Form Versus Function
Another area of contention is the idea that toy dogs are only companion animals, slow moving, with little need for exercise and with low endurance. Papillons give lie to this; although dainty and small they are quite capable of taking long walks with their owners and often excel at the energetic sport of dog agility. Maltese are another example of very robust daintiness. The United Kennel Club (US), which does not recognize a Toy group, defines Italian Greyhounds as having been bred exclusively as pets; the American Kennel Club states that these dogs were bred as gazehounds, dogs that hunt by sight, and are quite fast and hardy, but they are nevertheless placed in the Toy group.
Read more about this topic: Toy Dog, What Makes A Toy Breed
Famous quotes containing the words form and/or function:
“It is absolutely impossible to transcend the laws of nature. What can change in historically different circumstances is only the form in which these laws expose themselves.”
—Karl Marx (18181883)
“Advocating the mere tolerance of difference between women is the grossest reformism. It is a total denial of the creative function of difference in our lives. Difference must be not merely tolerated, but seen as a fund of necessary polarities between which our creativity can spark like a dialectic.”
—Audre Lorde (19341992)