Dog breed images for veterinary software

Veterinary software needs a breed on screen in many places and a patient photo in almost none of them. A single standard set of breed illustrations fills that gap. Use the head view in lists and the front three-quarter view in records, and label it as an illustration so staff never mistake it for the patient.

The gap in a patient record

A new patient record often starts with a name, a species, a breed and a weight. The photo comes later, if ever. Without a fallback, the record shows an empty circle. Across a day list of thirty appointments, thirty empty circles tell the front desk nothing.

A breed illustration gives each row a quick visual anchor. It does not say which animal is in the room. It says which breed the record claims, and that is useful in its own right: a receptionist who sees a Dachshund icon beside a record that says "Great Dane" has just caught a data entry error.

Why one standard image beats a random stock photo

A stock photo shows one particular dog. That dog may differ from the patient in size, coat and age, and the license terms depend on where you found it. Ten stock photos from ten sources also look like ten different products.

The catalog is built to one standard. Every set shows one adult dog in the same nine views, on a transparent background, in a square canvas where the dog fills at most 80% of the frame. Standing views share one ground line. That consistency is the reason to use it in a clinical tool: the interface looks calm and uniform, and the image carries no extra claim about the animal.

State the limits to your own users. The images are AI-generated illustrations, not medical references and not a breed standard. Each set passes an automatic check of its nine views and is reviewed by a person over time, but nobody should read anatomy off them. Anything that touches care decisions comes from your clinical sources.

Where each view helps

• Intake breed picker: head, small, beside each option. Staff scan names and faces together.
• Patient list and appointment board: head again, in a fixed square slot.
• Patient record header: front-left, larger, with a caption such as "Breed illustration".
• Client reminders: front-left at 512 pixels, with the credit line under the image.
• Intake kiosks or printed forms: front or left, depending on the layout. The left side view suits a narrow column.

The summary text from GET /api/v1/breeds/{breed} comes from Wikipedia and may be null. If you show it, show its source link too, because that text is CC BY-SA 4.0. Keep it out of clinical screens where it could be mistaken for guidance.

How to wire it

Sync the breed list on a schedule from your server and store the slug beside your own breed record:

import json
import urllib.request

BASE = "https://dogimage.dev"

def fetch_breeds():
    with urllib.request.urlopen(f"{BASE}/api/v1/breeds", timeout=20) as res:
        return json.load(res)["breeds"]

for b in fetch_breeds():
    row = {
        "slug": b["slug"],
        "name": b["name"],
        "is_mix": b["crossbreed"],
        "default_variant": b["default_variant"],
    }
    print(json.dumps(row))  # replace with your upsert by slug

In the UI, build the image address from those three stored fields. The default variant word also works in place of a color slug:

<img src="https://dogimage.dev/api/v1/images/dachshund/default/head?size=512"
     alt="Dachshund breed illustration" width="64" height="64">

Previews are served with a one-year immutable cache header, so repeat views cost your users no extra download. A browser app may read the breed list and previews directly. Full-size files, if you want them for printed forms, are downloaded once from a server with your key in DOG_IMAGE_API_KEY and stored on your side. Details are in the docs.

Which plan fits

One image is one view of one set at full size.

• A head view of every default set: 298 images. Starter allows 200 a month, so spread it over two months. Pro allows 700 and covers it with room left.
• Head plus front-left for every default set: 596 images, which Pro covers.
• A clinic group that only lists the 40 breeds it sees most often needs 40 full-size images for one view. Starter is enough.

If your software only shows 512 or 1024 pixel previews on screen, you may not need a plan at all. The free tier requires a visible credit link on the same page as the image. A footer line on the patient list and the record page does that. Check pricing before you decide.

License points for a clinical product

Full-size files are for your own product: apps, sites, documents and print, with no credit needed. You may not resell them, republish them as an image library, or use them to build a competing image service. A practice management system that displays them in its own screens is the intended use. A "breed icon pack" sold to other software vendors is not.

The license page is a draft not yet reviewed by a lawyer, so confirm the terms in the license with your own counsel if you sell to regulated customers.