Toy dog?! description of my dog

Question

Hi,I realized that I am very bad at describing persons, objects or animals so I would like to improve this and I´ve thought about describing my dog.I have read on the dictionary that you call a dog having small size "toy dog" which is very strange in my opinion...? Could I simply say "small size"?I also don´t know if I should use "his" or "its" referring to animals, please check below."My dog has a small size, his hairs´colour is light brown and he is dappled white on his stomach (??) his paws are white.His poll is apple shaped (I mean that has the shape like an apple)"I wanted to post a picture of him to show you and help me with the corrections but I couldn´t find a way to post it here,please have a look at my profile, I posted it there.Thank youPamela

Khoff · Accepted Answer

Hi Pamela. Certain small breeds of dog are classified in the "toy" category, (including the Papillon, which is what your dog looks like to me) but you would not necessarily use that word when describing the dog. If you entered your dog in an official dog show, it would be in the "Toy" category, as opposed to, say, the "Hound" or "Terrier" category.

Pamela81"My dog has a small size, his hairs´colour is light brown and he is dappled white on his stomach (??) his paws are white.His poll is apple shaped (I mean that has the shape like an apple)"

My dog is small. His fur is light brown with white on his stomach and paws. His head (?) is apple-shaped.

(I'm not familiar with the word "poll" in this context. Do you mean his head?)

When talking about your own dog, or any dog you know well enough to know its ***, you would say "he" or "she." If you are not talking about a specific dog, you could use "he" or "she" or "it".

Pamela81 · Answer

Hi Khoff,

thank you so much for your reply.

My dog is a chihuahua but very often people mistake him for Papillon :-)

I found the word "poll" here:http://www.wordreference.com/iten/cranio I mean the head (skull, cranium) as anatomical part. They say that chihuahua´s head is apple-shaped.

About "fur" I hadn´t find it on the dictionary, is "hairs" wrong?

Thank you very much

Pamela

Khoff · Answer

For a person, you would say "She has brown hair." (singular/collective noun, unless you are saying "there are two hairs in my salad.)
A dog could be described as long-haired or short-haired, but except for those phrases you would usually say "coat" (especially in describing the texture, like "the poodle has a curly coat") or "fur." (The chihuahua has a smooth coat. My dog's fur is brown.)
A cat can be long-haired or short-haired (or even hairless!), but you would say it has white or black fur.

It's more compllicated than I had realized, but in general we use "hair" when talking about people and "fur" when talking about most animals.

Pamela81 · Answer

khoffFor a person, you would say "She has brown hair." (singular/collective noun, unless you are saying "there are two hairs in my salad.)A dog could be described as long-haired or short-haired, but except for those phrases you would usually say "coat" (especially in describing the texture, like "the poodle has a curly coat") or "fur." (The chihuahua has a smooth coat. My dog's fur is brown.)A cat can be long-haired or short-haired (or even hairless!), but you would say it has white or black fur.It's more compllicated than I had realized, but in general we use "hair" when talking about people and "fur" when talking about most animals.

Thank you,

It perfectly works for me "coat" it is the same in Italian, we say "mantello" which can be dog´s fur or even a cloak :-))

Thank you very much!!

Pamela

Toy dog?! description of my dog

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