A little extra knowledgeabout the heritage of different dog breeds could save a novice veterinarian from foot-in-mouth syndrome. I'll never forget the reprimand I received for calling Mr. Duroso's new dog, Captain, a black terrier. Captain was the first Schipperke I had ever seen, and had I known that Schipperke means "little captain" in Flemish, I might have escaped embarrassment.

The origins of many moderndog breeds lie far back in ancient times. In Afghanistan, for instance, tradition says Noah chose the Afghan hound (regarded unofficially as the country's natonal dog) as the breed to take on his ark. The Samoyed of Siberia dates back 8,000 or 9,000 years, and the greyhound was racing across the Egyptian desert 1,500 years before the Pharaohs. The chow chow was bred more than 2,000 years ago, during the Han dynasty of China. The name "chow chow" is said to have been taken from the pidgin-English term for "a little bit of everything." Two well-known chow chows, Blackberry and Tiny Tim, resided with President Calvin Coolidge at the White House.

Many breeds have made very specificadaptations to their native environments. One such dog is the Catahoula hound, or "hog dog," a wonderful animal with glass-blue eyes and webfeet adapted to the swamplands of Catahoula Parish in central Louisiana, where I was reared. Other dogs have been bred to perform specific tasks. Sir Winston Churchill, whose constant companion was a brown poodle named Rufus, often referred to his favorite breed as the "truffle dog" because poodles, like pigs, have a talent for sniffing out truffles, a succulent mushroom that grows mainly in France.