenient size. In the past, very small dogs not used for hunting were kept as symbols of affluence, as watchdogs, and for the health function of attracting fleas away from their owners.

Read more about this topic:  Toy Dog

Famous quotes containing the words small and/or dogs:

    “Our snowstorms as a rule
    Aren’t looked on as man-killers, and although
    I’d rather be the beast that sleeps the sleep
    Under it all, his door sealed up and lost,
    Than the man fighting it to keep above it,
    Yet think of the small birds at roost and not
    In nests....”
    Robert Frost (1874–1963)

    We recognize caste in dogs because we rank ourselves by the familiar dog system, a ladderlike social arrangement wherein one individual outranks all others, the next outranks all but the first, and so on down the hierarchy. But the cat system is more like a wheel, with a high-ranking cat at the hub and the others arranged around the rim, all reluctantly acknowledging the superiority of the despot but not necessarily measuring themselves against one another.
    —Elizabeth Marshall Thomas. “Strong and Sensitive Cats,” Atlantic Monthly (July 1994)