Underdogs

Beauty is More than Fur Deep.

The charming Chihuahua and the pugnacious pug. The graceful greyhound, the shaggy sheepdog and the brazen bulldog. The miraculously mesmerizing mongrel. These are not the dogs that are typically celebrated in dog books - those focus on the most popular thoroughbreds: Labrador retrievers, Jack Russells, German shepherds, Dalmatians.

But where are the other breeds? And where are the non-breeds that make up more than half of the dog population, the mongrels? Where is their book?

If the British love anything, it's the underdog - every kind of underdog, whether it's a dog or not. We recognise that beauty is more than skin deep - or fur deep. We appreciate dogs of indeterminate lineage, with mottled fur, too-large ears, or strange little bodies; we love dogs who look like impish little children or grumpy old men.

Underdogs is their book - the character displayed in the funny faces and singular shapes, uncommon breeds and unrecognised mixed-breeds is a reflection of the true companionship we really love about dogs.