media - Santa's Little Helper

It would make a certain kind of sense if dogs occupied about as much space in the media as they do in real life. Nobody's ever measured as far as I know. Bart Simpson's dog Santa's Little Helper is reported by Wikipedia to be the main character in 10 episodes and very soon 400 episodes will have been produced.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa's_Little_Helper

Breeds - Shih Tzu - defined

James E. Mumford described the versatile character of the Shih Tzu: "A dash of lion, several teaspoons of rabbit, a couple of ounces of domestic cat, one part court jester, a dash of ballerina, a pinch of old man (Chinese), a bit of beggar, a tablespoon of monkey, one part baby seal, a dash of teddy bear and the rest dogs of Tibetan and Chinese origin."

from Wikipedia def. Shih Tzu

People smell as well as dogs do

" ...a study at the University of California Berkeley reports that if humans keep their noses to the ground they can indeed follow a scent much like a dog (though not as effectively as a bloodhound, the sad-faced dog that can detect a scent four days old with a nose said to be a million times more sensitive than a human's)... " Reported on CBC News Dec. 18, 2006.
My first reaction was "No way!" But then again, stick your nose into the lawn...and, Who'd a thunk?