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:
“One set of messages of the society we live in is: Consume. Grow. Do what you want. Amuse yourselves. The very working of this economic system, which has bestowed these unprecedented liberties, most cherished in the form of physical mobility and material prosperity, depends on encouraging people to defy limits.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)
“The function of muscle is to pull and not to push, except in the case of the genitals and the tongue.”
—Leonardo Da Vinci (1425–1519)