BODY OF A DOG

Dogs grow to various sizes. The Irish wolfhound, for example, stands about 32 inches high at the withers, or top of the shoulders. The chihuahua, however, stands about five inches.

The color of a dog's coat, or hair cover, also ranges widely, even within a breed. Some dogs are all black. Others are all white. Some have light markings on portions of their bodies and darker coloration elsewhere. Or, they may have a solid color other than black. All dogs have some hair cover, even the so-called hairless ones.

The shape of a dog is determined by three major structures--the head, the body, and the legs. The size and form of these structures vary greatly as do, for example, coloration and hair characteristics.

The Head
There are two basic head shapes--a narrow skull with a long face and a wide skull with a short face--plus several intermediate head shapes. Long-faced dogs, such as the German shepherd and the cocker spaniel, may have jaws eight inches long. By contrast, the nose of small-faced dogs, such as the Pekingese and the pug, may be less than an inch from the eyes.

Dogs have 42 teeth. Six pairs of sharp incisor teeth are in front of the mouth, flanked by two pairs of large canine ("dog") teeth. The other teeth are premolars and molars. The incisors and the canines are very important because the dog bites and tears at its food with these teeth.

Air breathed in through the dog's nose passes on its way to the lungs through the two nasal cavities behind the nose. These cavities are lined by a mucous membrane containing many nerve endings stimulated by odors. Smell is the dog's most acute sense. A dog continually sniffs the air, the ground, and nearby objects to learn what is happening around it. The indentation in the dog's forehead just above eye level is called the stop. The stop in some dogs is deeper than that in others.

The fairly thin tongue of the dog is used mainly for guiding food to the throat, for licking the coat clean, and for perspiration. When a dog is overheated, it cools off by hanging its tongue out and panting. As it pants, the evaporation of perspiration from its tongue cools the animal. The dog also sweats through the pads on its paws and--slightly--through its skin.

A dog's ears either stick up or hang down. The earliest dogs probably had erect ears, but the ears began to droop in smaller, later breeds because of excessive ear skin. Dogs have a fine sense of hearing. They can hear sounds at frequencies too high for people to hear. This is why dogs can respond to "silent" whistles.

Each eye of a dog has three eyelids, the main upper and lower lids and a third lid hidden between them in the inner corner of the eye. The third eyelid can sweep across the transparent cornea of the eye and clean it like a windshield wiper.

The head and body of a dog are connected by its neck. The neck may be long or short, depending on the size of the seven bones that support it. The length of the vocal cords in the neck is a factor influencing the pitch and loudness of a dog's voice--its barks, grunts, and howls.

The Body
The body of a dog contains most of its vital organs. The heart, lungs, stomach, and intestines are located there. So too are its sex organs, kidneys, and bladder. The 13 ribs of the dog's chest wrap around the heart and lungs. Since these organs influence the animal's speed and stamina, chest size can be an indication of these traits.

All dogs have 27 bones from the skull to the point where the tail begins. The number of tailbones, however, and therefore the length of the tail, varies from breed to breed.

The body may be covered with straight or with wavy hair. Hair shafts emerge from tiny follicles in the skin. The shafts are connected to tiny muscles that cause the dog's hair to stand up, or bristle, when they contract.

During times of stress, a dog raises its hackles--the hair along the neck and spine. Special sensory hairs called whiskers are near the nose, but their usefulness is doubtful because a dog rarely relies on the sense of touch.

The Legs
The front legs and back legs of a dog are also called the forelimbs and hind limbs. A dog uses its legs for movement, for scratching, and, in some breeds, for digging.

Each of the forelimbs is connected to the body by a long, narrow scapula, or shoulder blade. Its lower part, in turn, forms a shoulder joint with the humerus, the upper forelimb bone. The lower forelimb bones, the radius and the ulna, are fused at two points and act as a single bone.

The foot, or paw, has five toes. One of them--the dewclaw--is too high to be of any use. It is a vestigial part and is often surgically removed from puppies. The toes of the foot are composed of a number of bones. A toenail, or claw, emerges from the end of each toe. The foot also has cushiony pads for each toe and two larger pads farther up the paw. Dogs perspire through their pads.

