Welcome to Pet Trendy - your one-stop website for dog friendly information.
Find facts about breeds and details about dogs: - their natures, foibles, sizes, food preferences and lots more to help choose and care for a new dog or your current pet. Pages about dog breeders, dog trainers and even dog therapists.
Help to find gifts for your pet, advice on pet grooming and there are many articles
and stories, both informative and amusing, with a doggy theme.

Some factors to help in choosing and looking after a pet dog.
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What types and breeds of dogs are there : -
From the humble mutts to pedigree show dogs. We list list a guide to 20 of the most popular dog breeds and more information about other breeds and how they are classified.

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How to find the right breed of dog for a pet: -
What types of dog make the best pets. Do you want a pedigree dog or a cross breed; a puppy or an adult dog; a rescue dog or one with a family history; just some of the many points you need to consider before selecting your pet dog.

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Dogs and children : -
- Which dog breeds are suitable.
- New dogs in families with children
- New babies and your pet dog
- Socialising your dog with children.
All important factors before choosing a pet dog for a family and what to cosider when a baby joins a family with dogs.

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Advice and information about Dog Breeding and our Breeders Directory

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Training hints and Dog Trainers in the UK
What you need to know when training your pet dogs and puppies

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Dog Therapists
Therapists who specialise in Alternative Therapies for Dogs. Treatment has normall been thought of as the province of the Vet. but increasingly owners are turning to Alternative Therapists to treat their pet dogs.

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Grooming your Dog.
Not an indulgence and something that is just for show dogs; with some breeds regular grooming is essential.

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Gifts for Dogs
Some suggestions and examples of things you and your pet dog might like; some essential, some useful, some fun and frankly some that are quite bizarre.

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Dog Supplies
Suppliers where you can buy food and other essentials for your pet dog.

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• Dogs were the first animals domesticated by humans.
• Chihuahuas are the smallest dogs
• Irish Wolfhounds are the largest .
• Great Danes are the tallest.
• St. Bernards are the heaviest
• Greyhounds are the fastest dogs achieving speeds of up to 45 mph for short periods of time.
• The most intelligent dogs are reportedly the Border Collie and the Poodle.
• The least intelligent dogs are the Afghan Hound and the Basenji.
• It is estimated that a dog's power of smell is 1000 times better than humans.
• Dogs do not sweat through their tongues but through sweat glands between the pads of their feet.
• A dog's body temperature is between 100.2 - 102.8 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Dogs have three eyelids. An upper and lower eyelid and a third inside these two. It helps protect the eye from dirt and dust
• A dogs hearing is about ten times better than a humans.
• The basenji, an African dog, is the only dog that cannot bark.
• The New Guinea Singing Dog not only sings but it can also climb trees
• Dogs, like humans, can be either right or left handed (pawed)
• Dogs are omnivorous (eat both meat and vegetable foods)
• As part of a their instinctive feeding ritual dogs will bury bones
• Shaking things viciously is recognised as being part of their hunting instincts.
• Dogs often walk in small circles before lying down, this again instinctive (flattening long grass in the wild)
• Dogs have highly developed internal clocks They usually know when it's time for you to arrive home, feed them, or go to bed if you are run to schedule.
• Newly born puppies are deaf, blind, have no teeth and almost no sense of smell. Keeping near their mother and siblings for warmth.
• Generally a puppy is only able to crawl during its first week
• A pup will begin to see when it is between 2 to 3 weeks old
• A puppy will develop its sense of smell at about 3 weeks.
• 3 to 7 weeks after birth a puppy developes its first teeth.
• Quite often puppy will sleep for 14 hours every day.

The top ten most common dog names in the UK for 2009,(with thanks to the Guardian)

• Charlie,
• Poppy,
• Molly,
• Alfie,
• Max,
• Jack,
• Daisy,
• Ruby,
• Oscar
• Rosie.
  

Origins..........
It has been a great debate for hundreds of years as to the history and likely evolution of the domestic dog. Today the most popular theory is that dogs are directly descended from Canis Lupus - the Grey Wolf and that dogs are more closely related to the Grey Wolf than Biologists had previously suspected.

