Can I assume that a Vierbeiner is a Hund?

Question

An article in today's FAZ has the title: Arbeiten mit Vierbeinern: Darf der Hund ins Büro?

A random page of Google results for Vierbeiner brings up these webpage titles:

• Bühne frei für Vierbeiner
• Ein Herz für Vierbeiner
• Welcher Zahnpastageschmack macht Vierbeiner glücklich?
• 1974 Euro für Vierbeiner
• Vierbeinerzentrum Nordheide

In all these pages the Vierbeiner are dogs, and only dogs. Can I therefore assume that the other page titles that contain the word Vierbeiner are also about dogs? Here are a few pages that I haven't opened:

• Barbra Streisands Vierbeiner sind erst der Anfang

• Rund um den Vierbeiner: Hitzefrei durch den Sommer

• Verreisen mit dem Vierbeiner

• Herzlich Willkommen, Vierbeiner!

• Viel Streit um Vierbeiner

And a supplementary question: When did Vierbeiner start to become essentially synonymous with Hund?

Answer 1

From wiktionary it's suggested that "Vierbeiner" primarily refers to dogs (all emphasis mine):

Bedeutungen:

[1] umgangssprachlich: Tier mit vier Beinen, vor allem Hund

Though dict.cc does leave it with a more generic interpretation:

Vierbeiner {m}
- quadruped zool.
Vierbeiner {m} [Hund oder Katze]
- four-legged friend

As mentioned, while "Vierbeiner" is mostly used as a synonym for dog colloquially in german, it still can't be really considered as a synonym, but is merely a generalization.

From a biological (taxonomical) point of view, it simply describes an animal with a four leg body shape, and there's a number of animals falling into that category (cats, giraffes, horses, cows, etc.).

The main distinction is probably based upon the kind of locomotion, and how the limbs are used for it.

A "Zweibeiner" (higher order primate) uses only two legs (limbs) to move, while a "Vierbeiner" uses all four, and they keep contact to the ground.

As a native speaker, I'd not take the term "Vierbeiner" as a synonym for "dog", even not for left out context.

Answer 2

Vierbeiner

This colloquial term for all animals on four legs appeared in the second half of the 19th Century and became increasingly popular in the 20th century (source Google Ngram)).

Mostly today we refer to dogs when talking about a Vierbeiner but there are many references to other animals too, they need not to be pets:

• Bei 60 Pferden und damit 30 Prozent der insgesamt 200 gemeldeten Vierbeiner wurden Proben entnommen.^{Die Zeit}
• Waschbär, Grauhörnchen und Kleinem Mungo geht es in Europa an den Pelz. Die EU-Kommission hat diese Vierbeiner am Mittwoch in Brüssel auf eine Liste unerwünschter Tier- und Pflanzenarten gesetzt. ^{Die Zeit}
• Als einziges Rentierrudel Italiens sind Rudi und Kelly, die Stars im weitläufigen Rentiergehege auf der Rotwand, mit ihren Familien längst lokale Berühmtheiten. Zuhause in der wilden Natur der Dolomitenregion Drei Zinnen, sorgen die wuscheligen Vierbeiner hier oben immer wieder für amüsante und faszinierende Begegnungen und sind sogar auf der Skipiste anzutreffen. ^{Die Zeit}
• Kein Problem ist es dagegen, quer über die Schafweiden zu wandern: Auge in Auge mit den blökenden Vierbeinern, die sich aber nicht aus der Ruhe bringen lassen. ^{Tagesspiegel 29.02.2004}

So no, without a clearcut context we can not assume a Vierbeiner always is a dog. If in a furniture shop we may even talk about a chair on four legs.

Answer 3

It generally means dog, but can deviate based on context:

Vierbeiner, m. vierbeiniges Tier, besonders Hund (Source: Duden)

four-legged animal, especially a dog

However, its usage is debatable. Wolf Schneider, the renowned German writing-style teacher, writes in Deutsch für junge Profis:

Für die meisten konkreten Hauptwörter steht ein sauberes Synonym nicht zur Verfügung. Für den Tisch zum Beispiel. «Vierbeiner»? Der ist schon vergeben: im Schulaufsatz- und Zeitungsjargon für den Hund (ziemlich töricht noch dazu, da auch Kühe, Ameisenbären und Krokodile vier Beine haben).

There is no obvious synonym for most concrete nouns. Take "table", for example: «Vierbiener»? This term is already taken by "dog", in school essays and newspaper jargon (and foolishly, I might add, since cows, anteaters, and crocodiles also have four legs).

Above, I have translated to English.

Answer 4

Zweibeiner is a common "humorous" term for humans.

Vierbeiner is the analogous term for pets, mostly cats and dogs. If a vet or animal asylum writes this, they don't do horses, cows or other cattle. At least not usually. It also includes bunnies, guinea pigs, hamsters and pet birds, too, usually.

There's also Dreibeiner, an also "homorous" term for men, introduced by comedian Hella von Sinnen thirty years ago.