Each of the two hind limbs is connected to the body at the pelvic bone. The upper portion of the femur, or thighbone, fits into a socket in the pelvic bone to form the hip joint. The tibia and the fibula are beneath. They make up the lower thigh. The joint where their upper portions link with the femur is called the stifle. The joint where their lower portions link with the foot bones of the hind limbs is called the hock. Like the forefeet, the hind feet have pads and four functional toes, although a dewclaw is sometimes present.

Dog's Sense of Smell

A dog's nose not only dominates her face, but her brain, as well. In fact, a dog relies on her sense of smell to interpret her world, in much the same way as people depend on their sight. Although this contrasting world view may be hard to imagine, know that your dog interprets as much information as you do. However, she does much of this by smelling an object or animal, not by staring at it.

Born to sniff

To gain more respect for your dog's olfactory ability, compare it to a person's nose. Inside the nose of both species are bony scroll-shaped plates, called turbinates, over which air passes. A microscopic view of this organ reveals a thick, spongy membrane that contains most of the scent-detecting cells, as well as the nerves that transport information to the brain. In humans, the area containing these odor analyzers is about one square inch, or the size of a postage stamp. If you could unfold this area in a dog, on the other hand, it may be as large as 60 square inches, or just under the size of a piece of typing paper.

Though the size of this surface varies with the size and length of the dog's nose, even flat-nosed breeds can detect smells far better than people. The following table shows the number of scent receptors in people and several dog breeds.

A dog's brain is also specialized for identifying scents. The percentage of the dog's brain that is devoted to analyzing smells is actually 40 times larger than that of a human! It's been estimated that dogs can identify smells somewhere between 1,000 to 10,000 times better than nasally challenged humans can.

Table: Scent-Detecting Cells in People and Dog Breeds

Species	Number of Scent Receptors
Humans	5 million
Dachshund	125 million
Fox Terrier	147 million
Beagle	225 million
German Shepherd	225 million
Bloodhound	300 million

Your dog's unique nose
Your dog's nose has a pattern of ridges and dimples that, in combination with the outline of its nostril openings, make up a nose print believed to be as individual and unique as a human being's fingerprints. Companies even register nose prints as a way of identifying and helping to locate lost or stolen dogs, a system that is now being used by kennel clubs around the world.

If you want to take a nose print from your dog just for fun, it's quite simple: Wipe your dog's nose with a towel to dry its surface. Pour food coloring onto a paper towel and lightly coat your pet's nose with it. Then hold a pad of paper to her nose, making sure to let the pad's sides curve around to pick up impressions from the sides of the nose, as well. You may have to try a couple of times until you get the right amount of food coloring and the right amount of pressure to produce a print in which the little patterns on the nose are clear.

The food coloring is nontoxic and is easily removed. Never use ink or paint, or you may have to explain to your friends why your dog has a green or blue nose.

dog's nose is dry?

Question: My dog's nose is dry. Is he sick?

Learning to observe what is normal and and what is not in patients that can't talk is the first step to observant pet care. A warm or dry nose is often seen as a sign of illness in dogs and cats, but is it? The purpose of this FAQ is to serve as a basic guideline to know when to consult your vet to see if an examination is in order.

Answer:

The "warm nose myth" has many pet owners feeling that their pet has a fever (or otherwise sick) if the nose is warm and dry. A dog's (or cat's) nose may be very wet and cool one moment then be warmer and not-so-moist the next. All in the course of a day. All perfectly normal.
Changes in texture (crusty, flaky) and color (loss of pigmentation) of a pet's nose should be looked at by your veterinarian. A prolonged dry, cracked nose, particularly with loss of pigmentation, scabs or open sores should be examined by your veterinarian sooner rather than later.

An ill animal will often have a warm, dry nose in addition to other symptoms, such as: lethargy, decreased or absent appetite, vomiting, diarrhea and so on. In the absence of other physical signs, there are a host of dermatological (skin) problems that can be seen in this area, such as Pemphigus Foliaceus.

Other nose conditions to be aware of

• Contact sensitivity

Allergies and sensitivities to plastics and dyes may also manifest as changes on the nose and muzzle area on pets fed from plastic dishes. I recommend using stainless steel bowls to eliminate this potential problem. Glass or ceramic bowls are also acceptable, provided that they are sturdy and on a solid surface to prevent breakage.

