Dogs are highly social animals. This can account for their trainability, playfulness, and ability to fit into human households and social situations. These attributes have earned dogs a unique position in the realm of interspecies relationships despite being one of the most effective, voracious, and potentially dangerous predators. Dogs and humans at times co-operate in some of the most effective hunting in the animal world; in that context, dogs are superpredators.
Human relationships
Intelligence
Dogs are valued for their intelligence. This intelligence is expressed differently with different breeds and individuals, however. For example, Border Collies are noted for their ability to learn commands, while other breeds may not be so motivated towards obedience, but instead show their cleverness in devising ways to steal food or escape from a yard. Being highly adaptable animals themselves, dogs have learned to do many jobs as required by humans over the generations. Dogs are employed in various roles across the globe, proving invaluable assets in areas such as search-and-rescue; law enforcement (including attack dogs, sniffer dogs and tracking dogs); guards for livestock, people or property; herding; Arctic exploration sled-pullers; guiding the blind and acting as a pair of ears for the deaf; assisting with hunting, and a great many other roles which they may be trained to assume. Most dogs rarely have to deal with complex tasks and are unlikely to learn relatively complicated activities (such as opening doors) unaided. Some dogs (such as guide dogs for the visually impaired) are specially trained to recognize and avoid dangerous situations.
Dangerous substances
- Human food. Some foods commonly enjoyed by humans are dangerous to dogs, including chocolate (Theobromine poisoning), onions, grapes and raisins, some types of gum, certain sweeteners and Macadamia nuts.
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- Chocolate can contain high amounts of fat and caffeine-like stimulants known as methylxanthines which, ingested in significant amounts, can potentially produce clinical effects in dogs ranging from vomiting and diarrhea to panting, excessive thirst and urination, hyperactivity, abnormal heart rhythm, tremors, seizures and even death in severe cases. Typically, the darker the chocolate, the higher the potential for clinical problems from methylxanthine poisoning. As little as 20 oz (570 g) of milk chocolate—or only 2 oz (57 g) of baking chocolate—can cause serious problems in a 10-pound (4.5 kg) dog. White chocolate may not have the same potential as darker forms to cause a methylxanthine poisoning, the high fat content of lighter chocolates could still lead to vomiting and diarrhea, as well as the possible development of life-threatening pancreatitis, an inflammatory condition of the pancreas.[81]
- The acute danger from grapes and raisins was discovered around 2000, and has slowly been publicized since then. The cause is not known. Small quantities will induce acute renal failure. Sultanas and currants may also be dangerous.[82][83]
- Xylitol, a sugar substitute found in a variety of sugar-free and dietetic cookies, mints and chewing gum is proving highly toxic, even fatal, to dogs.[84]
- A toxic dose of roasted macadamia nuts may be as little as one nut per kilogram of body weight in the dog.[85]
- Alcoholic beverages pose comparable hazards to dogs as they do to humans, but due to low body weight and lack of alcohol tolerance they are toxic in much smaller portions. Signs of alcohol intoxication in pets may include vomiting, wobbly gait, depression, disorientation, and.or hypothermia (low core body temperature.) High doses may result in heart arrhythmias, seizures, tremors, and even death.[86]
Smell
Dogs have nearly 220 million smell-sensitive cells over an area about the size of a pocket handkerchief (compared to 5 million over an area the size of a postage stamp for humans).[42][43] According to nhm.org, dogs can sense odors at concentrations nearly 100 million times lower than humans can.[44] According to Dummies.com, the percentage of the dog’s brain that is devoted to analyzing smells is actually 40 times larger than that of a human.[42] Some dog breeds have been selectively bred for excellence in detecting scents, even compared to their canine brethren.
Hearing
According to hypertextbook.com, the frequency range of dog hearing is approximately 40 Hz to 60,000 Hz.[38] Dogs detect sounds as low as the 16 to 20 Hz frequency range (compared to 20 to 70 Hz for humans) and above 45 kHz[39] (compared to 13 to 20 kHz for humans),[38][35] and in addition have a degree of ear mobility that helps them to rapidly pinpoint the exact location of a sound.[40] Eighteen or more muscles can tilt, rotate and raise or lower a dog’s ear. Additionally, a dog can identify a sound’s location much faster than a human can, as well as hear sounds up to four times the distance that humans are able to.[40] Those with more natural ear shapes, like those of wild canids like the fox, generally hear better than those with the floppier ears of many domesticated species.
Sight
Like most mammals, dogs are dichromats and have color vision equivalent to red-green color blindness in humans.[34][35][36] Different breeds of dogs have different eye shapes and dimensions, and they also have different retina configurations.[37] Dogs with long noses have a “visual streak” which runs across the width of the retina and gives them a very wide field of excellent vision, while those with short noses have an “area centralis” — a central patch with up to three times the density of nerve endings as the visual streak — giving them detailed sight much more like a human’s.
Some breeds, particularly the sighthounds, have a field of vision up to 270° (compared to 180° for humans), although broad-headed breeds with short noses have a much narrower field of vision, as low as 180°
Maltese
A Maltese is a small breed of dog in the toy group. The Maltese does not shed and is covered with long, silky, white fur. The Maltese breed of today is descended from dogs long associated with the island of Malta. It is one of the oldest dog breeds.
For all their diminutive size, Maltese seem to be without fear. In fact, many Maltese seem indifferent to creatures and objects larger than themselves, which makes them very easy to socialize with other dogs, and even cats. They love time with owners. This is because they were bred to be companion dogs and thrive on love and attention. They are extremely lively and playful, and even as a Maltese ages, his/her energy level and playful demeanor remain fairly constant and do not diminish much.
Maltese are very good with children and infants. Maltese do not require much physical exercise, although they should be walked daily to reduce problem behavior. They enjoy running and are more inclined to play games of chase, rather than play with toys. Some Maltese can occasionally be a little snappy with smaller children and should be supervised when playing, although socializing them at a young age will reduce this habit. The Maltese is very active within a house, and, preferring enclosed spaces, does very well with small yards. For this reason the breed also does well with apartments and townhouses, and is a prized pet of urban dwellers. They are friendly dogs to people they know.
Pomeranian
The Pomeranian (often known as a Pom) is a breed of dog of the Spitz type, named for the Pomerania region in Central Europe (which today is part of modern eastern Germany and northern Poland) and classed as a toy dog breed because of its small size. As determined by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale the Pomeranian is part of the German Spitz breed, and in many countries, they are known as the Zwergspitz (`Dwarf` Spitz), or Toy German Spitz.
DOG
The dog (Canis lupus familiaris) is a domesticated subspecies of the gray wolf, a mammal of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term encompasses both feral and pet varieties and is also sometimes used to describe wild canids of other subspecies or species. The domestic dog has been one of the most widely kept working and companion animals in human history, as well as being a food source in some cultures. There are estimated to be 400 million dogs in the world.
The dog has developed into hundreds of varied breeds. Height measured to the withers ranges from a few inches in the Chihuahua to a few feet in the Irish Wolfhound; color varies from white through grays (usually called blue) to black, and browns from light (tan) to dark (“red” or “chocolate”) in a wide variation of patterns; and, coats can be very short to many centimeters long, from coarse hair to something akin to wool, straight or curly, or smooth. It is common for most breeds to shed this coat, however some non-shedding breeds are also popular.
