Dogs Are the Best Out There
The Best Nose in the Business Dogs are endowed with a highly developed sense of smell, many times more efficient than our own.
They make expert sniffers and trackers and, as well as locating hunting quarry, are used to sniff out criminals, drugs, explosives and even truffles.
The most famous breed of tracker dog is Bloodhound, but others are just as gifted and widely used by the police and the army.
A Fast Runner Several breeds are extremely fleet of foot, their fast running speed enabling them to capture their prey while hunting.
The best- known of these is the Greyhound which reaches incredible speeds of over 40 mph.
The sport of Greyhound racing is popular on both sides of the Atlantic.
Other "streamlined" breed includes the Saluki, Whippet, afghan and Borzoi.
Running at full stretch, these dogs display some of the marvels of canine "engineering".
Canine Worker Over the centuries, man has learned to employ dogs in a rich variety of ways as guards, hunters, war-machines, seeing eyes, rodent controllers, draught animals, foot warmers, providers of hair and meat and, most important of all, as good companions.
In many parts of the world, local necessity has created some interesting occupations.
Carts pulled by dogs were used in Belgium, Holland, Germany and Switzerland until quite recently.
Australian aborigines used dingoes for warmth on cold nights, sleeping with one clasped in their arms.
Aborigine women, when not carrying young children.
often "wore" a dog draped across their lower back as a kidney warmer.
The Aztecs, apart from using dog hair to make cloth, fattened a non-barking, hairless dog for eating.
Dogs were once used to harvest the most magical of plants.
The mandrake was the source of a coveted narcotic and aphrodisiac extract.
Primitive peoples believed that the plant, whose split root often presents the two-legged appearance of a manikin, couldn't be pulled from the earth without producing a fatal effects on the puller.
So one end of a cord was attached to the root and the other was tied to a dog.
The theory was when the dog was chased away, out would come the mandrake root (often, it was said, with an awful shriek) and down would drop the poor dog.
They make expert sniffers and trackers and, as well as locating hunting quarry, are used to sniff out criminals, drugs, explosives and even truffles.
The most famous breed of tracker dog is Bloodhound, but others are just as gifted and widely used by the police and the army.
A Fast Runner Several breeds are extremely fleet of foot, their fast running speed enabling them to capture their prey while hunting.
The best- known of these is the Greyhound which reaches incredible speeds of over 40 mph.
The sport of Greyhound racing is popular on both sides of the Atlantic.
Other "streamlined" breed includes the Saluki, Whippet, afghan and Borzoi.
Running at full stretch, these dogs display some of the marvels of canine "engineering".
Canine Worker Over the centuries, man has learned to employ dogs in a rich variety of ways as guards, hunters, war-machines, seeing eyes, rodent controllers, draught animals, foot warmers, providers of hair and meat and, most important of all, as good companions.
In many parts of the world, local necessity has created some interesting occupations.
Carts pulled by dogs were used in Belgium, Holland, Germany and Switzerland until quite recently.
Australian aborigines used dingoes for warmth on cold nights, sleeping with one clasped in their arms.
Aborigine women, when not carrying young children.
often "wore" a dog draped across their lower back as a kidney warmer.
The Aztecs, apart from using dog hair to make cloth, fattened a non-barking, hairless dog for eating.
Dogs were once used to harvest the most magical of plants.
The mandrake was the source of a coveted narcotic and aphrodisiac extract.
Primitive peoples believed that the plant, whose split root often presents the two-legged appearance of a manikin, couldn't be pulled from the earth without producing a fatal effects on the puller.
So one end of a cord was attached to the root and the other was tied to a dog.
The theory was when the dog was chased away, out would come the mandrake root (often, it was said, with an awful shriek) and down would drop the poor dog.
Source...