• Nasal discharge

Anytime your pet shows signs of a "runny nose" -- one that has discharge coming from the nostrils -- should be examined by your veterinarian. Coughing, sneezing and difficulty breathing can be signs of anything from a respiratory infection to a nasal foreign body to a tumor in the nasal passages. Animals that show these signs (more than an occasional cough or sneeze) should be seen by your veterinarian.

• Black spots

Owners of orange or calico cats often note black spots on their cat's nose and lips as the cat ages. This is called lentigo simplex, and is a normal change seen commonly in orange tabby and calico cats.

• Sunburn

Dogs, cats, horses, and other species are prone to sunburn (also known as "solar dermatitis") and subsequent skin cancer on noses, ear tips, and around eyes. Light coated, pink-nosed animals are at greatest risk. Check with your veterinarian about providing sun protection for your pet if they are in this category of risk.

dog wagging tail?

Blakeslee writes a review (PDF here) of work by Vallortigara et al (PDF here) on emotional asymmetric tail wagging by dogs that is a further reflection of lateralized functions of the brain. Some edited clips from her article:

In most animals, including birds, fish and frogs, the left brain specializes in behaviors involving what the scientists call approach and energy enrichment. In humans, that means the left brain is associated with positive feelings, like love, a sense of attachment, a feeling of safety and calm. It is also associated with physiological markers, like a slow heart rate.

At a fundamental level, the right brain specializes in behaviors involving withdrawal and energy expenditure. In humans, these behaviors, like fleeing, are associated with feelings like fear and depression. Physiological signals include a rapid heart rate and the shutdown of the digestive system.

Because the left brain controls the right side of the body and the right brain controls the left side of the body, such asymmetries are usually manifest in opposite sides of the body. Thus many birds seek food with their right eye (left brain/nourishment) and watch for predators with their left eye (right brain/danger).

In humans, the muscles on the right side of the face tend to reflect happiness (left brain) whereas muscles on the left side of the face reflect unhappiness (right brain).

Dog tails are interesting...because they are in the midline of the dog’s body, neither left nor right. So do they show emotional asymmetry, or not?

Vallortigara et al show that when dogs were attracted to something, including a benign, approachable cat, their tails wagged right, and when they were fearful, their tails went left. It suggests that the muscles in the right side of the tail reflect positive emotions while the muscles in the left side express negative ones.

Brain asymmetry for approach and withdrawal seems to be an ancient trait..Thus it must confer some sort of survival advantage on organisms.

Animals that can do two important things at the same time, like eat and watch for predators, might be better off. And animals with two brain hemispheres could avoid duplication of function, making maximal use of neural tissue.

The asymmetry may also arise from how major nerves in the body connect up to the brain... Nerves that carry information from the skin, heart, liver, lungs and other internal organs are inherently asymmetrical, he said. Thus information from the body that prompts an animal to slow down, eat, relax and restore itself is biased toward the left brain. Information from the body that tells an animal to run, fight, breathe faster and look out for danger is biased toward the right brain.

The way To Read Your Dog's Tail

Your doggie's tale indicates more about your dog's emotions than you might think.

High, stiff, and wagging = “I’m in charge”
A tail that’s upright like a mast doesn’t necessarily mean that a dog is feeling aggressive, but she’s certainly being assertive. Many people get bitten because they misinterpret stiffly wagging tails. A tail held high and wagging stiffly is the sign of a dominant dog, and it could mean that the dog is ready to attack.

Low, fast wags and short sweeps = “I’m no threat”
When a meek dog is approached by a more assertive dog—one with her tail up and stiffly wagging—she has only one reasonable response: to show the bossy dog that she isn’t a threat. Dogs who are fearful or submissive often will respond to another dog’s approach by holding their tails low and wagging them just slightly. This means, “Hey, I’m friendly and no threat at all.”

Low, slow wags and large sweeps = “It’s good to see you”
Sometimes a wag is really just a wag. You’ll know your dog is wagging because she’s happy to see you and wants to play when her tail is low or even with her body and is wagging a little slowly, but in wide sweeps back and forth. Usually, her whole butt will be wiggling as well.

Keep in mind: Some hunting dogs, like spaniels, have been bred to wag their tails constantly while pursuing quarry. To signal that they’ve found their game, they stop wagging and hold their tails stiffly up in the air. On the other hand, herding dogs are bred to have less tail movement so that their wagging tails don’t distract or excite the animals that they’re trying to herd. If you didn’t know that about these animals, you might think one was overly excited while the other was overly staid, when it’s really just the way they were bred.

Decipher What Your Dog Is Saying With His Tail

Ever wish you knew what your dog was thinking? You can — just watch his tail! Instead of using words, your dog uses body language to communicate. While a dog's message can only be fully understood by looking at his entire body, the tail end offers some significant clues to how he is feeling.

Here are some indicators to help you decipher what your pooch may be telling you with his tail.

The Tail's Height

Tail height can offer important insight into a dog's state of mind. In general, a dog who is holding his tail high may be feeling excited, alert or dominant, while a dog holding his tail down low may be afraid or submissive. The more anxious or submissive a dog is feeling, the more tightly he will tuck his tail close to his body.

Sometimes a tail held in a neutral or low position just means the dog is incredibly relaxed — this even happens to dogs with curled tails like Pugs, whose tails unravel and go straight when resting. A dog who carries his tail lower than usual can also be indicating that he is in pain, or exhausted from too much exercise.

It’s important to keep in mind that the normal tail carriage varies for every dog, since tail height is relative to the breed and individual dog. Chow Chows and Chinese Shar-Peis, for instance, naturally have a high, curved tail, while Whippets and Greyhounds have a lower tail carriage. Your knowledge of your dog's personality can help you determine if your dog is feeling happy or threatened, or if he's a little bit scared or just super relaxed.

The Tension in the Tail
A rigid, highly held tail shows a very aroused state; this dog is likely going to react to things around him, whether that’s the squirrel he’s spotted in the tree or a dog across the street. If a dog is agitated, his tail may also “fluff” up, with the hair standing up on end.

When the highly raised tail flicks back and forth rapidly, it’s called “flagging” and may indicate an imminent attack from a dog who is ready to defend his ground. Interfering with a dog in this state is a good way to get bitten.

In Pugs and other breeds with curled tails, a tense tail looks different: The existing curl in the tail simply gets tighter the more aroused the dog gets, eventually curling over itself again. In these dogs, a tensed tail doesn’t always mean aggression, and can simply indicate excitement.

The Way the Tail Wags
Not all wags mean a friendly dog. The type of wag that indicates a happy, relaxed dog is usually a sweeping tail wag that moves from side to side at a height close to the dog’s relaxed tail carriage. An exuberant, joyful reaction would be a tail wag that beats back and forth with gusto at a fairly neutral height, with the dog's hind end often wagging back and forth in unison and the tail possibly even moving in a circular fashion.

Keep in mind that a friendly dog may not wag his tail, while a tense dog may. An insecure tail wag is usually held low and may tick back and forth slightly or swiftly. The low, insecure tail wag could mean the dog is unsure about a situation; this wag may be a form of submission, or the dog may be conflicted and may bite.

Believe it or not, the direction your dog’s tail is wagging toward you or other family members may indicate the way he feels about you, according to a study from Italy published in Current Biology. The study showed that when dogs were attracted to or wanted to approach a person or stimulus, their tail wagged with bias to the right, while dogs that were fearful or wanted to withdraw from a person or stimulus had their tails wag with bias to the left.

Though it’s fun to try to guess what our dogs are feeling with their tail language, it’s absolutely essential to look at your dog’s overall body language to truly decipher what he may be feeling. One small slice of a dog’s body language will not tell the full story.

Why do dogs have tails?

Dog TailsA dog's tail is an extension of the spine. It helps them to keep balance when they run. Moreover, A dog's tail position and motion is incorporated as a component of a complex system of body language that domestic dogs use to show excitement or agitation. 

In Addition

In mammals a tail appears physically as an extension of the backbone ("Chordata"- zoological classification of animals that have a backbone) is the central upright balancing hanger of adjoined parts of a creature. 

 

If you reduce a tail to a Chordate, the most abstract is an Eel or Snake. 

A tail can be thought of as an extra limb thats' mechanics may or may not be particularly dexterous or manipulative by its usage upon objects(except in Possums and Monkeys though they prefer to do much of and any dexterous manipulations of objects using any of the other limbs they have and sometimes but rarely the limbs adjoined to their pelvis' in preference to the limbs adjoining the neck and shoulders). 

However, as a primitive simple or poorly functioning limb it only tends to commit protection of the sensitive genital area of creatures in land based animals when used as a limb for a function by the actual direct usage for manipulation of its being. 

Definitely in dogs' and cats', emotional expression is abstractly obvious(definitely related to) related their tails manipulation by the tails' manipulator muscles having positioning or posture movements effected upon it deliberately. 

Definitely also it is obvious that the backbone is a jarring(adverb) fastening against the shock waves of movement caused by usage of its adjoined limbs during traversal, of the tail will be sending back more shock waves amplified by the tails' position setting muscles' associate nerves and mechanical effect of gravity relating each shock cycle upon the fulcrum of the tail base. 

The resulting usage of the resultant traversal shock cycle can indicate anything from fatigue to a forced repositioning of the tail by an external or environmental influence, inclusive, how well balance is being maintained in some situations of movement. 

Tails appear to have their best usage in flight(running at top speed) whether as an environmental sensor(wind) or as a defensive sensor when fleeing (enemy touches its tail during running). 

More Input and Opinions:

1. Contrary to popular opinion, dogs have tails just because that is how God created them. God made dogs with tails, so they have tails only because of that reason.
2. Dogs have tails for a special reason: To operates mechanically and psychologically (and also behaviorally and emotionally) 
3. In nature, ecosystematics help it survive.While its tail can easily be seen in motion it is not really for emotional expression or attraction of other animals except in nurture of their own young because dogs have a narrow field of vision though wild dogs can see prey in either night light or day light. Neither is it in any direct exacting for balance as is thought of the mechanics of (e.g. kangaroos' tails) as i will explain. While dogs do demonstrate usages of their tails alike communication or balance, there are other animals that demonstrate it is not required to have a tail at levels of predator ability and sizes that dogs are.
4. A dog is a carnivorous predator that is thought to have been evolved from the Grey Wolf over the past 10 million years and as the classification predator implies it hunts game for its food. 
5. However, carnivorous predating game for food requires a set of inbuilt drives psychologically that enable the dog to survive called predatory instinct(a primary directive in Canis), of this has a special part of it called"chase instinct".
6. As you have probably seen both kittens and puppies and even bigger varieties of either Canidae or Felidaechase their own tails and snap their teeth at them and once in a rare time injure their own tail mildly.This"chase instinct" has an extremely valuable point that it is part of the predatory psychological drive, that being itcauses them impulsively to react at sudden movements with a rush of emotion or feeling to attack before it comprehends exactly the cause by recognition of the cause.This is a major part of their ability as a predator to survive.
7. Now, "why its tail relates to chase instinct".
8. Generally predators(quadruped mammal) all point their tail directly out behind them straightened when they start to chase.
9. When predators form groups or are alone to hunt but particularly in predators that catch prey by chasing these predators must move at immense speeds almost always to catch their prey.
10. This could be required in a forest at anything from 45 M.p.h / 70 K.m.h. to 55 M.ph. / 90 K.m.h., so a chase lasting twenty seconds could have the dog rush past deadly solid objects such as boulders or tree trunks up to 100 times(during the chase) or more in a fraction of a second at top speed. 
11. This naturally is extremely dangerous but the final most important point is that because they are moving at top speed they "cannot simply stop or adjust course instantly or quickly if wind strikes side on" "unless they are disturbed enough".Because they are effectively a sail at side on to the wind a strong gust will throw them into a tree if they do not realize to adjust to the sudden mechanical environment change.
12. Something must hit the safety switch and cause their starter motor instinct(chase instinct) to shift its attention to the problem using enough emotion overpowering the initial chase.When the tail is struck by the wind at a particular level(e.g. pushing the tail over sideways on its fulcrum at its base while at top speed) it tells the chase instinct to switch its attention to the danger.This is made easy to cause by wind due to the natural mechanics of the tail being easy to disrupt its position and the fur struck by the wind triggers touch that also assists the chase instinct in being distracted to the problem that it could be thrown off course.
13. When it has finally identified it as wind it will even have adjusted instinctively toward(into the wind) the side the wind is coming from by bending around at its tail(metaphorically). It will not do that completely as a grown experienced high speed animal but will have moved somewhat to that position and adjusted its propulsion directions into the wind a little according its natural reactive dexterity.
14. A contrast of prey chasing technique relating the tail can be found in Bobcats(Lynx Rufus) that have a naturally omitted tail(no tail, or extremely short tail) by their biological mechanics, whereby they take more prey by ambush or stalking(no chase, do not pursue) of requires pouncing(ambush) or prey being inside a circumference of 3 to 6 meters and the prey having less ability to accelerate(ambush, not an actual chase) if it detects the Bobcat before it attempts the attack.
15. A tail would be disastrous on a predator attempting ambush techniques as its primary method because of the reactive nature chase instinct has and the greater warning any movement would be to prey animals from psychologically triggered disruptions upon the predator that are beyond the predators control e.g. wind striking its tail, young following in proximity. 
16. However alike a rabbit on the point of having no tail(a Bobcat or Lynx), they have ears that mechanically will be sensitive to strong wind gusts. 

