Test Your Dog Knowledge

So you think you know a lot about dogs (or at least your pooch)? If so, try taking this simple canine quiz and see how you stack up.

1.) What animal is known as man's best friend?

2.) Which beast, according to current anthropological theory, was domesticated as long as 125,000 years ago, at least ten times earlier than any other creature?

3.) What is the common name of the carnivorous vertebrate mammal whose taxonomic designation is "Canis Familiaris"?

4.) What is the popular name for the star Sirius, or Alpha Canis Majoris?

5.) What is the common American term for a mild sausage served on a split roll or bun?

6.) What term is used for the steel locking bolts that secure a watertight door or hatch cover on a ship?

7.) Complete this biblical passage from Proverbs: "As a __________ returneth unto his vomit, so a fool returneth unto his folly."

8.) An adjective meaning "stubbornly persistent" is _________________.

9.) How is a book or other document described when the page corners are folded over or bent from rough treatment?

10.) Dylan Thomas' collection of semi-autobiographical short stories published in 1940 was titled ____________.

11.) What is the popular name for the hottest weeks of late August, when the star in question #4 and the sun are in conjunction?

12.) What noun, traced by etymologists to the early 13th century, is a term for light verse, or alternately, execrable poetry?

with thanks to Bill Krause