

Nine Rhodesian Ridgeback puppies from a litter of 17, look out of their box, outside of Berlin, Germany, on Monday, Dec. 20. On Sept 28, 4-year-old Ridgeback Etana gave birth to 17 puppies. All of them survived. Markus Schreiber/AP
Dachshund puppies play in Sagua La Grande in Cuba in July 2009. Desmond Boylan/Reuters/FILE
An instructor trains puppies at the Ukrainian Border Guard Dog Training Center near Lviv, Ukraine, in June 2009. Every year, the biggest dog training center in the former Soviet Union prepares hundreds of trained dogs for Ukrainian border guards as well as for presidential guards and other special forces. Gleb Garanich/Retuers/FILE
Puppies are displayed for sale in a car trunk at a weekly pet market in downtown Amman, Jordan, on April 23. Nader Daoud/AP
United States Marine Cpl. Benjamin Zellmann holds a puppy taken in by the 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion during a briefing before a mission in Khan Neshin in Afghanistan's Helmand Province in December 2009. Kevin Frayer/AP/FILE
A puppy keeps warm next to a smoldering fire in a government-sponsored home of a resettled Tamil in a camp near Colombo, Sri Lanka, in December 2009. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Reuters/FILE
A golden retriever puppy yawns during the American Kennel Club's Most Popular Purebred Dog in America news conference in New York in January 2009. For the 18th consecutive year, the Labrador retriever is the most popular purebred dog in America, according to 2008 registration statistics released by the Kennel Club. Shannon Stapleton/Reuters/FILE
In St. Louis, Mo., pit bull puppies are seen at an emergency shelter that has been housing hundreds of dogs seized as part of the largest dogfighting raid in US history in November 2009. Dozens of rescued American pit bull terriers are finding homes despite naysayers who predicted aggression or trauma would make them unsuitable as pets. Jeff Roberson/AP/FILE
A member of the Icelandic Civil Defense carries a puppy as residents in the town of Eyjafjallasveit, Iceland, prepare to evacuate on April 17 due to the Icelandic volcano. Ingolfur Juliusson/Reuters
A child yawns next to Dalmatian puppies during the International Spring Dog Show in Havana, Cuba, on April 17. Javier Galeano/AP
A St. Bernard sits with some of her nine puppies at the Barry Foundation in Martigny, Switzerland, in August 2009. Olivier Maire/Keystone/AP/FILE
San Antonio firefighter Lt. Roger Fuentes examines a puppy after it was rescued from a burning house on April 20 in San Antonio, Texas. No one was at home when the fire broke out but firefighters found dogs and a turtle. About a dozen dogs were rescued from the home. Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-News/AP
Vice President Joe Biden is seen holding his newly purchased German shepherd puppy in Chester County, Pa., in this undated photo. Brown Family/AP/FILE
A mini-Chihuahua/Jack Russell puppy named Tom Thumb sits in a tea cup in Renton, Scotland, in August 2009. Tom Thumb measures four inches from the tip of his nose to the end of his tail and only weights three ounces. The tiny puppy is a contender for the smallest dog on the planet. Newscom/FILE
A puppy yawns in Bucharest, Romania, on April 30 during a protest against the planned killing by authorities of the stray dogs in the Romanian capital. About 200 people protested Friday in Bucharest over a proposal to euthanize thousands of stray dogs after 11,000 people were bitten in the capital last year. Vadim Ghirda/AP
Actor Elijah Wood holds a puppy during a press conference in Santiago, Chile, on April 22,. Wood, who toured earthquake affected areas, is in Chile to support the Yarur Bascunan Foundation, an animal welfare group. Victor Ruiz Caballero/Reuters
Four pure-bred Boston terrier puppies gather around their father, Gizmo, at the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Methuen, Mass., in January 2009. Five puppies were surrendered along with their parents, Gizmo and Sasha, after animal control officers in Lawrence, Mass., found them living in deplorable conditions. Elise Amendola/AP
Arizona Diamondbacks Wives Organization members Alicia Webb (l.) and Ginsey Boyer take care of 'Ginger' as the puppy is one of several animals up for adoption at the Arizona Humane Society 'Adopt A Pet At The Park' event on April 11 in Phoenix. Ross D. Franklin/AP
Bo, a 6-month old male Portuguese water dog, is seen running down a corridor with his new master, President Obama, in this April 14, 2009 photo. The puppy was a gift from Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy (D) and his wife, Victoria, to the Obama girls. Pete Souza/Reuters/FILE
Nathaniel Hall holds Matilda, one of four wolf pups, at Wolf Park on May 20 near Battle Ground, Ind. The educational and research facility has been raising the four newborns since May 8. Hall is one of two human puppy parents living with the pups so they can live safely and comfortably in captivity. Michael Heinz/Journal & Courier/AP
A girl holds a puppy as the sun sets over Kabul's impoverished Teppe Maranjan neighborhood in August 2009 in Afghanistan. Dima Gavrysh/AP/FILE
Rescuers carry a puppy found alive in a destroyed house in Constitucion, Chile, on March 1. An 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck central Chile early Saturday, Feb. 27, killed at least 708 people and destroyed or badly damaged 500,000 homes. Roberto Candia/AP
A white boxer puppy is seen in Los Angeles, Calif., in July 2009. Upon first glance this puppy might look like an albino, but approximately 25 percent of boxers are born with white fur, and are not true albinos. Newscom/FILE
A toy poodle puppy wears a pair of sunglasses at a dog show in Chiba, Japan, on Jan. 24. Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters
In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, a dog feeds some of its 15 puppies at its owner's home in Huai'an City, China, in May 2009. All the puppies survived, Xinhua said. Xu Changzheng/Xinhua/AP/FILE
A stray dog feeds puppies as she shares the space with street children who lie sleeping on a sidewalk, in Katmandu, Nepal, on May 19. Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP
Tibetan mastiff puppies for sale sit on a car covered by a red blanket during annual China Tibetan Mastiff Expo on the outskirts of Beijing, China, on March 21. In recent years, interest in Tibetan mastiffs has surged in China. Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP