since it's now summer in the northern hemisphere and i am the owner of two dogs with long, thick double coats, i want to take a sec and address an extremely prevalent, often repeated phrase i see float around the internet (and IRL) in dog circles:
"double coats keep dogs warm in the winter and cool in the summer!"
the part about winter is true. the part about summer is not. this website does an excellent job discussing why this is the case and has plenty of sources cited. if you're interested in the topic, please give it a read. or, if you want the basic summary, here's mine:
Fact #1- a double coat is comprised of two layers - a topcoat, which is longer, sleeker "guard" hairs that act as a sort of shield against exposure to the elements. and an undercoat, which is shorter, softer, denser hairs that act as insulation. double coats are found on breeds of dogs such as collies, huskies, and labs. conversely a single coat, which lacks the thick undercoat layer, would be the type found on a dog like a pitbull.
(this collie is shedding its undercoat - note the lighter, softer hair pulling away from the longer darker hair. source.)
Fact #2 - dogs are mammals which obey the laws of thermodynamics, meaning they are constantly producing body heat. a dog's average body temperature is normally right around the 100f (38c), and they are constantly radiating heat. this is important.
in the winter, a double coat works fabulously for keeping a dog warm - the topcoat repels moisture and blocks wind, while the undercoat traps body heat and holds it close to the skin. there's a reason why cold-weather animals like wolves and foxes and bison all have thick double coats - they work great at trapping body heat!
but then, the summer. part of the myth that gets so often cited is "the undercoat traps cool air and keeps the dog cooler" to which we have to ask - what cool air? if it's 90f outside and my dog is radiating 100f heat, there’s no cool air to be trapped. and even if there were, air trapped in the undercoat would be absorbing the body heat from the dog's skin and quickly turning into hot air, which then further heats the dog. this is basic heat exchange physics - hotter temps will transfer to cooler temps until the temps have equalized. the phrasing of "traps warmth in winter and traps cold in summer" sounds nice and neat, but it's ignoring the fact that your dog is constantly producing body heat. this theory works fine on non-living objects, like a thermos full of cold water. it does not work on an object that is radiating 100f heat.
IF double coats truly kept dogs cooler in hot temperatures, then we would expect to see scientific studies backing this up, right? studies that show dogs with double coats have no problems keeping cool in hot weather? well, the studies we've done say the opposite. studies show that dogs with thick double coats are MORE likely to overheat than dogs with short single coats.
here's a list of sources saying exactly this, from the blog post i linked earlier:
"Contrary to cold environments, increased insulation of fur is not beneficial to maintaining heat balance in warm environments." - Seasonal Changes in Heat Balance of Dogs Acclimatized to Outdoor Climate, Yasuyuki Sugano
“Predisposing factors for heatstroke -thick haircoat" - Short technical Report on Thermoregulation in Dogs and the Pathophysiology of Hyperthermia, Jerilee A. Zezula, DVM
“Predisposing Factors for Heatstroke – thick haircoat" - Heatstroke – thermoregulation, pathophysiology and predisposing factors, Carey Hemmelgarn DVM ChristI Gannon DVM DacVecc
“Factors that inhibit heat dissipation: Thick, dense coat – increased insulating effect” - Hyperthermia and Heatstroke in the Canine, Lori E. Gordon, DVM
“Well-insulated breeds with thick fur and fat may struggle to maintain a normal body temperature,especially during hot summer days and in a warm ambient environment.“ - Hyperthermia during anaesthesia, Author : Clara Rigotti, Marieke De Vries 2010
“Well-insulated breeds, such as Chow Chows and St. Bernards, may struggle to maintain normal core body temperature, making them more prone to hyperthermia, especially in a warm, stressful environment” - Hypothermia in a chow chow under general anaesthetic, H.Jones, K.Robson ,2022
“Predisposing factors that decrease heat dissipation: Hair coat – Thicker coats decrease radiation and convection” - Heatstroke in small animal medicine: a clinical practice review, Scott I. Johnson, DVM, Maureen McMichael, DVM, DACVECC and George White, DVM
”a thick insulating pelage is a disadvantage in situations where energy supply is unlimited and expenditure is constrained by the capacity to dissipate body heat.This is because the pelage insulation becomes the primary constraint on heat loss. “ - Maximal heat dissipation capacity and hyperthermia risk: Neglected key factors in the ecology of endotherms, Journal of Animal Ecology 79(4):726-46 J. Speakman, E. Krol
ALL of these studies are saying the same thing - animals with thicker coats cannot dissipate heat easily, and are at a higher risk for overheating and heat stroke.
so now here's tumblr's favorite part - nuance. does this mean that every dog with a double coat is completely intolerant of heat, and you should just shave them all bald instead?
no.
the double coat DOES offer some advantages in hot weather - primarily relating to the topcoat. it blocks UV radiation from reaching the dogs skin, and keeps the heat of the sun off of direct contact with the skin. this is extremely useful! my old dog was a greyhound, who had a short, black single coat. he was miserably intolerant of heat because even mild sunshine would rapidly heat his surface temperature. the topcoat is VERY useful in this regard, and shaving a dog is ridding them of this natural barrier.
however. the undercoat is almost entirely detrimental in hot weather. again - it's entire purpose is trapping heat, and your dog is constantly radiating 100f heat.
look to nature - what happens when those fluffy, thick-furred wolves and foxes and bison hit summer? they shed out almost their entire undercoat. they get downright nakey.
(ex: arctic foxes shed dramatically - all that white fluff is the winter coat. if it kept them cooler in the summer, they would have evolved to keep it. source.)
the ideal way for a double-coated dog to deal with heat is not to shave off the whole coat, but instead to groom and bathe and brush the absolute crap out of their coat, and remove as much undercoat as possible. when the undercoat is reduced, it becomes looser, and allows air to flow throughout the coat. that FLOWING air is the key to staying cool! when the air is able to CIRCULATE through the coat, it wicks away the dog's body heat and disperses it outside the coat. THAT is the action that is keeping them cool - not “trapping cold air” because trapped air will always absorb body heat. it’s got to MOVE. instead of acting like a snug winter sweater, the double coat can now act like a loose, flowing shirt.
but! if that undercoat is not thoroughly and continuously groomed and bathed and brushed, and allowed to stay heavy and thick and block airflow, then you're right back to having a dog that's broiling itself with its own body heat.
(you gotta get that undercoat out if you want any chance of not overheating. source.)
so, in conclusion: double coats are great for keeping warm in cold weather. they are NOT great for keeping cool in warm weather, and in fact can be actively harmful UNLESS you take great care to brush thoroughly to remove undercoat and allow for airflow. IF that is done, then a double-coated dog should be either just as good as, or only slightly worse off, than a dog with less hair. however, the blanket statement of "double coats trap cool air and keep dogs cooler in summer" is factually untrue because the entire point is to NOT trap any air to stay cool. in fact, the thing that keeps a double-coated dog the coolest is removing as much undercoat as possible - AKA, making it as close to single-coated as possible.
again, i recommend reading this blog post for more in-depth discussion and more sources.
(and no, if you do shave your double coated dog, the myth about 'the fur will never grow back the same/be ruined forever' is also just that - a myth. dogs get shaved every day for medical procedures, it grows back fine unless there's a pre-existing medical condition. it can just take ages. for more info, i recommend reading the latter part of this post).
last time it started in July last year - despite being only May the weather is noticeably cooler than it was May last year - I wonder if that has anything to do with it? but then you'd think it would be something that started in puppyhood, not randomly at 4 years old...
anyway. last time it eventually resolved itself (after a lot of vet investigations that went nowhere) after i gave up on feeding his normal diet and just fed him whatever he would eat, which was raw human-grade meat (like chicken thighs, etc.).
i'm trying to not be frustrated with him - he's obviously doing it for a reason! no one starves themselves for fun! - and just focus on solutions. i've been giving him odansetron (which he's prescribed for motion sickness) in case it's nausea, which hasn't really helped but i figure it can't hurt.
in any case it's only been a few days. he hasn't been losing weight like he did last time (yet), so i'm not too worried. guess i'll stop by the shops on the way home and buy some meat for him...
$50 worth of meat later, he ate today (meat with gusto, regular food with far less enthusiasm, and even had some yoghurt)! his stomach is making funny noises but i'm guessing that's normal hunger noises (though i've never heard a dog's stomach rumble before? lol). he's not having diarrhoea at least (if anything he's not pooping enough, but ya gotta eat to poop so makes sense).
he has also developed urinary incontinence but it seems to be only when his bladder is full. doesn't seem to be in pain or straining to pee. we've got a vet appointment in a couple of days, trying dog nappies in the meantime (he is Not a Fan), lol. his UI comes and goes, yesterday it was worse and today it hasn't happened, so idk. hoping it's just a UTI which will resolve with a course of antibiotics...
odansetron seemed to help his inappetence - he'll eat 1/2 or 2/3 of his normal food instead of only 1/4 - so at least that's something!
after sending a urine sample for culturing, we've ruled out a UTI. nothing unusual in his urine at all.
other things i've noticed:
occasional panting (especially after/during exercise - which would be normal, but it's much more than i would expect & what is normal for him)
increased thirst - not sure if it's abnormal levels (polydipsia) but it's more than normal for him
-> his urine specific gravity (USG) was normal though, with well-concentrated urine, meaning his kidneys are functioning fine & he's not dehydrated
burping, especially after eating. no more stomach noises though
some places outside where he's dribbled urine, the urine spots have turned white? i'm not 100% sure that it's not just marks on the concrete though
eating has improved a bit, i'm still giving him odansetron every day
since his urine is normal, i'm going to ask for bloods and an ultrasound at our next appointment in a few days. when this last happened, in June-August-ish last year, he had low B12 levels. so we've been supplementing his B12 since then. i'd like to recheck his levels, in case a) they're too low, or b) they're too high.
if bloods and the abdominal ultrasound are normal, then... i don't know what we'd do after that. i don't think i could afford anything else tbh!
since a urinary (& kidney) issue was ruled out, i'm worried now that it might be something like pancreatitis or pancreatic insufficiency... or maybe i'm just hyper-aware of them since we're learning about it at the moment lol
we're not sure this is the problem or just a symptom, but he has inflammation of the penis sheath (prepuce). so we've got some antibiotics and anti-inflammatories for a week, then we'll do a recheck & see how he's going.
if it hasn't improved, we'll do bloods and imaging (particularly the vet wanted to check his prostate - he had benign prostatic hyperplasia a few years ago, which is why he was desexed).
his eating is going well, not 100% but a lot better. he's actually gained weight! (last time he lost nearly 10kg).
(the anti-inflammatories are a liquid that has to be squirted up his prepuce... lol, poor mischa!)
exhibit A for “herding drive is actually a highly modified hunting drive where the dog will still follow the sequence of stalk-> chase but then does a hard stop before the catch-> kill -> consume stages.”
last time it started in July last year - despite being only May the weather is noticeably cooler than it was May last year - I wonder if that has anything to do with it? but then you'd think it would be something that started in puppyhood, not randomly at 4 years old...
anyway. last time it eventually resolved itself (after a lot of vet investigations that went nowhere) after i gave up on feeding his normal diet and just fed him whatever he would eat, which was raw human-grade meat (like chicken thighs, etc.).
i'm trying to not be frustrated with him - he's obviously doing it for a reason! no one starves themselves for fun! - and just focus on solutions. i've been giving him odansetron (which he's prescribed for motion sickness) in case it's nausea, which hasn't really helped but i figure it can't hurt.
in any case it's only been a few days. he hasn't been losing weight like he did last time (yet), so i'm not too worried. guess i'll stop by the shops on the way home and buy some meat for him...
$50 worth of meat later, he ate today (meat with gusto, regular food with far less enthusiasm, and even had some yoghurt)! his stomach is making funny noises but i'm guessing that's normal hunger noises (though i've never heard a dog's stomach rumble before? lol). he's not having diarrhoea at least (if anything he's not pooping enough, but ya gotta eat to poop so makes sense).
he has also developed urinary incontinence but it seems to be only when his bladder is full. doesn't seem to be in pain or straining to pee. we've got a vet appointment in a couple of days, trying dog nappies in the meantime (he is Not a Fan), lol. his UI comes and goes, yesterday it was worse and today it hasn't happened, so idk. hoping it's just a UTI which will resolve with a course of antibiotics...
odansetron seemed to help his inappetence - he'll eat 1/2 or 2/3 of his normal food instead of only 1/4 - so at least that's something!
after sending a urine sample for culturing, we've ruled out a UTI. nothing unusual in his urine at all.
other things i've noticed:
occasional panting (especially after/during exercise - which would be normal, but it's much more than i would expect & what is normal for him)
increased thirst - not sure if it's abnormal levels (polydipsia) but it's more than normal for him
-> his urine specific gravity (USG) was normal though, with well-concentrated urine, meaning his kidneys are functioning fine & he's not dehydrated
burping, especially after eating. no more stomach noises though
some places outside where he's dribbled urine, the urine spots have turned white? i'm not 100% sure that it's not just marks on the concrete though
eating has improved a bit, i'm still giving him odansetron every day
since his urine is normal, i'm going to ask for bloods and an ultrasound at our next appointment in a few days. when this last happened, in June-August-ish last year, he had low B12 levels. so we've been supplementing his B12 since then. i'd like to recheck his levels, in case a) they're too low, or b) they're too high.
if bloods and the abdominal ultrasound are normal, then... i don't know what we'd do after that. i don't think i could afford anything else tbh!
since a urinary (& kidney) issue was ruled out, i'm worried now that it might be something like pancreatitis or pancreatic insufficiency... or maybe i'm just hyper-aware of them since we're learning about it at the moment lol
last time it started in July last year - despite being only May the weather is noticeably cooler than it was May last year - I wonder if that has anything to do with it? but then you'd think it would be something that started in puppyhood, not randomly at 4 years old...
anyway. last time it eventually resolved itself (after a lot of vet investigations that went nowhere) after i gave up on feeding his normal diet and just fed him whatever he would eat, which was raw human-grade meat (like chicken thighs, etc.).
i'm trying to not be frustrated with him - he's obviously doing it for a reason! no one starves themselves for fun! - and just focus on solutions. i've been giving him odansetron (which he's prescribed for motion sickness) in case it's nausea, which hasn't really helped but i figure it can't hurt.
in any case it's only been a few days. he hasn't been losing weight like he did last time (yet), so i'm not too worried. guess i'll stop by the shops on the way home and buy some meat for him...
$50 worth of meat later, he ate today (meat with gusto, regular food with far less enthusiasm, and even had some yoghurt)! his stomach is making funny noises but i'm guessing that's normal hunger noises (though i've never heard a dog's stomach rumble before? lol). he's not having diarrhoea at least (if anything he's not pooping enough, but ya gotta eat to poop so makes sense).
he has also developed urinary incontinence but it seems to be only when his bladder is full. doesn't seem to be in pain or straining to pee. we've got a vet appointment in a couple of days, trying dog nappies in the meantime (he is Not a Fan), lol. his UI comes and goes, yesterday it was worse and today it hasn't happened, so idk. hoping it's just a UTI which will resolve with a course of antibiotics...
odansetron seemed to help his inappetence - he'll eat 1/2 or 2/3 of his normal food instead of only 1/4 - so at least that's something!
Still has fantastic knees and ankles and nose and a face and breathes silently and her legs are under her body and I bet that, because she's about to be spayed due to her heart murmur, she has no hemivertebrae just to continue to make her otherwise the most physically sound frenchie I've ever seen. And her owner isn't letting her get fat.
And I give no fucks that she isn't a breed standard color. And don't come at me with "waaah, well bred frenchies harglebargle!!!" Those don't exist here, okay? They barely exist *anywhere*. 99.999999999999999% of frenchies are not show line dogs. At this point I'm more like to encounter an honest to the gods unicorn than this mythical well bred frenchie in person
last time it started in July last year - despite being only May the weather is noticeably cooler than it was May last year - I wonder if that has anything to do with it? but then you'd think it would be something that started in puppyhood, not randomly at 4 years old...
anyway. last time it eventually resolved itself (after a lot of vet investigations that went nowhere) after i gave up on feeding his normal diet and just fed him whatever he would eat, which was raw human-grade meat (like chicken thighs, etc.).
i'm trying to not be frustrated with him - he's obviously doing it for a reason! no one starves themselves for fun! - and just focus on solutions. i've been giving him odansetron (which he's prescribed for motion sickness) in case it's nausea, which hasn't really helped but i figure it can't hurt.
in any case it's only been a few days. he hasn't been losing weight like he did last time (yet), so i'm not too worried. guess i'll stop by the shops on the way home and buy some meat for him...
$50 worth of meat later, he ate today (meat with gusto, regular food with far less enthusiasm, and even had some yoghurt)! his stomach is making funny noises but i'm guessing that's normal hunger noises (though i've never heard a dog's stomach rumble before? lol). he's not having diarrhoea at least (if anything he's not pooping enough, but ya gotta eat to poop so makes sense).
last time it started in July last year - despite being only May the weather is noticeably cooler than it was May last year - I wonder if that has anything to do with it? but then you'd think it would be something that started in puppyhood, not randomly at 4 years old...
anyway. last time it eventually resolved itself (after a lot of vet investigations that went nowhere) after i gave up on feeding his normal diet and just fed him whatever he would eat, which was raw human-grade meat (like chicken thighs, etc.).
i'm trying to not be frustrated with him - he's obviously doing it for a reason! no one starves themselves for fun! - and just focus on solutions. i've been giving him odansetron (which he's prescribed for motion sickness) in case it's nausea, which hasn't really helped but i figure it can't hurt.
in any case it's only been a few days. he hasn't been losing weight like he did last time (yet), so i'm not too worried. guess i'll stop by the shops on the way home and buy some meat for him...
can you explain what you mean that conformation is steeped in white supremacy? like i think i know what you mean but im not 100% sure. also your dogs are adorable <3
The dog fancy as we know it today comes out of Victorian Britain and is a sibling of the eugenics movement happening there around the same time.
Prior to the Victorian age dog breeds were not what we know they as today. Dogs of course had many different functions and different forms to follow those functions, but they would be better classified as "types" than what we now call breeds. They did not have closed gene pools and there was a lot more ability to have gene flow between types of dogs (yay genetic diversity!)
Eventually the Victorians narrow dogs from types to breeds, closed stud books which narrowed the amount of gene flow allowed between dogs, and created "breed standards" as we know them today. This set up a documented and desirable look dogs had to meet to be considered worthy enough to continue their genes to the next generation. It is this type of language and thought process, the "preservation" and "improvement" language that echoes that of the eugenicists at the time who were actively trying to eliminate black, poor, and "mentally defective" people from the British population while justifying it with science. Eugenics is racism AND colonialism. straight up. So. So. Much of this language is passed down in the dog fancy to this day (as well as a whole lot of classism).
Additionally, once the dog fancy grew outside of Britain, the British Kennel Club started to classify dogs they found outside of the UK and classify them into more restricted breeds. This included indigenous dog types from many parts of the world. These breeds were often stripped of their true indigenous identity and taken from indigenous control (because white people thought they "knew better" and how to "improve" these dogs, given slurs as breed names, were given standards that narrowed their expected look to an extreme, and were put into the dog fancy to have their studbooks closed.
To this day many (most) dog breeds indigenous to colonized areas (north/south/central americas, africa, asia, etc.) have two versions of their dogs: the one the dog fancy deems "correct" and "pure" enough to be put on display in conformation shows and the ones still present in their indigenous homelands where said dogs must go through extensive review to even be consider for "outcrossing" into the kennel club registered population (if that's even an option).
To this day most kennel clubs members are white, conformation is overall unwelcoming to non-white people, kennel clubs are still resistant to outcrossing in most instances despite science on gene diversity saying otherwise, keep studbooks closed, are resistant to changing slur based breed names even upon indigenous request, create new breeds that try and replicate what they view as 'mythologically indigenous" breeds that have no actual basis in any indigenous heritage.
Like i love dogs and i love purebred dogs (yay predictability!), but part of decolonizing our thinking is understanding that a huge portion of the dog fancy is not only resistant to change and modernization, but resistant to modernizing away from white supremacist ideals and false sciences that make up the basis of the dog fancy and uphold colonial oppression to this day AND resistant to modernizing away from the racism and classism still casually present amongst its membership to make the fancy more welcoming and inclusive.
TTs have a specific foot structure so judges are always supposed to check their feet, but it just looks like he’s shaking their paws before going over them and im here for it
Just a reminder that Tibetan Terriers are the only breed where its stated in the breed standard that they should have flat feet
Let’s visualise it for a bit
Their feet should be completely without arch, so flat, but definitely not splayed. They should also be round and big in proportion to the dog.
It sounds like a weird man made ideal that we created one day out of the blue and bred for, however the first TTs to arrive to Europe directly from Tibet all had flat feet and native TTs still have them. So a breed that’s existed for thousands of years developed them by themselves and have maintained them.
This is a native Tibetan Terrier, coming directly from Tibet, not bred by a breeder (so really a landrace dog thats just known as a long legged Apso in their native country, but registerable as a TT within FCI!).
This is a trait that’s slowly disappearing in a lot of lines however as breeders stray further from the standard and more towards flashy dogs that win big. A lot of judges don’t even check feet anymore.
okay i promise i'm only going to do this the one time. I promise I'm not going to continue to be annoying about this. but i am sharing my instagram post to tumblr because idk why not yolo. maybe this will actually be useful to somebody. and more can be found on the world's most cursed website/app.
hello again! there is now a free ebook version of this with additional tips, ideas, and thoughts on the subject of dog parenting while chronically ill (written by a dog trainer with chronic illness). It's pay-what-you-want (including the low low price of $0) and you can get it at the above link on Ko-fi.
Do we think that the concept of energy levels and high and low energy dogs would be fundamentally changed if we reconstructed the general public’s concept of what a standard walk is?
I think that if we re-contextualised the concept of dog energy into stuff like momentum, environmental engagement, and handler engagement, it would change how you look at dogs a whole lot.
ok here’s all my rambling thoughts about the future of dog breeding. ignore if it pleases you!
caveats: i am not a dog breeder. i am not involved in dog breeding in any capacity. i have a strong interest in the dog–human relationship and the continuation of that relationship. i own purebred dogs. i have absolutely no animal-related academic qualifications.
so. i think the future of dogs is to move away from dog BREEDS. i think dog people really struggle with this. purebred fans struggle because they instantly have a negative response because they adore their specific breed. mixed breeders also struggle with this because still the focus is on BREEDS and mixing them. and then you have all that shelter dog rhetoric which seems confused in itself by the desire to continue to have dogs but the opposition to dog breeding of any kind (pure breeding is bad but mixed breeding is also bad and registered breeders are unethical but backyard breeders are also dodgy).
i have read lots of different dog books. some published before the real Victorian dog breeding explosion (early to mid 1800s) and some published much later (mostly the 90s to now) exploring and documenting the origin of the dog and the current use of indigenous or primitive dogs. so there are people doing what I’m saying ALREADY, TODAY, AND FOR ALL OF DOG–HUMAN TIME (see: landraces).
but what all this has told me is that the real focus should be TYPES. to look at this, you really need to put aside the concept of dog BREEDS as we know them today. dog BREEDS today are defined by hyper specific breed standards that list in extreme detail what the dog should look like and, to a lesser degree, how it should behave. put that aside.
according to Kim Brophey there are 10 families of dogs (i like her categorisation, it makes sense to me). they are Natural Dog (or spitz), Sighthound, Scenthound, Toy Dog, Guardian, Gun Dog, Terrier, Bull Dog, Herding Dog and World Dog (or pariah). using this as a base, then we would jump into TYPES.
so for example. in early sheep and cow centred Australia (early 1800s on), they needed to come up with dogs that would suit the climate and the work. this meant they developed regional variations of Herding Dogs, taking collies (a type) and bobtails (a type) and anything else they had, and refining that into a heeler (type) and a kelpie/koolie (type). it makes sense to me to have these kinds of variations around general principles of environment, working style, temperament, coat, size, ears, tail – that’s how it’s always been done! with TYPES, you could still end up with hundreds of variations. but the key difference to what we currently operate under would be that TYPES have no hyper specific breed standard and they can interbreed whenever necessary while maintaining a general look/working ability.
take one of the breeds i own – papillon. under this proposed model, dogs that look like this would be Toy Spaniels. and when you go looking for a breeder of Toy Spaniels, different people would breed slight variations – up ears or down ears, shorter muzzle, longer muzzle, taller or shorter. however, the focus would be maintaining an open gene pool and producing healthy dogs while still having a general type and a range of reasonable predictability. that is the key difference here. no standards, no stud books. no discussion about “freaks of nature” because a dog bred with another dog. the sport of conformation would have to also radically change in this scenario. but it’s not like you can’t evaluate structure and form of any dog. if conformation must continue, it could change.
contrary to most dog people i tend to run across, i don’t think we should get more specific when thinking about dog breeding, i think we should get less specific. i understand that some scenarios require specificity, but for the most part we as humans should accept that dogs are as varied as we are, with general predictable traits. and our approach to dog breeding should probably be, IN MY VIEW, to find the dog TYPE that is most suitable for our situation, but still accept the individual characteristics within each dog and that no dog is totally predictable nor should this be expected or desired.
so what i am saying is not NEW. it’s just what people did before the Victorians got weird about it.
