The Encyclopedia of the Dog

Sarah Robertson is an associate editor of the Canadian Book Review
Annual.

This lavish and superbly designed coffee-table book purports, in its
jacket copy, to be “the most comprehensive exploration of the dog
world ever published.” The truth of this claim depends, I suppose, on
how you define the word “comprehensive.” This particular glossy
doggie compendium certainly ranges widely in its six lucidly written
chapters—“Development of the Dog,” “Dogs and Humans,”
“Canine Design,” “The Language of Dogs,” “Domestic Dog
Breeds,” and “Caring for Your Dog.” And a book that includes
sections on canine ephemera (e.g., cigarette cards of the 1920s and
1930s) and dogs on film (nothing really new here: most of us already
know Lassie was really a boy) is nothing if not comprehensive.

The author, a practising veterinarian, devotes a chapter to canine
physiology. The bulk of his book consists of descriptions of 400-plus
breeds, which he divides into eight (admittedly arbitrary) categories:
primitive dogs, sight hounds, scent hounds, spitz-type dogs, terriers,
gundogs, livestock dogs, and companion dogs (“random-bred” dogs take
up a single spread). Usefully included in these descriptions are symbols
that correspond to such characteristics as “suitable for urban
living” and “usually good with children.” Perhaps Fogle’s
greatest contribution is his acknowledgment of the diseases and
conditions associated with various breeds; many of his competitors
either gloss over or ignore completely the tragic consequences of
in-breeding.

Absent from the book are even the basics of obedience training. Fogle,
author of the ASPCA Complete Dog Training Manual, presumably feels that
the subject demands separate treatment. One can only hope his readers
don’t interpret the omission as a sign of indifference to this crucial
aspect of dog ownership.