Discover dog breeds and their nutritional needs

The mixed-breed dog has no pedigree — but it has something no pedigree can provide: it is the only dog of its kind in the whole world, an unrepeatable original that nature created in one, single copy.

The Labrador retriever is good cheer on four legs and a born deliverer of joy — a dog that spends its whole life bringing you something: a ball, a slipper, a better mood. It's no accident that for years it has been one of the world's most beloved family dogs.

The German shepherd does nothing by halves — neither work nor loving. It's a partner-dog that treats every matter of your day as a shared mission and that can perform almost every profession in the world.

The golden retriever doesn't enter your life — it moves into it. With its whole heart, an open soul, and the unflagging hope that something good will fall out of the bowl.

The border collie doesn't want to be your dog. It wants to be your coworker — and it already has a few ideas about how to make the household run more efficiently.

The French bulldog doesn't need space — it needs you. And a spot exactly where you've just sat down.

The Yorkshire terrier weighs under three kilograms and is absolutely convinced that it's the rest of the world that is strangely oversized.

The beagle is, above all, a nose — and the rest of the dog is a neat accessory that this nose takes everywhere with it.

The Siberian husky is a piece of the Arctic that agreed to live with you — but hasn't for a moment forgotten that it was born to run.

The poodle comes in four sizes — from standard to toy — but in all of them hides the same brilliant, athletic soul that the world stubbornly mistakes for a hairdo.

The Rottweiler looks like a tank, has a reputation as a tough guy, and is devoutly convinced that it's a dog meant to be carried in your arms.

The dachshund is a big, brave special-ops dog that nature saddled with an undercarriage the size of a footstool — and that couldn't care less about the fact.

The Chihuahua is the smallest dog in the world with one of the biggest characters in the canine kingdom — two kilograms of pure fire that choose one human and love them without reserve.

For nearly a thousand years the shih tzu was the treasure of Chinese emperors, one forbidden to be carried beyond the palace walls. Today it lives with you — and truth be told, it doesn't see much of a difference.

The pug is a little comedian in the disguise of a philosopher: behind that serious, wrinkled face it's planning only one thing — how to make you laugh and grab a snack along the way.

The Australian Shepherd is the cowboy among dogs — a tireless, stunningly beautiful ranch dog that, despite its name, is the heart of the American Wild West (and today also comes in a mini version).

The Doberman looks like a living sculpture of an implacable guardian — and is in reality a shadow weighing several dozen kilograms that cannot bear to be in a different room from its human.

The Great Dane is the tallest dog in the world, one that apparently missed the moment when it stopped fitting on laps — and has no intention whatsoever of coming to terms with it.

The boxer is a dog that simply refused to grow up — an eternal puppy in an athlete's body, with the heart of a fearless defender.

The Cavalier King Charles spaniel is one great ball of tenderness — a dog whose greatest strength and greatest weakness are one and the same: its heart.

The Bernese mountain dog is a big, gentle highlander with a heart of butter — a dog created for snow, quiet, and being close to its family.

The Akita Inu is the dignified, silent samurai among dogs — an ancient Japanese breed whose faithfulness has become, all over the world, a symbol of what devotion even is.

The Dalmatian is probably the most recognizable dog in the world — a white star with black spots whose real secret is that beneath the skin hides a tireless marathon runner.

The Cane Corso is a descendant of Roman war dogs with the silhouette of a gladiator and a heart that belongs without reserve to one family — a born guardian whose very name means “protector.”

The English Mastiff is one of the heaviest dogs in the world — a colossus that can be larger than a grown human, and yet (or precisely because of that) one of the gentlest and calmest giants ever to share a home with people.

The English Bulldog looks like the most offended creature in the world — a small, wheezing tank with an expression saying “I know all your mistakes” — and is in reality the most tender, most lazy philosopher of happiness the earth has ever borne.

The Amstaff is a walking paradox: a muscular tough guy with the reputation of a fearsome dog, and in reality one of the most tender dogs, most in love with people, that exists.

The cocker spaniel has a tail that doesn't know the word “enough” and a heart that, from the first glance, is already entirely yours.

The Saint Bernard is a gentle giant weighing even more than seventy kilograms, with the heart of a rescuer — a dog whose ancestors walked into snowstorms to bring lost people home.

The Belgian Malinois is a dog reached for by the military, the police, and special units all over the world — a tireless worker with an almost superhuman drive, for which work is what food is to other dogs.

The Weimaraner looks like an apparition of smoke and silver — it is not by chance that it is called the “silver ghost” — except that this ghost has one very un-ghostly habit: it cannot leave its human's side for a single step.

The Shar Pei looks as if someone sewed its skin three sizes too big — a wrinkled, dignified Chinese sentinel with the calm of an old sage, who keeps its deep faithfulness solely for those closest to it.

The Samoyed is a walking cloud in perpetual good humor — a snow-white Arctic dog whose famous smile is the most sincere thing in the world, and whose heart was made for one thing: being as close to people as possible.

The Pitbull is a walking, muscular heart that its whole life asks itself one question — “am I being good?” — and will do literally anything to hear that it is.

The Basenji is the only dog that does not bark — an ancient African individualist with the soul of a cat, who does everything its own way and bestows love solely on those it chooses for itself.

The German Spitz is a small, smiling little fox in an abundant coat, absolutely convinced that it is solely thanks to its vigilance that your house is still standing — and it performs this honorable service with the seriousness of a much larger dog.

