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A Dog is Man’s Best Friend

A Dog is Man’s Best Friend

by Bob Hypes

The phrase means, an animal that performs valuable service to humans, usually referencing dogs.

What is the origin of the phrase?

A dog is a man’s best friend? Judged purely on the animal’s popularity, perhaps that’s true. According to the American Kennel Club, there are more pet dogs in the USA than there are people in Britain. However, the affection in which dogs are held by many these days is a fairly recent development. How we used to think about dogs can be judged by looking at how they have been portrayed in language over the centuries.

The first linguistic oddity to do with dogs concerns where the word ‘dog’ came from. The name was preceded by the perfectly good Anglo-Saxon word ‘hound’, which was also used in other European languages. ‘Dog’, in common with several other animal names ending in ‘g’, like frog, hog, pig and stag, seems to have been coined around the 13th century for reasons that no one is at all sure about.

Prior to the 18th century, dogs were kept for hunting and defence and not as pets. The only deviation from that rule was that of the derided ‘lap-dog’, which John Evelyn recorded in his Diary, circa 1684, as a dog fit only for ladies:

“Those Lap-dogs had so in delicijs [delight] by the Ladies – are a pigmie sort of Spaniels.”

Lap-dogs apart, the phrases used to refer to dogs in the 16th and 17th centuries indicate their image as being vicious and disease-ridden:

Hair of the dog that bit you, first used in 1546 as a reference to rabies

Cast someone to the dogs, 1556
Dog in the manger , 1564

If you lie down with dogs, you will get up with fleas, 1573

The dogs of war, 1601
Go to the dogs, 1619

Also, phrases that indicate the treatment of dogs show that they were considered to be of little worth:

Lead a dog’s life (1528) 

Not fit for a dog (1625)

As sick as a dog (1705)

The unfortunate mutts were considered so beyond the pale that dog hangings, as punishment for chasing sheep or whatever else dogs did naturally, were commonplace. The phrase ‘give a dog a bad name’, 1705, was originally ‘give a dog a bad name and hang him’.

The language relating to canines took a turn for the better later in the 18th century. The first example in print of the term ‘dog-basket’ dates from 1768. The need for a name for a piece of furniture provided specifically for the comfort of dogs shows a clear turning point in attitudes towards them. This shift in outlook continued steadily and in 1823 we first find ‘dog biscuits’, followed in 1852 by ‘dog show’. By the mid 20th century we find clear linguistic evidence that a dog was to be considered almost on a par with humanity – ‘dog-sitter’ (1942).

The greatest claim to fame of Warrensburg, Missouri is that it is where the phrase ‘a dog is a man’s best friend’ originated. In 1870, a farmer shot a neighbor’s dog and, in the subsequent court case where the owner sued for damages, the lawyer George Graham Vest gave a tear-jerking speech that became known as the Eulogy to a Dog:

“Gentlemen of the jury, a man’s dog stands by him in prosperity and poverty, in health and sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow, and the snow drives fiercely, if only he can be near his master’s side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer; he will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounter with the roughness of the world. He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journey through the heavens.”

A statue of Old Drum, as the deceased beast was called, stands outside the town’s courtroom. Sadly for the Warrensburg Tourist Board, the attorney, Vest, didn’t originate the phrase, but he may have read it in a US newspaper, as it appeared in print fifty years earlier in The New-York Literary Journal, Volume 4, 1821:

The faithful dog – why should I strive 
To speak his merits, while they live 
In every breast, and man’s best friend 
Does often at his heels attend.

Do you have a bored dog?????

It may be in your best interest to keep your dog from getting bored!

Fun Facts About Dogs And Cats

• The nose pads of both dogs and cats are unique - ridged in a pattern just like fingerprints of humans.

• Among the survivors from the doomed Titanic were two dogs - a Pekingese and a Pomeranian.

• A cat's heart beats twice as fast as a human heart - 110 to 140 beats per minute.

• Cats knead with their paws when they're happy.

• Your cat loves you and can read your moods. If you're sad or under stress, you may also notice a difference in your cat's behavior.

• The oldest known breed of dog native to North America is the Chihuahua and the oldest known breed is the Saluki, an Arabic word meaning "noble one."

• An average cat has 1-8 kittens per litter and 2-3 litters per year.

• During her productive life, one female cat could have more than 100 kittens.

• A single pair of cats and their kittens can produce as many as 420,000 kittens in just 7 years.

• The U.S. has the highest dog population in the world, followed by France.

• People who own pets live longer, have less stress, and have fewer heart attacks.

• "Sociable" cats will follow you from room to room to monitor your activities throughout the day.

• Give your cat a quality scratching post to deter her from scratching your furniture. Still scratching? Try putting lemon scent or orange scent on the area. Cats hate these smells.

• You've probably heard that one year of a dog's life is equal to seven in human years. Here's another way of calculating a dog's age: At one year, a dog is the equivalent of 16 human years; at two dog years they are 24 human years; at 3 dog years, 30 human years; and for every dog year after that, add 4 human years.

• Cats are partially colorblind. They have the equivalency of human red/green color blindness. (Reds appear green and greens appear red - or shades thereof.)

• At birth, kittens can't see or hear. Kittens open their eyes after five days and begin to develop their eyesight and hearing at approximately 2 weeks. They begin to walk at 20 days.

• Cats are the sleepiest of all mammals. They spend 16 hours of each day sleeping. With that in mind, a seven year old cat has only been awake for two years of its life!

• The Doberman breed was created in the 1860's by Louis Doberman, a German tax collector who created the dog to protect him while he worked.

• Cats spend 30% of their waking hours grooming themselves.

• 95% of all cat owners admit they talk to their cats.

• 32% of those who own their own home also own at least one cat.

• Egyptians shaved their eyebrows as a sign of mourning when they lost a beloved cat.

• A cat has five more vertebrae in its spinal column than a human does.

• The weirdest cat on record was a female called Mincho who went up a tree in Argentina and didn't come down again until she died six years later. While treed, she managed to have three litters with equally ambitious dads!

• Dogs have lived with humans for over 14,000 years. Cats have lived with people for only 7,000 years.

• Cats can see up to 120 feet away. Their peripheral vision is about 285 degrees.

• Dogs can hear low sounds about as well as humans (40 Hz, compared to our 20 Hz), and can hear sounds that are a quite a bit higher (60,000 Hz, compared to our 20,000 Hz). They are more sensitive to loud sounds - loud noises that humans can tolerate may be painful to dogs. The flipside of this is that they can hear sounds that are 4 times farther away.

• Because cat-eye pupils are vertical slits, they get narrower in bright light. The neat trick: Cats can lower or raise their eyelids to hide more or less of the slit, just like a window shade. This gives a cat more precise control than nearly any other animal over the amount of light entering his eyes.

• In absolute darkness with no light at all, cats can't see any better than humans can.

• Scientists estimate that cats can see clearly in one-sixth the amount of light we humans would need.

• The fastest dog in the world is a greyhound which can reach up to an amazing 45mph!

• Contrary to popular belief, a Pit Bull doesn't have the strongest bite. In a scientific test measuring bite pressure, the Rottweiler won with 328 lbs., followed by a German Shepherd at 238 lbs., and the Pit Bull at 235 lbs. What makes Pit Bulls dangerous biters is their ability to lock their jaws.