Spaniel Standing on a Veterinary Scale

The word spaniel goes back to an Old French name meaning Spanish dog, a hint at where the first ones may have come from. This brown and white one with long curly ears stands very still on a rubber-topped floor scale in a vet's exam room. Vets weigh dogs at every visit because doses of most medicines are worked out from body weight. A pound or two up or down between checkups can also be the first sign that something has changed. Its owner keeps the leash slack in this spaniel jigsaw puzzle.