Dog or Canine Terms +

The bony section of the fore face forming the edge of the muzzle.

The bony partition dividing the right and the left nasal cavities.

To castrate or to spay a dog.

1. The organ of olfaction or smell.
2. The ability of a dog to detect something by scenting or smelling it.

The sense of smell.

One of the twelve cranial nerves of the dog.

The mating of unrelated individuals of the same breed.

A gaiting fault, so named for its similarity to the swing and the dip of a canoeist's paddle.

Pinching in at the elbows and shoulder joints causes the front legs to swing forward in a stiff outward arc.

A dog walks on its toes like a horse, not the soles of his feet like a bear or a human. The dog's front limb assembly resembles the human arm with shoulder, upper arm, and forearm, and the human wrist is analogous to the canine pastern joint, the back of the hand is the dog's pastern, and the fingers form the dog's paws.

The dog's paws and the pasterns work together to absorb the shock of jumping and running and to provide flexibility of movement.

Structural faults such as straight or loose shoulders, straight stifles (knee joint), loose hips, and lack of balance between the front and rear structure, can all cause gait abnormalities that in turn lead to damage to pasterns and feet.

The kneecap.

The written record of a dog's genealogy of three generations or more.

Full, loose-hanging upper lips.

A crossbred, mongrel-type of dog; especially, one of Eastern origin.

A dense undercoat of soft hair.

A dense and harsh outer coat, coupled with a soft, fur-like and very close inner coat.