Halloween Costumes for Pets

I was planning on putting her into a cute pink argyle sweater with a choker collar and saddle shoe booties to make her a sock hop cat for Halloween, but she has other ideas. Maybe if I could get her to come out from under the bed I could make another attempt at getting the sweater on, but right now not even treats can lure her.

If you have a more cooperative pet, there are some outrageously cute and outrageously ridiculous costumes you can buy or make for your four pawed companions. At Pampered Whiskers, a portion of your purchase is donated to shelters and rescue organizations [more info on their site] so you can feel extra good about putting a sombrero or crown on your dog or cat.

Down Under Dog Designs can turn your pooch into the Big Bad Wolf [custom sizing available]!





Ever wondered what your dog or cat would look like with braided hair or an afro or long golden locks? You can buy pet wigs like this “Heidi Hound Hat” at Trixie + Peanut!

They have a great selection of costumes [like this "Leap Frog Hoodie" - omg!] and tons of pet accessories. If you’re NYC, you can visit their flagship store on E. 20th!





And if you’re up for making something on your own, how about turning your beloved Fido into a Corn Dog?!?! Love it! You can find the instructions at Doggie Stylish, where artist Karen Friesecke and her ‘spokesmodel’ Jersey offer lots of great products and tutorials [check out her blog].



Happy HOWLoween!! XO!

Fake Hair for dogs

KittyWigs -- For cat owners who want to go that extra mile, KittyWigs is here for you with fancy, colored wigs specifically made for cats.

 

Wiggles Dog Wigs -- And finally, for those dog owners that are totally jealous of all the faux hair on cats, Wiggles Dog Wigs can help your pooch attain a whole new look with their custom designs.

 

Dyson answers dog hair problem with the Groom tool

The Dyson Groom tool has been designed to help prevent the mess associated with dog hair loss by sucking any loose hair into the vacuum before it gets the chance to hit the floorImage Gallery (5 images)

Just when you've got the sofa or carpet clean, the dog appears and sheds a few pounds of loose hair all over the place. It's a problem faced by dog lovers the world over and one which the folks at Dyson UK have been considering for the past year. The result is a vacuum attachment for medium to long haired dogs which sucks up loose hair and dead skin before it gets anywhere near your new clean floor or prized upholstery.

While some dogs shed their coats a couple of times a year, others leave a constant stream of discarded hair in their wake. If you're lucky enough to share your home with a white-haired dog then you'll be familiar with the overnight snowfall that can greet you as you enter the front room in the morning. For those living with medium to long haired pooches, brushes with stainless steel bristles will long have been an essential part of the dog grooming arsenal.

Engineers at Dyson have taken this basic brush design and mixed it with a bit of vacuum cleaner know-how to come up with a tool that's said to solve the issue of brushed hair still ending up on the floor during grooming. It's designed to remove loose hair directly from the dog before it gets the chance to fall and will then suck the captured mess from the brush head into the vacuum cleaner. The bristles are angled at 35 degrees and any dead skin cells that get disturbed during the process are captured by a nozzle near the spring-loaded brush adjustment mechanism.

As the dog is groomed using the attachment, the "tool's stainless steel bristles remove loose hair and dead skin. Bristles and air flow are controlled via thumb pressure on a tab. As the thumb is lifted, pressure is reduced and the bristles retract. Simultaneously, air flow is re-directed to suck hair and allergens into the clear bin – hygienically."

The Dyson Groom tool will fit most of the company's vacuum cleaners and is on sale now direct from Dyson UK for GBP40 (US$64). It will be available through UK retailers from next spring.