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The French Bichon Frise is an adorable dog

Bichon Frise paintings

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Argentina to start 2015 with lapdogs flying high

Lapdogs are a status symbol in Argentina, dressed sometimes in fitted sweaters emblazoned with colours of their owners’ favourite soccer club. Ms Fernandez’s dog post got more than 36,000 ‘likes’.

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Hong Kong’s pampered pooches take yoga classes

Maybe it’s not such a dog’s life after all.

A yoga instructor in Hong Kong is making waves in Hong Kong for introducing the concept of “doga” to allow dogs to find “inner peace”.

Already a popular concept in the US and Japan, “doga” allows stressed dogs and their owners to enjoy yoga at the same time while “bonding”.

Any guesses on how long it will take before “doga” arrives in Singapore?

Hong Kong’s pampered pooches take yoga classes

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A status symbol is a possession which is regarded as proof of the owner’s social position, wealth, prestige, etc.(World English Dictionary)

• Pet advocacy
• January 18, 2011
• By: Elizabeth Mattei-Miller

Dogs have come along way in the past fifty years. Most people wouldn’t think about keeping their dog outside all day and regular vet care is far more present in society today than it has ever been. Dogs aren’t out of the doghouse yet though. They are still generally viewed as objects and no matter where you look; dogs seem to be more status symbols than companions.

Dogs as status symbols – Scranton Dog Training | Examiner.com

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TOY DOGS OR LAP DOGS

Trauma, the shock of being dropped, can kill your little companion!

A lapdog or lap dog is both small enough to be held in the arms or lie comfortably on a person’s lap and temperamentally predisposed to do so. Lapdogs are not a specific breed, but is a generic term for a type of dog of small size and friendly disposition.

Lapdogs historically were kept in many societies around the world by individuals with leisure time, as docile companion animals with no working function. Genetic analysis reveals that lapdogs are among the earliest specific types of dogs to live with people. Today, most lapdog breeds fall into the Toy breed group.

(Wikipedia)

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THE PAPILLON (pronounced as “Pap-ee-yon”)

www.dogbreedinfo.com

www.dogbreedinfo.com

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One of the oldest of the toy spaniels, it derives its name from its characteristic butterfly-like look of the long and fringed hair on the ears. A papillon with dropped ears is called a Phalene (French for moth).

Papillon (dog) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Papillon is a small, friendly, elegant toy dog with a fine boned structure. He is light and dainty, yet still lively, and is distinguished from other breeds by his beautiful, butterfly-like ears. They are known to be happy and alert little dogs that are not shy or aggressive. The breed must be either parti-color or white with patches of any color.

A Look Back
Papillons, which used to only have large, drooping ears, were known in the 16th and 17th centuries as Dwarf Spaniels and were often depicted on the laps of French and Spanish noblewomen. Over time, an erect-eared type, fringed as to resemble the wings of a butterfly, developed (Papillon means “butterfly” in French). In the United States, Papillons (erect-eared) and Phalenes (drop-eared) can be born in the same litter and are shown together as one breed.

Papillon – American Kennel Club

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Breed All About It – Papillon

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THE PEKINGESE

Malachy, a Pekingese, wins Westminster dog show

Malachy, a Pekingese, wins Westminster dog show – CBS News

Best in Show: Westminster Dog Show 2012 Ends With Crowning of Malachy,

Pekingese wins top prize at America’s Westminster Kennel Club dog show

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Other names pekingese-lion dog
Lion Dog
Chinese Spaniel
Pelchie Dog
Peking Palasthund
北京犬
宮廷獅子狗
京巴

(Wikipedia)

The breed was favored by the Chinese Imperial court, and its name refers to the city of Peking in Beijing where the Forbidden City is located. 

Quotation

Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Dowager Cixi, said:^[10]

Let the Lion Dog be small; let it wear the swelling cape of dignity around its neck; let it display the billowing standard of pomp above its back.

Let its face be black; let its forefront be shaggy; let its forehead be straight and low.

Let its eyes be large and luminous; let its ears be set like the sails of war junk; let its nose be like that of the monkey god of the Hindus.

Let its forelegs be bent; so that it shall not desire to wander far, or leave the Imperial precincts.

Let its body be shaped like that of a hunting lion spying for its prey.

Let its feet be tufted with plentiful hair that its footfall may be soundless and for its standard of pomp let it rival the whick of the Tibetans’ yak, which is flourished to protect the imperial litter from flying insects.

Let it be lively that it may afford entertainment by its gambols; let it be timid that it may not involve itself in danger; let it be domestic in its habits that it may live in amity with the other beasts, fishes or birds that find protection in the Imperial Palace.

And for its color, let it be that of the lion – a golden sable, to be carried in the sleeve of a yellow robe; or the colour of a red bear, or a black and white bear, or striped like a dragon, so that there may be dogs appropriate to every costume in the Imperial wardrobe.

Let it venerate its ancestors and deposit offerings in the canine cemetery of the Forbidden City on each new moon.

Let it comport itself with dignity; let it learn to bite the foreign devils instantly.

Let it be dainty in its food so that it shall be known as an Imperial dog by its fastidiousness; sharks fins and curlew livers and the breasts of quails, on these may it be fed; and for drink give it the tea that is brewed from the spring buds of the shrub that groweth in the province of Hankow, or the milk of the antelopes that pasture in the Imperial parks.

Thus shall it preserve its integrity and self-respect; and for the day of sickness let it be anointed with the clarified fat of the legs of a sacred leopard, and give it to drink a throstle’s eggshell full of the juice of the custard apple in which has been dissolved three pinches of shredded rhinoceros horn, and apply it to piebald leeches.

So shall it remain – but if it dies, remember thou too art mortal.

• 10 ^ Chinese Symbolism and Art Motifs, by Charles Alfred Speed Williams, Tuttle, Publisher, 1974, ISBN 0-8048-3704-X

Pekingese – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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