Gray Wolf

Evidence, in the form of remains, suggests that humans and wolves first co-existed over 15,000 yrs. ago. At this stage they probably were still both enemies, fighting for their own survival but sharing the common the traits of being pack animals and hunting in packs.
It is highly likely that this is when they both began to take advantage of each other.
Men, by now, were living in groups within camps and these camps began to attract the attention of wolves, there would probably have been lots of garbage lying about (particularly bones and food scraps) this the wolves recognised as a safe and easy food supply, much easier than hunting with all its possible dangers.
Humans too began to recognise the advantage of having these "camp followers" around, wolves with their keen sense of smell and hearing could warn of impending danger from the wild animals and even hostile humans that would have been present in these dangerous times.
It is easy to see that over thousands of years this dependence begin to be refined. Wolves probably began to recognise humans as pack leaders and humans began to take advantage of other useful attributes of wolves. This would have led to an early form of selective breeding, any animals that were seen as too fierce, unsociable or of no obvious use would be abandoned and only the wolves, with desirable traits, would have been selected to breed; gradually reinforcing the growing co-dependence.
Soon the traits of each group of these "tame" wolves would reflect the needs of the group of humans it lived with: it's size, colouring, senses and even the length of its coat or swimming ability would tend to reflect the needs of the hunters and their environments. Probably, as the number of humans increased, some degree of trade would have occurred between groups, puppies being swapped and traded based on the inbred traits they now possessed - the evolution of wolves into the various dog breeds of today had begun.

• wolf-type dogs
• mastiffs
• pointers
• greyhounds
• shepherding dogs

These dogs were primarily used for herding, hunting, and guarding.

The next big development was brought about by War (as have many things).
Most of the ancienr "western civilisations" including the Romans, Egyptians, Greeks, Persians and Babylonians all employed huge and fierce fighting dogs in their battles. The Roman Army in particular made great use of fighting dogs to help them spread their empire in the ancient world. They set up units consisting entirely of dogs to make them more fierce many wore spiked collars around their neck and ankles, and making them even more dangerous by the addition of large curved knives. Quite often they were starved before battle, then unleashed on their unsuspecting enemies. The dog most used by the Romans were the great Molossian dogs of Epirus, specifically trained for battle. These dogs dominated battles until they meet their match in Britain, where powerful Mastiffs had been born and breed.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, interest in dog breeding and their care waned. This neglect resulted in many abandoned dogs forming packs and terrorising towns. During the Dark Ages people began to blame dogs for the problems around them and superstitions arose, including those of werewolves and monsters.
Although dogs continued to be used by armies in battle, but now in a growing variety of ways, no longer used solely for fighting. They were trained as guard dogs, sentries, messengers and draught dogs. (It is estimated that during World War I, the Germans used possibly 30,000 dogs, the French used 20,000, and the Italians 3,000. The other Allied forces used thousands more.

It was during the Middle Ages that dog development took another turn.
Still retaining a bad reputationwhich was added to by the spread of the bubonic plague, or Black Death,.
During the plague, in which fleas transported the deadly disease, many via dogs, meant that the dog was often abandoned.. Great herds of livestock were decimated by the disease, leading to people killing each other over food. Few people during this period kept pets resulting in ownerless dogs running wild, often in packs, they ate corpses and killed in groups. Conversely there began a fashion for keeping huge packs of hunting dogs and the more well off people started seeing dogs as status symbols, believing they gave people status and distinction. As a result the number of dog breeds started to increase rapidly. Dogs were now being bred for many more reasons: - their behaviour, size, length, color, facial characteristics and even "strokability" (we see this still happening today).

Later, in the 19th century, dog shows became fashionable and the need arose for specific criteria against which individual dogs could be compared and judged. Enthusiasts in Great Britain grouped together in 1873 to form what became known as the Kennel Club. This led directly to the establishment of stud books and set standards for certain dog breeds. It also set basic rules for shows. Soon after similar organisations began in other countries: the American Kennel Club was formed in 1884 and it's Canadian counterpart in 1888.