Every animal species has a characteristic baseline form—its genetic average, so to speak. There is always some variation between individuals, but a squirrel still looks like a squirrel, a pike like a pike—and a dog like a dog. But what does the domestic dog look like as a species? A domestic dog without the exaggerated traits produced through intensive inbreeding is typically brown or greyish in colour, about knee-high, straight-backed, and well-proportioned. It has a mesocep