The Papillon looks like a delicate, butterfly-like ornament made for a silk cushion — and is in reality one of the smartest and most athletic dogs in the world.

The Jack Russell Terrier is a small dog with an engine that knows no idle gear — a tireless terrier of enormous energy and even greater devotion to its human.

The Miniature Schnauzer is a few kilograms of beard, energy, and unshakable conviction of its own importance — a small German overseer who, in great concentration, manages the whole household and loves its people the way only a dog with a mission can.

The shiba inu is essentially a cat that decided to pretend to be a dog — proud, independent, and deeply convinced that it's the one doing you a favor by living in your home.

The Maltese is one of the oldest breeds in the world and probably the purest embodiment of canine love that exists — a tiny, white, silky little soul whose only task for thousands of years has been to love a human.

The Bichon Frisé is a small, white ball of good humor that made a dizzying career both at the royal court and in the circus — all thanks to one talent: an irresistible charm with which it can enchant absolutely anyone.

The Boston Terrier is a small American gentleman who came into the world already dressed in a tailcoat — an elegant, charming, and impeccably mannered companion of city life (with one, not very gentlemanly, secret).

The Giant Schnauzer is a powerful black guardian whose beard and bushy eyebrows give it the expression of a stern general — a dog that takes protecting the family deadly seriously and at home turns into a great bearded mischief-maker.

The Hovawart is one of the oldest German guard dogs, whose name means literally “guardian of the homestead” — a calm, deliberate, and boundlessly devoted protector whose whole calling is written into its name.

The White Swiss Shepherd is a dog whose whiteness was once considered a fault — and which became one of the gentlest, most sensitive, and most beautiful herding breeds in the world: a sharp, devoted shepherd with an exceptionally tender heart.

The West Highland White Terrier is a small Scottish ratter with the self-assurance and cheerfulness of a dog five times its size — a snow-white tough guy whose white coat meant it never got lost from its owner's sight.

The Chow Chow looks like a cross between a teddy bear and a miniature lion, and inside is a dignified, independent cat that reserves love and tenderness for one, carefully chosen person.

The Welsh Corgi Pembroke is a great herding dog that apparently forgot to order long legs — a feisty, sharp-witted cattle driver with a foxy little face, a big personality, and a truly royal opinion of itself.

A Pomeranian comes out well in every photo and is the only one in the house with no idea what it looks like. In the age of filters, that is a very rare talent.

Officially the Maltipoo doesn't exist: there is no standard, no pedigree and no shows. Unofficially it is lying on someone's lap during a video call right now — because this is a dog invented precisely for our times.

The Havanese is the national dog of Cuba, and joy is written into its breed standard in the section on how it walks. It doesn't trail after you around the house — it dances with you, half a step beside you, for fourteen or fifteen years.

Polish has done this dog an injustice with the saying “to tremble like a ratlerek”. The Miniature Pinscher fears nothing — and if it is shaking all over, it is from cold, from impatience, or because you have just come home.

The Whippet was never taught to run after something, but to someone: in the miners' races of old, the finish line was a person waving a rag. Today it reaches 56 km/h and spends the rest of the day wherever you are.

It looks like the middle child of the Schnauzer family, yet it is the father of the other two. The Standard Schnauzer is the first of the three: composed, incorruptible and so devoted to its own that the breed standard says so.

Most people know the Caucasian Shepherd from one side only: the outside, through a fence and a warning sign on the gate. From the inside it is a dog that grew up among lambs and gets to its feet for just one person.

Sixth place in the ranking of canine intelligence and permanently ready with an answer. The Shetland Sheepdog, or Sheltie, picks up a new command in five repetitions, and studies one subject harder than any other: you.

There is no way to stroke a Rhodesian Ridgeback except against the grain: along its back runs a strip of hair growing in the opposite direction. Its character is much the same, and that is exactly why it has to be handled gently.

The Thai Ridgeback kept its original type because for centuries there was no easy way into eastern Thailand. Today it lives eight thousand kilometres away, complains about the weather and sticks with its own people.

Coat, nose, eyelids and nails in a single shade of russet gold: the Vizsla looks as if it had been drawn with one crayon. Its profession is pointing at what matters, and at home what it points at most often is you.

For five hundred years the Tatra Shepherd Dog has done a job in which success means nothing happening: the wolf comes close, looks and gives up. At home it does the same. It makes sure this is one more peaceful day.

Every Polish Lowland Sheepdog in the world descends from a single dog called Smok, Polish for “Dragon”. From that ancestor the breed inherited a love of hoarding treasure, and the most precious treasure is the household.

“The hounds went into the forest” is the opening line of Żeromski's novel Ashes. The Polish Hound still goes into the forest today: nose to the ground, and with a voice that keeps telling you where it is. And it always comes back for supper.

Poland's youngest breed, recognised internationally only in 2017, and at the same time one of its oldest. The Polish Hunting Dog comes from the Bieszczady mountains, the place every Pole has dreamed of escaping to, and takes its person there for an hour every day.

For eleven books of Poland's national epic, Pan Tadeusz, two gentlemen quarrel over whose greyhound is better. The manor houses are gone and so is the nobility, but the Polish Greyhound remains: the largest of the short-haired sighthounds, reserved with strangers and on equal terms with you.

The speed limit in a Polish town is 50 km/h; a Greyhound runs at 70. The fastest dog in the world does so for about half a minute a day, though. The rest of the time it teaches the household how not to hurry.