@Tony wrote "Real dogs are real natural animals that fill a niche as role players in the social units of hominids, so that's the angle I like to approach their study. More recently people have taken some and made them into silly beauty pageant contestants for dog shows and given them breed names and wrote little fairy tales for them. I try my hardest to ignore all that or at least cut through it. "

This is a salient observation as often we the dog owner and fanciers have a difficult time looking at the creature laying at our feet and seeing them engaged in their actual work. I have posted an article about the Night Hunt of Racoons and its worth a read to tie back to this.