We all should know what a dog is.. but how do we identify what a dog is.

it's an animal with 4 legs.
it has a coat of fur.
ECT.

Really how can you describe a dog with out describing other animals? with that, how come we know what a dog is with out being able to describe what a dog is?

- Gears

The dog (Canis lupus familiaris,[2] pronounced /ˈkeɪ.nis ˈluːpəs fʌˈmɪliɛəris/) is a domesticated subspecies of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The domestic dog has been one of the most widely kept working and companion animals in human history.

The domestication of the gray wolf took place in a handful of events roughly 15,000 years ago in central Asia. The dog quickly became ubiquitous across culture in all parts of the world, and was extremely valuable to early human settlements. For instance, it is believed that the successful emigration across the Bering Strait might not have been possible without sled dogs.[3] As a result of the domestication process, the dog developed a sophisticated intelligence that includes unparalleled social cognition and a simple theory of mind that is important to their interaction with humans. These social skills have helped the dog to perform in myriad roles, such as hunting, herding, protection, and, more recently, assisting handicapped individuals. Currently, there are estimated to be 400 million dogs in the world.[4]

Over the 15,000 year span that the dog had been domesticated, it diverged into only a handful of landraces, groups of similar animals whose morphology and behavior have been shaped by environmental factors and functional roles. Humans did not take an active, intentional role in this process until the last few hundred years. As the modern understanding of genetics developed, humans began to intentionally breed dogs for a wide range of specific traits. Through this process, the dog has developed into hundreds of varied breeds, and shows more behavioral and morphological variation than any other land mammal.[5] For example, height measured to the withers ranges from a few inches in the Chihuahua to a few feet in the Irish Wolfhound; color varies from white through grays (usually called "blue'") to black, and browns from light (tan) to dark ("red" or "chocolate") in a wide variation of patterns; coats can be short or long, coarse-haired to wool-like, straight, curly, or smooth.[6] It is common for most breeds to shed this coat, but non-shedding breeds are also popular.





glad I could help

This is not a history lesson or a biological question. Sorry I was not clear on this.

I meant for this question to look at how we identify things (i.e. silhouette, color, shape, smell, ect.).

So how do you identify a dog?

- Gears

(let's not get into a wikipedia battle)

I know what you were after, but that is how I identify things, if someone gives me a wtf face I slap em with a wiki I am a boring logical, emotionless, vulgar programmer tho As a programmer identifying things is what I do, hell I work with virtual objects for a living. I can see how this kind of exercise is difficult for the masses tho.