A common breeding practice for pet dogs is mating between close relatives (e.g. between half- and full siblings).[81] Inbreeding depression is considered to be due largely to the expression of homozygous deleterious recessive mutations.[82] Outcrossing between unrelated individuals, including dogs of different breeds, results in the beneficial masking of deleterious recessive mutations in progeny.[83]

You may need to pluck ear hairs from time to time. Ask a veterinarian or professional groomer to show you how to pluck the hairs from your dog's ear safely and correctly. Ear powder makes the process easier and quicker by giving added gripping power to the slippery ear hairs. Be very careful when using hemostats as they may poke inside their ear if used incorrectly or when the dog jerks their head.
Dry your dog. Use a squeegee or use your hand as a squeegee to force water off of the coat and body. Towel dry him as best as you can while he's still in the tub, so you don't make a mess. Place the towel over your dog’s back, or hold it next to him and give permission to shake the water off their body. Many dogs will learn the “bath rules” and wait to shake until you have placed the towel over them to contain the water droplets. Another type of towel to use is a chamois, which is a thin fleece like towel that is designed to be wrung out when wet. It lessens the amount of towels needed and does the bulk of the work. Using a chamois, then a towel makes drying less of a hassle.

Brush the dog's teeth.[2] Ideally, brushing your dog’s teeth every day with dog toothpaste is the route to healthy teeth and gums. Use dog toothpaste instead of human products, so you don't poison your dog with fluoride. If there is any chance that you may get bitten by your dog, do NOT attempt to brush your pet’s teeth. At any point, if the dog gets overwhelmed, give him a break to calm down.

"The most widespread form of interspecies bonding occurs between humans and dogs"[136] and the keeping of dogs as companions, particularly by elites, has a long history.[142] (As a possible example, at the Natufian culture site of Ain Mallaha in Israel, dated to 12,000 BC, the remains of an elderly human and a four-to-five-month-old puppy were found buried together).[22] However, pet dog populations grew significantly after World War II as suburbanization increased.[142] In the 1950s and 1960s, dogs were kept outside more often than they tend to be today[143] (using the expression "in the doghouse" to describe exclusion from the group signifies the distance between the doghouse and the home) and were still primarily functional, acting as a guard, children's playmate, or walking companion. From the 1980s, there have been changes in the role of the pet dog, such as the increased role of dogs in the emotional support of their human guardians.[144] People and dogs have become increasingly integrated and implicated in each other's lives,[145] to the point where pet dogs actively shape the way a family and home are experienced.[146]

