Paige Dixon, age 11, of Haggerstown, Md., for her question:

WHAT IS A COACH DOG?

A "coach dog" is another name for a popular medium sized dog called the Dalmatian. It looks very much like a pointer and is usually white with many black or liver colored spots.

Dalmatian pups are pure white when they are born. The spots appear after about three or four weeks.

Dalmatians make excellent watchdogs. They are alert, curious, clean and useful. They can also be taught to hunt. Many Dalmatians have become firehouse mascots.

The reason the dog is also called a coach dog is because it would run along between the wheels of coaches or carriages in the olden days. The Dalmatian was often selected as a stable companion for horses and it would join the horses when it was time to work on the road.

The dog was named for Dalmatia, an area on the Adriatic Sea, but experts are not sure where the first were raised.