Page 14 - Dog

Coats, heads, and tails

A dog’s fur is necessary to keep the dog warm; its fur is
denser in cold climates, and shorter in hot ones. It is
composed of two layers: an undercoat of fine wool, usually of
one color, and a top coat of longer, coarser hairs, called guard
hairs, which have natural oils that make the coat waterproof.
FUR COATS
Before the present century, for people to keep The top coat carries the brindled, or striped, pattern of the fur.
warm in the winter it was essential to have The heads of all wild dogs look very much alike. Whether
clothing made from animal furs. Today, with all the
artificial materials available, wearing a fur coat large like the wolf or small like the bat-eared fox, all wild
shows that the person has no regard for the
dwindling numbers of wild animals and little canids have long heads with erect ears, and teeth set in a line
compassion for their suffering. along straight jaws. Tails too are all similar – long, straight,
often bushy, with a white or black tip. The tail is one of a
dog’s most important assets and is used for balancing when
running fast, for expressing the dog’s feelings, and for
signaling to other members of the pack. When dogs were
Tails of many domesticated, their appearance changed because certain
domestic dogs –
like this Australian features were specially selected for each breed. For example,
terrier (pp. 52–53) – no wild dog has a tail permanently curled over its back.
are docked so that the
tail stands up straight

Gray tree fox
(pp. 28–29) has
typically soft
gray fur (left)

Tail
of the red fox
(pp. 28–29) is always
reddish and bushy and is Sand fox (pp. 30–31)
referred to as a brush lives in very hot
places and has fine,
Thick tail of Bernese dense fur (above)
mountain dog (pp. 56–57)
keeps it warm African hunting dog
(pp. 26–27) has short
hair (above) so it
does not get too hot
when running

Wirehair of
Dachshunds (pp. 48–49) a miniature
can be long-haired dachshund
(right), short-haired, or (above)
wire-haired (far right)
Dalmatian’s (pp. 54–55)
tail even has spots on it

LOSING THEIR HAIR
Most wild and domestic dogs
shed every spring and autumn, so they have
Hairy tail of giant a thin coat in the summer and a thick one in
schnauzer is cut short the winter. The fur of this German shepherd
by docking (pp. 44–45) (pp. 44–45) is shedding.

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