BIP – Breed Identification Project

An educative project by Canis bonus. Helping professionals and dog fans unambiguously recognize specimens of each dog breed, focusing on the commonly confused ones.

What’s the big idea

The internet community submits hundreds of example pictures of their (purebred) dog into a central photographic gallery (one gallery per breed), with the aim of displaying every possible variation within that breed.

Ultimate goal

To provide professional and amateur viewers seeking to improve their breed recognition skills with hundreds of comparative examples of the same FCI-recognized breed in one central place. This will help viewers:

  • See all possibly physical variation of the breed,
  • See the breed in lots of different position (sitting, or lying, standing dog, running, from the back, etc.); and
  • See the breed next to standard sized ‘objects’ like an adult human, a cat, or another (well-known) breed to get a good idea of the breed’s real size; and
  • Recognize subtle differences between closely-ressembling breeds.

Was there really a knowledge gap for this?

In my opinion, yes:  I find it difficult to recognize the breed just from looking at example photos in the standard Kennel Club books or breed definition websites, which only tend to display a couple of pictures per breed.

Where are the BIP galleries?

We are currently in a the pilot wave of the project. These are the existing galleries:

  • Cavalier King Charles: Forever getting confused with King Charles spaniels, but also occasionally with American cocker spaniels.
  • Dutch shepherds: Who frequently get confused with Belgian shepherds, German shepherds and even bouviers, depending on their phenotype.
  • French bulldogs: Often confused with Boston terriers and pugs.
  • Jack Russells (I know, not FCI-recognized…): They frequently get confused with miniature fox terriers, miniature pinschers, boerenfoxes and Parson Russell terriers.
  • King Charles: Forever getting confused with Cavalier King Charles, but also with pugs and Pekingese at times.
  • Labradors: The rare silver phenotype often gets confused with Weimerarners. But yellow labs also get confused with white alpine shepherds like kuvazc, for example.
  • Newfoundlanders: The gallery also features the slightly lesser-known types like the Landseer and brown specimens.
  • Parson Russell terriers: Often confused with Boerenfoxes, Jack Russells and fox terriers
  • Smooth fox terriers: Often confused with Parson Russells and boerenfoxes.
  • Wire fox terriers: Often confused with Lakeland terriers and Irish terriers.

How to participate in the project

Click on a link for one of the galleries, click on ‘join this group’, then click on ‘add something‘.

Your photos are particularly wanted if they:

  • clearly display their size (e.g. next to an adult human or a cat or a standard-sized object); or
  • show the dog in an original position, like jumping, or taken from the back; or
  • closes up on a breed-specific trait like a blue tongue or a (natural) bobtail; or
  • shows off a less common trait for the dog like a special (but recognized) coat colour/length/texture for the breed

The photo’s artistic quality does not matter at all. I just want breed-representative value.

So, get posting and help make this educational project a success!
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Last updated June 2010