1. Breeds of dogs and cats

2. Dogs have lived with humans for thousands of years. Cats have been seen in ancient sketches from China to Egypt

3. Dogs are descended from the wolf and have been used for many different purposes.

4. The scientific name of dogs is Canis familiaris and the scientific name of the wolf is Canis lupus.

5. Canids have pointed teeth with grinding surfaces and a skeleton built for walking digitgrade (walking on the toes)

6. There are more than 228 pure bred breeds recognized by the American Kennel Club

7. Dogs are important to the economy. They eat approx 11 billion$ of food per year. They support veterinarians, pharmaceutical companies, racers, trainers, herders and hunters. They help people by providing protection, site, hearing, security and companionship.

9. Dogs range in size and life expectancy. Smaller dogs tend to live longer than large dogs.

10. Dogs have many different characteristics.

11. All dogs share a few characteristics. Non retractable claws, they produce two sets of teeth and have sweat glands on their nose and feet.

12. Pure bred dogs are created with a specific purpose in mind. There are 7 different groups of dog breeds, and each of these groups share certain traits. Pure bred dogs are judged by the “breed standard” This is a set of rules that say how the dog should look.

13. The Sporting group These breeds are used to aid hunters. There are three sub groups called the pointing, retrieving and setting groups. The dogs in this group tend to be very intelligent, are self motivated and can get destructive if not challenged.

17. The Hound Group This is the oldest group of dogs and have two subgroups, site hounds and scent hounds. Sight hounds hunt using their eye sight and scent hounds use their sense of smell. These dogs typically need a lot of room to exercise, the scent hounds are nearly impossible to retrieve if they get out of the yard and onto a scent.

22. The Working Group These dogs put their bravery or their brawn into the service of humans. The sub groups are: guarding, sledding, carting and rescue. These dogs are very independent. They can be very challenging to train if the owner does not understand alpha/pack mentality. These dogs can get aggressive if improperly trained.

27. The Herding Group These dogs want to control other animals. They will do this by staring and stalking, or by barking and nipping. They are highly intelligent and will herd small children. Hopefully not by nipping

30. The Terrier Group Used to kill rodents and vermin (also otter, fox, badgers) by digging or “going to ground”. These are divided into long and short legged breeds. These dogs WILL bark, they WILL dig and they WILL kill smaller animals

35. The Toy Group These dogs are primarily used for companionship. It is difficult to see common traits among this group as many of are simply miniaturized versions of dogs from other groups. These dogs can have alpha disorders as owners rarely correct destructive behavior.

38. The Non-Sporting Group This is a catch all group that dogs who don’t fit into the other categories are put into.

42. Feline breeds

43. Cats are in the family Felidae and they are homogenous, meaning that males and females tend to look similar.

44. Cats are carnivores (meaning they are best suited for a high protein, low carbohydrate/fat diet) They have sharp pointed teeth with no grinding surface and a rough tongue used to remove flesh from bones and blood from their fur.

47. Cats have had a long and sometimes strained relationship with humans.

48. Cats range in size based on their body type. They are limber flexible animals that live 10 – 15 years.

49. There are three body types: Cobby, moderate and extreme There are four different patterns (other than solid) Abyssinian, mackerel, blotched, spotted.